The Southern Baptist Convention has ousted its second-largest congregation for having a woman pastor

Last Tuesday, The Southern Baptist Convention made the decision to oust one of its largest affiliated congregations for one reason: ordaining women as pastors.

The Southern Baptist Convention has ousted its second-largest congregation for having a woman pastor.

Saddleback Church, directed by Rick Warren, is a megachurch in California, known for having ordained several women as pastors of the congregation, which was not accepted by CBS and they chose to eliminate them, since there was tension for radically opposing the idea of letting women be pastors.

This megachurch has been one of the most successful in terms of growth and expansion in recent years within the era of church plants at this time, but the SBC decided to put that decision to a vote by having a “teaching pastor who develops her ministry as pastor”, referring to Stacie Wood, wife of the current pastor of the congregation, Andy Wood.

In reality, such controversy and differences began when Saddleback ordained three women pastors through Rick Warren, which began a series of expulsion warnings from the convention and Warren’s retirement as senior leader.

Pastor Rick expressed, in the speech at the annual SBC convention in Anaheim, that as a church they had to decide if they “treated each other as adversaries or allies”; which led to a private meeting, vote and his expulsion.

Saddleback is “not in friendly cooperation with the Convention,” part of the statement read.

Although they all belong to the Baptist denomination, each congregation is governed by itself, which is why they decided to revoke its membership by not accepting women pastors.

The Executive Committee’s motion said that Saddleback “has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”

It is not yet known if Saddleback will appeal the decision, so at this time they remain focused on serving the congregation and surrounding communities.

“We love and have always valued our relationship with the SBC and its faithful churches. We will engage and respond through the proper channels at the appropriate time in hopes to serve other like-minded Bible believing SBC churches. Meanwhile, we remain focused on following God’s leadership to love and serve our church family and the communities around our campuses,” Saddleback elders said in a statement. 

One of Saddleback’s executive members, Mike Keahbone, who is also a pastor in Oklahoma, said an appeal is “likely.”

“This was the heart of the room; to let the messengers (delegates) of the SBC decide,” Keahbone said Tuesday on Twitter.

For Wood,  the Bible “teaches that men and women were given spiritual gifts by God.”

“The church should be a place where both men and women can exercise those spiritual gifts. My wife has the spiritual gift of teaching and she is really good. People often tell me she’s better than me when it comes to preaching, and I’m really glad to hear that,” he said of his wife, who serves as a teaching pastor.

Saddleback has 14 churches throughout Southern California with an average weekly attendance of 30,000, as well as multiple campuses in Hong Kong, Germany, the Philippines and Argentina.

Facebook Comments

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR