Prevailing View
“A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all.” – Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer.
Principled View
“It is no harder for a woman to teach a mixed audience than to only women when one gets used to it. For there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” – Miss Abbie M. Colby, Missionary to Osaka, Japan, as quoted in Life and Light for Woman, March 1888, p. 87.
The SBC Debate about Women Pastors
One advantage of knowing history is the ability to see into the future.
The famous axiom is:
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”
The opposite is also true.
“Those who know history avoid upcoming traps.”
There’s a controversy in the Southern Baptist institutional religious world about “women pastors.”
“This should never happen!” the majority of male pastors cry. “The sacred text bars women from being a pastor! We Southern Baptists who believe the Bible must stick to what the Bible teaches!”
I’ve written extensively on the problem of wrongly associating “an office of authority” with the biblical term shepherd or pastor.
The spiritual gifts of teaching, exhorting, shepherding, mercy, evangelism, preaching, etc., are never GENDER QUALIFIED in Scripture.
The proper question is not “Can a woman be a pastor?” but “What is a pastor?”
If you answer the question, “What is a pastor?” biblically, you’ll see that the word translated pastor is used in the context of a verb of service and not a noun of status.
There is no “office of the pastor” in the Bible like “the office of the President.” In Christ’s church, gifted men and women compose the “body of Christ.”
Christ alone is the Head of His body. In Him is all authority. Leaders in Christ’s church are humble, gifted servants. They should be “older” (elder) in the faith and not too young.
The Bible is clear:
“A pastor (shepherd) in Christ’s church is any humble, gifted man or woman, who encourages, feeds, protects, and guides Christ’s sheep. Or, to use a more biblical metaphor, a pastor is a “hand that assists a foot,” or an “eye that helps the ear listen,” or “a heart that rushes blood to a diseased liver,” etc…
I could go on and on with body metaphors, but my point is that there is only ONE HEAD of the church, and that is Jesus.
“Jesus alone is the head and source of everything His church needs. God’s put everything beneath the authority of Jesus and has given Him highest rank.” Eph. 1:22-23
Everyone else who attempts to exert “spiritual authority” over another Christian is practicing Fraudulent Authority and is subverting the role of Christ in a believer’s life.
This Post Is a Lesson in History
I write to argue from history that since Southern Baptists say they believe what the Bible teaches, they will one day change their minds about women not qualified to shepherd (pastor) other Christians.
This year, at the Southern Baptist Convention, SBC pastors nationwide voted to approve a Constitutional amendment “banning any Southern Baptist Church from Convention membership that has the word ‘pastor’ before a woman who serves on staff.”
The second and final vote of the Constitutional Amendment will be at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention.
I chuckled when I read the appropriately named LAW AMENDMENT.
The young pastor who proposed the amendment (Mike Law), asked the SBC “to ban churches that use the title pastor in staff roles filled by women.” Mike Law made a video entitled “What Is a Pastor?”
Like many secular psychologists, Mike Law asked the right question but provided the wrong answer.
The Bible never changes. It is God’s Word. But we must remember that the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures were written for us but not “to us.”
I know from history that Southern Baptist interpretations of biblical texts have changed (and rightfully so).
What Southern Baptists believe about the role, authority, and ministry of shepherds (pastors) will one day change from the standardized BFM 2000 statement, especially when the day comes that the institutional church implodes, and Christ’s church (which is unshakeable) dramatically expands.
Let me show you four historical examples where Southern Baptists have changed their minds about what the Bible teaches,
#1 – Pastors Ought to Receive No Salary
Elijah Craig (1738-1808) was one of his day’s most well-known Baptist preachers. He was influential in the Baptists of Virginia, helping to adopt the First Amendment of the United States.
Elijah later served as the large Crossing Baptist Church (Kentucky) pastor. One historian says Elijah “played a vital role in communicating the views of the Virginia Baptists to the new state government.”
Elijah Craig wrote a book entitled A Few Remarks on the Errors Maintained in the Christian Churches of the Present Day (1801). In it, Elijah wrote:
“Pastors…are precluded by the Scriptures from receiving any compensation for their services.”
Well, I would expect that out of the 10,000 Southern Baptists pastors present at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention, the vast majority will be glad that Baptists have changed their position on what the Bible teaches about paying pastors.
But wait, there’s more...
#2 – Producing and Drinking Alcohol Is Good
The Baptist Pastor Elijah Craig, who lived in the southern U.S., supported his wife and six kids by inventing Kentucky Bourbon, a corn liquor aged in charred barrels, and selling it to the general public. Elijah Craig Bourbon, produced in 1789 in the distillery Baptist pastor Elijah Craig named Heaven Hill, is still available for purchase worldwide. Elijah Craig Bourbon has been voted America’s best bourbon.
“What? Are you kidding me?”
No. I’m not.
“But I thought the Southern Baptist Convention has always deemed the sale and use of alcohol to be a sin?”
No. Not even close.
In 1796, the Elkhorn Baptist Association, a Kentucky association (constituted in 1785), ruled that “denying a member church membership because he sold intoxicants was unjustified.”
It was not until 100 years later (1886) that the Southern Baptist Convention began passing resolutions against alcohol.
So Southern Baptists have changed their minds about paying pastors and drinking whiskey.
But wait, there’s more.
#3 – Smoking and Selling Tobacco Is Beneficial
The first Baptist church, which called Elijah Craig to be their pastor, the Blue Run Baptist Church, met in a tobacco farm shed.
That’s right. All the members smoked tobacco and sold it to make a living – including their pastor.
Baptists in Elijah Craig’s day smoked and chewed tobacco, drank and sold whiskey, and wouldn’t pay their pastors a salary.
But wait, there’s more.
#3 – Church and Politics Are One
The prison window from which Elijah Craig preached to the people
While plowing his field in 1768, Baptist pastor Elijah Craig was arrested and imprisoned for seventeen days for preaching “schismatick doctrines.”
Contrary to many modern Southern Baptist leaders who believe national government and the church should be the same, Baptist pastor Elijah Craig advocated that government and the church should always be separated. Government officials imprisoned him.
But apparently, the prison couldn’t keep Elijah from preaching. Baptists gathered outside the jail, and this Baptist pastor named Elijah Craig preached the gospel through the bars of his jail window. Consequently, the authorities built a high wall around the prison to keep people from hearing.
Eventually, Elijah Craig was released to return to his whiskey and tobacco business to preach the gospel.
#4 – Slavery Is Biblical
So Baptists like Elijah Craig owned slaves.
Southern Baptists for decades believed that holding slaves was not only biblical Christianity. They also preached tens of thousands of messages on the evil of slavery abolition.
Of course, Baptists changed their minds about slavery.
CONCLUSION
Stacie and Andy Wood, Pastors at Saddleback Church, California
Nobody has ever accused me of holding back from speaking my mind.
I will be a Southern Baptist until my death. At that time, Jesus will call me home in the resurrection to His eternal Kingdom.
That said, allow me to predict the future of the Southern Baptist Convention and its unbiblical view of women in ministry.
Regardless of the 2024 passage of the Law Amendment, one day in the future, the Southern Baptist Convention will change its mind on the biblical interpretation of gifted, humble women and their Spirit-given abilities to shepherd God’s people.
My SBC male pastors will say to me, “NO! We will NOT change our minds on this!”
With my knowledge of SBC history, I will politely enter into a wager with my 2023-2024 SBC pastor friends:
“I’ll bet you, my Bible-believing Southern Baptist pastor friends, that you will change your minds about what the Bible teaches about women shepherding God’s people before I change my mind.
In fact, I will make you a promise!
When I meet a modern-day Southern Baptist pastor who receives no salary, who smokes tobacco and drinks whiskey daily, who refuses to identify with any political party to the point of imprisonment, and who will introduce me to the African slaves he keeps in his house, I will change my view about gifted, humble women being biblically qualified to shepherd God’s people.
Until then, I’ll stand firm on my interpretation of the biblical principles that gifted people humbly serve Christ’s church without regard to gender.
It’s best for the Kingdom when young Southern Baptist preachers trained by Paige Patterson’s BFM 2000 stop their shallow sanctimonious sermonettes on how the Bible is authoritative in restricting women from serving as shepherds for God’s people.
Maybe they are missing the understanding that Southern Baptists have regularly made mistakes in biblical interpretation.
The Bible makes NO mistakes.
Those of us who read and teach the Bible often make mistakes.
Could I be wrong about women being able to shepherd God’s people?
I fellowship with Christians who disagree with me.
Disfellowshiping from Saddleback Church and its founding pastor, Rick Warren – a Southern Baptist pastor who supports women pastors – is a dangerous step leading to a future trap for the institutional religious denomination called the Southern Baptist Convention.
The history of Baptists and the changes in the SBC over the decades indicate that I know the accuracy of what I write.
“The spiritual gifts of teaching, exhorting, shepherding, mercy, evangelism, preaching, etc., are never GENDER QUALIFIED in Scripture.”
THIS !
“My wife is a pastor so I’m going to tell you how I get around what the Bible says…”
Quite an educational article. Thanks!
I think the SBC will continue to decline in number of churches and number of members of those churches until they repent on the question of requiring their male supremacy model is the church and home.
Excellent. I always enjoy your balanced and biblically referenced comments. I too am Southeast Baptist at my core but it’s getting harder to look the other way when they make some of these decisions. I think your prediction is on point. I would not bet against you!
Thank you!! I’ve recently listened to a local pastor preach a series of three sermons on women’s role in the church…. And every sermon said they are to worship. Period. Worship? Yes! Period? No! He preaches against women having ANY teaching or leadership role. I am certainly not a feminist. I don’t believe I was created to be everything my husband is. Rather, I’m created to be everything he’s not!! That’s why we work. But nowhere in the Bible have I ever seen Jesus discount women. But brother I’ve seen it in church.
Well put, Kaylene!
I don’t understand it, but I admire your loyalty to the SBC. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. I was never very “religious” other than regularly attending church (Roman Catholic). I grew up a chauvinist, even with a very strong-willed mother. Until I “really” got saved in the 70’s, I never heard a woman teach/preach the Word. In my opinion all religions are led by men, who are usually sanctimonious and seminary-educated, which means that part of their training is exactly what is displayed by the SBC. Those with a true gift of teaching like yourself should teach/preach whether they are male or female, and those who don’t have it should do something else. Thank you for continuing to tell it like it should be.
Whatever this is, it is ridiculous, unbiblical, and very poorly written! To say that the qualifications for the role of Pastor is genderless is flat out lying and unbiblical! When the Holy Spirit led the Apostle to write both the epistles of 1 Timothy and Titus, he clearly spoke to who is to lead God’s Church: MEN. Every time Paul spoke about Elders in the Church, he referenced MEN in the Masculine voice. We see MEN leading Churches, not Women, in the N.T. As much as I otherwise respect Rick Warren, I strongly disagree with him on this issue.
Finally, God is clear as to who is to lead the Christian home: Husband’s. Husband’s are to lead their family in spiritual matters, and what is true at home must be true in the Church…and it is, as our God Is consistent! God has NOT called a Christian wife to pastor her Christian husband.
There will be times in ANY long-lived Christian marriage where a wife will need to ‘care for’ her husband by taking the lead and trying to help him by doing the right thing:
perhaps it will be in old age, when one spouse begins to ‘need’ special care and the other is still able to drive to appointments and to make plans that benefit the care of the spouse who is needy.
I would hope that in ANY Christian marriage of either to other, there is a mutual caring commitment to support that is based on loving-kindness and on the wedded vows that for me lasted for almost fifty-two years.
I was ‘strong’ for my husband and the end. We did the best we could. I know that if I were in the same ‘shape’ and needed care that my dear husband would have also helped me at the end.
‘Either to other’ is the sacred Christian wedded vow. . . . . that whole fundamentalist patriarchy model is a result of the Fall in Eden, and it is sin-filled by pride and ‘authoritarian’ misery imposed on those who should be able to ‘count on’ the ‘other spouse’ having the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not a prideful, mean-spirited patriarchal attitude.
What holds a marriage when the husband gets badly injured or ill, or becomes non-compose mentis? I think it is the ‘either to other’ commitment that rises and cares as ‘one for the other’ because of love, not ‘authority’. I know this to be true from my own experience. Patriarchal mysogyny denies the full dignity found in the ‘either to other’ Christian wedding service.
c.
Wayne Cooper
You said: “God is clear as to who is to lead the Christian home: Husband’s. Husbands are to lead their family in spiritual matters, and what is true at home must be true in the Church.”
That’s almost funny. My mother said:
“The husband is the ‘head’ of the family, but it was the ‘neck’ that turned the ‘head’.
As kids, we saw she was right!
Wade,
I believe in your saying: “…spiritual gifts of teaching…are never gender qualified in Scripture.”
The first teacher about the resurrection of Jesus was a woman.
“Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.” (John 20:18)
The goal of preachers today is telling the message of Jesus.