Southern Baptists do not call women to pastor churches. That may surprise our Methodist or Presbyterian brothers and sisters but that’s a common facet of Baptist life particularly in the SBC. Except that a June 2023 report that analyzed a random sample of 3,847 SBC churches and found that 99 of them did have female pastors. The vast majority of those, 73 out of 99, serve in an associational role or are designated as the leader of a particular ministry. Seven “co-lead” with their husband but two of the 99 are identified as the “senior pastor” and nine simple as “pastor.” If we extrapolate those numbers from the random sample across then entire SBC, over 49,000 churches, there easily could be over 1,800 female pastors serving in over 1,200 churches.

But wait, you said SBC churches do not call or ordain women as pastors? As a general rule that is true in most cases but each Southern Baptist church is self governing at the local level. Sometimes that is a blessing and a curse. One church may have in their by-laws, or simply may choose based on the pastor search committee serving at that time, to not call a pastor that has divorced and remarried. Another SBC church down the street may have no reservation about calling that candidate. Many of the career listings will say something like “seminary degree preferred but not required.” Some churches call a pastor that serves for many years, even decades. There are also churches that have annual election and those have more frequent… turnover. Other denominations, it may surprise SBC members to learn, have pastors appointed to them. Methodists, Presbyterians, even Seventh Day Adventist churches do not have search committees (but the local congregation may become involved at some step in the process). Each SBC church has full autonomy and chooses to cooperate with the local associations, the state conventions and the national SBC. They send representatives to annual meetings and the power structure works from the bottom up, not from the top down. Each church will have it’s own organizational structure; most churches have deacons while some also have elders. Who can serve as a deacon? What is the process for selecting deacons? Elders? Pastors? How often are business meetings held? What hymnal does a church use, and what Bible translation is read from in service? All of these decisions and many more are made by the members of the local church. Cooperation in the larger associations is voluntary but sometimes a church is removed from fellowship. There was a lot of press last year when Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren, was removed. Why you ask? Having women pastors.

There is now a proposed amendment to the SBC Constitution that would expressly state that SBC churches do not call women to the role of pastor. If one follows the Baptist Faith and Message (the 2000 edition is still used by most churches with some affirming older iterations) then a church will not call a woman as pastor in the first place. But just like everything else in Southern Baptist life adherence to the list of stated beliefs is voluntary. The amendment, known as the Law Amendment, has been voted on once already and at this summer’s annual meeting there will be a second vote needed a 2/3 majority to take effect. What would the effect be? The state conventions and national SBC would have a clearly stated guideline for removing churches that violate the mandate. Each removal would be a long and complicated process; the vast majority of churches with women serving, that do not simply choose to excuse themselves, would probably never be removed. There is not a mechanism in place for such minute oversight because the SBC doesn’t work that way. Furthermore, the passage of such an amendment is concerning even for those who agree with the rule in spirit. This could set a precedent for other decisions to be taken from local congregations, jeopardizing the local autonomy Southern Baptists have long prided themselves in.

Scott Barkley is the editor of the Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist newsletter. This article discusses the issues raised by the Law Amendment (and is where I got my numbers in the first paragraph). This article was written by Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee. Neither are short reads. The position of the committee and Igor personally is that the amendment should be denied. There are six candidates for SBC President that will be chosen at the annual meeting; three are for and three are against passing the Law Amendment.