Posted on 07/10/2023 3:55:35 PM PDT by Morgana
Earlier this year, Southern Baptists expelled five churches from the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for having women as pastors.
Now, the leader of a fellowship of African American Southern Baptist pastors wonders if their churches will be next.
In a letter last week, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s National African American Fellowship asked to meet with the denomination’s president, saying the SBC’s recent decisions to expel churches with women pastors had caused “division within the SBC and may disproportionately impact NAAF affiliated congregations.”
“Many of our churches assign the title ‘pastor’ to women who oversee ministries of the church under the authority of a male Senior Pastor, i.e., Children’s Pastor, Worship Pastor, Discipleship Pastor, etc.,” wrote the Rev. Gregory Perkins, pastor of The View Church in Menifee, California, and president of the NAAF.
He also said a proposed amendment to the SBC’s constitution to bar churches with women pastors violated the autonomy of local churches — a vital Baptist belief.
During the recent SBC annual meeting, local church delegates, known as messengers, voted to affirm the decision to expel Saddleback Church in Southern California — one of the denomination’s largest churches — and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville. Those two churches had appealed an earlier decision made by the SBC’s Executive Committee that they were no longer in “friendly cooperation” with the convention.
Three other expelled churches — including two predominantly Black churches where women had succeeded their late husbands as pastors — did not appeal.
Messengers also voted to change the SBC’s constitution to bar churches with women pastors. That proposed change would only allow churches to be part of the convention that affirm, appoint or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” The change must be ratified at the SBC’s 2024 annual meeting in order to take effect.
“This may signal to churches in the SBC that do not believe that women should be the Senior Pastor but allow women the usage of a pastoral title, or appoints a woman to a pastoral role, are no longer welcome in the SBC,” wrote Perkins.
Among the churches that hold the belief that women can lead in non-senior pastor roles is the church Perkins pastors, which has one woman on staff with the title of pastor. He wrote that many of the more than 4,000 congregations in the NAAF hold that view as well.
Perkins said that leaders of the NAAF respected the SBC’s democratic process and that messengers had the right to vote their conscience. However, they asked for a time of “prayer and dialogue” to discuss the consequences of the votes at the SBC meeting.
The letter, sent by email, was also posted on the NAAF website. That website also includes a link to a document with more details about how the decisions made by the SBC could affect churches. That document urges pastors to take an active role in the discussion over the issue of women pastors.
“You must be an active participant in this conversation and decision-making process as it has long-term implications for your church and other NAAF affiliated congregations,” the document advises. bennett woman the view
While SBC churches cooperate to fund missions, seminaries and other ministries, each local church is autonomous. They choose their own pastors, own their own buildings and control their own finances.
Perkins said that Christians who believe the Bible may come to different conclusions about how to apply its teachings. He said churches should engage in a “vigorous, yet constructive dialogue.”
“To disfellowship like-minded churches who share our faith in Jesus Christ, our belief in the authority of Scripture, our mandate to carry out the Great Commission, and our agreement to give cooperatively based upon a local-church governance decision dishonors the spirit of cooperation and the guiding tenets of our denomination,” he wrote.
The letter was addressed to SBC president and Texas pastor Bart Barber and copied to board members and officers of the NAAF, as well as staff at the SBC’s Executive Committee.
Barber confirmed he had received the letter.
In recent years, the SBC has touted the growth of Black, Hispanic and other diverse congregations in the convention. However, a number of high-profile Black churches have left the SBC in recent years over issues of race and politics.
Women can have their ministries, but they can’t lead churches.
Such dishonesty.
I don’t know enough about the theology, or what Scripture says about women clergy. It seems that a number of Christian denominations have women clergy, but again, I don’t know if they are violating Scripture by so doing.
I could say something but it would just get everyone’s knickers in a wad.
With that said it would be a good thing for women preachers if only they all did not lean to the left.
Take the one I posted about last night. She has a massive following so if she got up and said “abortion is a sin, it harms women and we should end it in America” what do you think the millions of women who follow her would do?
There you go.
“1 Corinthians 14:34
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.”
I might once have cared.
I'm sure that's not current official doctrine.
“ 1 Timothy 2:12
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
It would be. good thing if majority of women did not lean left, but here we are.
The beginning of the Bible has something about a female getting snookered by a talking animal, and her husband was the first documented case of a man being, er, whippped.
Yes they are very much so; the qualifications are laid out in Timothy. Paraphrasing here, a husband to only one wife, children are trained well etc. I am a Southern Baptist but there is only one Church and that is Christ’s church.
the husband of one wife,[b] sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
“it seems to be accepted and taken for granted that Southern Baptist Churches are racially segregated.”
Not in the west. Not if you consider Hispanics and Asians. Nor have I seen blacks discriminated against in western USA SBC churches.
Can’t speak about the SE US. But...as a rule...the “Souls to Polls” movement always seems to be about killing babies.
“taken for granted that Southern Baptist Churches are racially segregated.”
Our SBC in TN is integrated. The encouraging thing is that most of the black attendees are teenagers.
“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade — which has led some states to ban or severely limit the procedure — supercharged American politics and white evangelical churches, where many declared victory and held celebratory demonstrations.
But the response in many Black churches has been muted. While Black religious leaders typically don’t shy away from politics in the pulpit, abortion hasn’t been the subject of many Sunday sermons or Bible studies.
Understanding that Black women will be the hardest hit by the Supreme Court decision, especially in rural areas where there is limited or no access to reproductive health care, the approach of Black churches has been delicate. Many see old ways of Biblical teaching as out of touch with abortion in light of the complexities that exist in Black communities — poverty, racism, and other social challenges — which require the issue be discussed with sensitivity and care. “
https://capitalbnews.org/black-churches-abortion-roe/
“Dr. Reginald Fletcher, pastor at Living Word Baptist Church, describes himself as pro-life but still does not believe the court’s decision was rational.
“Even though I support pro-life, that does not negate the fact that they are hurting people that need support,” he said. “My faith is based upon the life that Jesus Christ set for us as an example. I want to first hear what people are going through in order to help them from a balanced perspective, not by what I think is right and what I think is wrong.”...
...Rev. David Greene, president of Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis and pastor at Purpose of Life Ministries, said his church has been advocating for better health practices and assistance for Black mothers and their children long before the court’s decision.
“We respect that a doctor and a woman should be able to make their own decisions,” he said.”
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/local-black-faith-leaders-have-varying-stances-on-abortion
Not true
Its a distinct possibility.
The only African-Americans I know of are Elon Musk and Charlize Theron.
And the Spirit expressly speaketh, that in latter times shall certain fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons...
I Tim. 4:1
I believe the great falling away is happening right before our eyes here in America. It’s obvious that the Bible is no longer the authority for many so called Christians. People’s opinions have replaced it. And it seems to matter little what color they are. What ever happened to All to Jesus I Surrender, I Surrender All? If we are not willing to suffer for righteousness sake and live according to His Word how will we be salt and light to a lost world in desperate need of the Gospel? The Bible is pretty clear about this issue of women preachers and exercising authority over men. I’m afraid we are being conformed to the world and especially our current culture and not to Christ.
Yep. They should be. No amount of “Rick Warren-ing” could convince me that a woman should lead a church.
I was referring to the impression given in the article.
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