Despite emotional appeals to overturn their dismissal from the Southern Baptist Convention, messengers voted to sustain the removal of three churches ruled not in “friendly cooperation” with the denomination by the SBC Executive Committee in February. Two of the three churches were disaffiliated for having women as pastors, the third for its handling of abuse claims involving the pastor.
“If you think every Baptist thinks like you, you’re mistaken,” retired Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren said as he appealed to messengers to reverse their dismissal.
The vote was taken Tuesday afternoon, but the results were not announced until Wednesday morning. Before the tally was announced, President Bart Barber urged a temperate response from the messengers. “We don’t celebrate divorce parties at our church,” Barber said. “Whatever these results are, I’m asking you to act like Christians.”
When the vote was announced, there was virtual silence in the hall.
The vote to uphold the dismissal of Saddleback Community was 88% in favor, while the other two votes were more than 90%.
Given three minutes to make his case, Warren briefly traced differences that the denomination has previously allowed over theological issues, and sought to add women as pastors to the list.
“No one is asking any Southern Baptist to change their theology,” Warren said. “I’m not asking you to agree with my church. I am asking you to act like Southern Baptists who have historically agreed to disagree on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission.”
One word
Warren said he only disagreed with one word in the Baptist Faith and Message: “Men” as it limits the qualifications for pastor. “Why should this one issue cancel our fellowship?” Warren asked.
A woman who has served as senior pastor of a Southern Baptist church for 33 years delivered a similar plea for her church. “We’re not here to convince any of you to let your church have women pastors; that’s not the issue here,” said Linda Barnes Popham of Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville. She pointed out several issues where other churches have been allowed their own opinions, including Calvinism and Covid closures. “I don’t agree with you, but I don’t want to kick you out of the family,” Popham said. “We want to partner together to share the good news to the ends of the earth.”
Both Warren and Popham exceeded their time limits and their microphones were cut off.
In both cases, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler was appointed by the Executive Committee to bring their response. Mohler did not tackle the theology of women pastors, but pointed to the issue of friendly cooperation.
“It is the responsibility of the Southern Baptist Convention to understand what it means for a church to be in friendly cooperation with this convention,” Mohler said. “This is an essential part of our responsibility and our identity. It’s also important for us to recognize that the congregations of the Southern Baptist Convention are autonomous and we do not seek to invade the autonomy of any local church.”
Mohler served on the committee that wrote the Baptist Faith & Message (2000).
“The issue of a woman serving in the pastorate is an issue of fundamental biblical authority that does violate both the doctrine and the order of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Mohler said.
The vote to uphold dismissal of Fern Creek Baptist Church was over 91% in favor.
The third church appealing its dismissal was Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida. A representative from the church said the pastor, who had been accused of sexual abuse, had been cleared by an outside investigation, but had since resigned so that the church could pursue reinstatement.
A representative from the SBC Executive Committee disputed the claims and said the church had accepted the pastor’s resignation, but he was still actively involved in leadership.
Freedom Church’s dismissal was upheld by over 96% of the messengers who voted.
Here is the balloting breakdown on disaffiliating from the three churches:
Fern Creek
Yes 91.85% 9,700 votes
No 7.63% 806
Freedom
Yes 96.46% 9,984
No 3.31% 343
Saddleback
Yes 88.46% 9,437
No 11.36% 1,212
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Eric Reed and is part of the team coverage of Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting by staff members from The Baptist Record, Baptist & Reflector, Baptist Message, Illinois Baptist, The Alabama Baptist and The Baptist Paper.
