Southern Baptist ousts Saddleback, other churches, for allowing women to preach

The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday expelled five churches, including the mega Saddleback Church, for installing women as senior or lead pastors, a role the group says the Bible reserves only for men.

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A sixth church was expelled over the way it handled a sex abuse charge.

The move concerning Saddleback, which has one of the largest congregations in the country, comes less than six months after its founding pastor Rick Warren retired.

When he left, Warren chose a married couple, Andy and Stacie Wood, to lead the 23,000-member church.

While Wood heads the church, his wife serves as a “teaching pastor,” which is a role that includes preaching.

Part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s statement of beliefs says a church’s pastor must be a man.

“While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

The move by the SBC, which has 13 million members and 47,000 churches, was largely symbolic for Saddleback since the church has not emphasized its Baptist affiliation.

Four other churches were determined “to be not in friendly cooperation with the Convention due to the churches continuing to have a female functioning in the office of pastor,” the convention’s executive committee chairman, Jared Wellman, said in a statement.

The other four churches removed in which women serve as lead or senior pastors are Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss.; Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.; New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Ga., and St. Timothy’s Christian Baptist Church in Baltimore.

Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Fla., was deemed to be not in friendly cooperation because the church failed to cooperate in resolving concerns regarding an abuse allegation. Freedom Church denied the charge.

“These churches have been valued, cooperating churches for many years, and this decision was not made lightly,” Wellman said in the statement. “However, we remain committed to upholding the theological convictions of the S.B.C. and maintaining unity among its cooperating churches.”