This quote which I reviewed this morning by Rebecca Mclaughlin goes well with my newsletter article to Bethany Place which I published last week and have included below.
"If we listen to Jesus, leadership in the church isn't about power and privilege. It's about service and sacrifice. We easily forget this in a world of Western comforts. But in the early church and in much of the global church today, leading a church means risking your life. God made men physically stronger than women and then put them in the firing line. In a world in which strength meant dominance, Jesus got down on his knees and washed his disciples' feet, before being lifted up on a cross. Where the Bible gives different roles to men and women, it calls men first to come and die." (Rebecca McLaughlin, The Secular Creed)
I Will Serve the Ministry and Mission of My Church
(this is part 2 of a 3 part series on the 2023 Annual Meeting of the SBC)
Our bylaws list that one of the responsibilities of members is to, "Support the church with time, talents, and tithes." Coastal's bylaws expand on this concept in part of what they call their membership commitment, "I will serve the ministry and mission of my church by discovering my gifts and talents and being equipped to serve by my pastors and teachers, by participating in an area of service in the church, and by being held accountable to developing a servant's heart and demonstrating a servant's actions. (1 Peter 4:10; Ephesians 4:11–12; Philippians 2:3–4, 7)
Our need for every person who considers Bethany Place their church to serve in this way will always be critical. I mention this here because some say that the most recent annual meeting of the SBC discourages women from serving.
Please don't buy the claims from those who say that the SBC seeks to suppress the role of women. Our churches would cease to exist apart from the role that women play. I recently preached through 1 Timothy to walk through the passage Article 6 of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 addresses. The last sentence of Article 6: on the Church states that, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."' Here's what happened:
At the Annual Meeting of the SBC, decisions are made by those who not only show up at the annual meeting, but by those who are actually in the room when decisions are made. There were 12,000 plus messengers at this year's event, so it is always a logistical challenge to manage. But there's no other way for such a body to conduct its business. I want comment on two of those in this week and next week's newsletter. This week I'll address the matter relating to Saddleback Church and its founding pastor Rick Warren. Next week I'll write about the sexual abuse task force appointed at last year's meeting.
Rick Warren wrote the Purpose Driven Life among other books, and he has influenced pastors throughout the country through his conferences and other short form writing for 40 years. A few years ago, Saddleback began ordaining women and calling them pastors in violation of our confessional document, the Baptist, Faith, and Message 2000. There are a small percentage of SBC churches that have placed women in pastoral roles. Because of the nature of our convention of churches, that does not automatically trigger action at the annual meeting. That's not the way our denomination works. There's no hierarchy. Every church participates voluntarily. But in Saddleback's case Warren's visibility pushed the issue and it become a point of discussion at last year's meeting. During the year between meetings, our Credentials Committee voted to officially separate from Saddleback church, considering them to be "not in friendly cooperation."
Saddleback appealed that decision. The rules for appealing a decision provided for Rick Warren to speak for three minutes and then the Credentials Committee chose Al Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary to speak for three minutes to express their views. This made for a rather dramatic moment on the first day of the meeting when these two well-known leaders squared off. The convention later voted overwhelmingly to affirm the prior decision of the Credentials Committee to disfellowship with Saddleback Church. I appreciated how Al Mohler explained this. He said that we take this action without anger and we can and should celebrate the good that has been done through Saddleback Church. This simply means that we can no longer partner with Saddleback Church as one of the churches in our convention because of our stated convictions on this matter. They are no longer in friendly cooperation due to a specific tenet in the Baptist Faith and Message. You can read more about this decision here.
I disagree with Rick Warren's argument that we are benching more than half of the church in the work of the Great Commission by not ordaining women. That would be arguing that only ordained ministers could do the work of the ministry. Warren is smarter than me and is certainly better read than I am, but he has misinterpreted the scripture on this point. The work of pastors is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That means that average church members, not staff members, do the bulk of the work of the ministry.
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