NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Southern Baptist Conference management disfellowshipped Saddleback Church from the conference on Tuesday, concluding a long-running debate about one of many largest and most well-known church buildings within the denomination.
The California megachurch’s stance on a lady serving as head co-pastor led the conference’s Govt Committee to think about a suggestion for the SBC to interrupt with Saddleback.
The chief committee accredited comparable suggestions for 5 different church buildings, one for a intercourse abuse-related challenge and 4 others for ladies serving in senior pastor roles. There’s a mechanism for the church buildings to attraction the selections.
The conference’s Govt Committee is comprised of about 30 workers and an 86-member board of elected representatives and manages denomination enterprise exterior the Nashville-based SBC’s annual assembly. It met for a significant two-day assembly in Nashville on Monday and Tuesday.
With 23,000-plus members and 12 places in Southern California, with its flagship campus in Lake Forest, California, Saddleback is a family title in American evangelical Christianity that lengthy flourished underneath the management of Pastor Rick Warren, writer of “The Goal Pushed Life.”
Warren retired from Saddleback in August, handing the reins to pastors Andy and Stacie Wooden.
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Even earlier than Warren introduced his retirement and the Woods as his successors final yr, Saddleback has been on the middle of a multi-year controversy within the SBC over the position of ladies in church management. In Might 2021, the California church ordained its first three girls pastors.
The ordinations led some Southern Baptists to attempt to oust Saddleback from the SBC for the primary time on the 2021 SBC annual assembly in Nashville. Critics pointed to the denomination’s assertion of beliefs, referred to as the Baptist Religion and Message 2000, which says “the workplace of pastor is proscribed to males as certified by Scripture.”
Southern Baptists maintain to a complementarianism, a theological concept that teaches women and men have sure assigned roles.
On the 2021 SBC annual assembly in Nashville, Southern Baptist voting delegates, referred to as messengers, made a movement for the conference’s Credentials Committee to think about disfellowshipping Saddleback. The credentials committee evaluates whether or not a church is in “pleasant cooperation” with the conference and determines whether or not to advocate disfellowship. The chief committee then votes on that suggestion.
On the 2022 SBC annual assembly in Anaheim, California, a dialogue on Saddleback ended with indecision in regards to the church’s everlasting standing within the SBC. The likelihood Saddleback would lose its affiliation remained.
Warren delivered an emotional speech on the ground of the 2022 annual assembly, studying what he referred to as a “love letter” and seemingly resigned to an inevitable cut up between Saddleback and the SBC. It additionally led to a bigger debate about Southern Baptist doctrine on girls pastors and the factors for SBC affiliation.
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Different church buildings disfellowshipped
Along with Saddleback, the chief committee accredited suggestions to disfellowship 5 different church buildings.
The choice to disfellowship Freedom Church in Vero Seaside, Florida, was over a intercourse abuse-related challenge. Freedom Church exhibited “a scarcity of intent to cooperate in resolving issues relating to a sexual abuse allegation,” govt committee chairman Jared Wellman mentioned at Tuesday’s assembly.
Freedom’s pastor, Richard Demsick, mentioned he realized of the information of Freedom’s disfellowship in an interview with The Tennessean, a part of the USA TODAY Community. “There aren’t any sexual abuse allegations,” he mentioned. “There have been false experiences based mostly on gossip.”
Demsick declined to elaborate on the false experiences he was referring to.
The chief committee accredited a suggestion to disfellowship 4 church buildings by which a lady serves as a lead or senior pastor: New Religion Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia; St. Timothy’s Christian Baptist in Baltimore, Maryland; Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi; and Fern Creek Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky.
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“We’re saddened to listen to of this discriminating and judgmental resolution that has been made by the Govt Committee of the SBC,” mentioned Fern Creek Pastor Linda Barnes Popham mentioned in a press release.
“The method has been unbiblical from the start phases with the Credentials Committee,” added Popham, who mentioned Fern Creek is a “true Southern Baptist church.”
Saddleback, New Religion Mission Ministry, St. Timothy’s Baptist, Calvary Baptist, and Fern Creek, couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
In September, the chief committee accredited suggestions to disfellowship two church buildings, one for its stance on sexuality and the opposite for alleged discriminatory habits.
Contributing: Ross Reily in Jackson, Mississippi
Liam Adams covers faith for The Tennessean. Observe him on Twitter @liamsadams.
