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So as you can see, the key phrase is "friendly cooperation with the Convention and sympathetic with its purposes and work". Off hand, I'm not aware of any church ever being thrown out over this but it could have happened. I take it to mean that if a church is right there on the main stuff and close enough on the secondary stuff (Arminians and Calvinists ARE welcome) then the church can be in. There is not any sort of litmus test on a church by church basis for agreeing to ALL of the resolutions that come out of the Conventions. It's basically the overall "friendly cooperation".

Therefore I cannot claim that all SBC churches agree on every issue on which the SBC gives a position, but I can say that there is very substantial agreement on the major issues, including social issues like homosexuality, abortion, women clergy, etc.

I see. So it's not quite as definite or binding as the Catechism. In the instance where a female pastor would be hired, what would the SBC do?

I see. So it's not quite as definite or binding as the Catechism. In the instance where a female pastor would be hired, what would the SBC do?

Nothing official, but such is strongly discouraged. This is from the FAQ section at the SBC site:

(9) ... Southern Baptists have long valued the priceless contribution of women as they have ministered to advance God's Kingdom. The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) affirms the vital role of women serving in the church. Yet it recognizes the biblical restriction concerning the office of pastor, saying: "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." The passages that restrict the office of pastor to men do not negate the essential equality of men and women before God, but rather focus on the assignment of roles.

The Southern Baptist Convention also passed a resolution in the early 1980s recognizing that offices requiring ordination are restricted to men. However the BF&M and resolutions are not binding upon local churches. Each church is responsible to prayerfully search the Scriptures and establish its own policy.

And according to this 10 year old article, SBC and Women Pastors, Comprehensive Report Does Not Sustain Inflated Statistics , "Fewer than one-tenth of one percent of the 41,099 Southern Baptist churches have a woman serving as senior pastor, according to a study by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Messengers to this year's [2000's] convention in Orlando revised the denomination's statement of beliefs to specify a conviction that the office of pastor is to be held by a male. In reality, that is the practice of 99.92 percent of the local congregations."

The gist of the article seemed to be that there are a few here and there, but most of them just leave and join liberal Baptist organizations like the American Baptist Convention, which apparently approves of women serving as pastors. So, the SBC sticks to the non-binding rule, but I'm sure it is clear to these women pastors that they are not approved of by almost everyone else there (at the National Convention), so who needs the headache? Most just skip the Convention or leave the SBC. If at some point it ever became a growing movement, which it apparently is not right now, then I'm sure it would be further addressed in some way. Someone could bring in the ole' "friendly cooperation" clause, but that doesn't seem to be necessary at this time.