Roughly one-third of those appointed to an official Southern Baptist task force central to the question of female pastors in the denomination have women with the title of “pastor” or “minister” working at their churches, according to an analysis from The Sentinel.
Attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting last year voted in favor of an amendment clarifying that churches must appoint "only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture" in order to stay in “friendly cooperation” with the denomination. Another motion which passed at the meeting authorized Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber to appoint a “broadly representative task force” of twenty people to examine how churches should be deemed “in friendly cooperation on questions of faith and practice.”
The analysis from The Sentinel concluded that at least six of the twenty current task force members lead churches where women bear the titles of “pastor” or “minister.” Critics of such nomenclature note that only men have historically served in pastoral ministry in accordance with biblical instruction on church leadership, as reflected by the doctrinal statement to which Southern Baptist churches adhere, which says 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.”
Bart Barber, who himself serves on the task force and serves as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, has a “kids’ minister” working at the congregation. Jared Wellman, the chair of the task force and a pastor at Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, likewise has a woman working as a “children’s minister” at the church.
Kim Coleman, the wife of task force member Jerome Coleman, a pastor at First Baptist Church Crestmont in Pennsylvania, bears the title “reverend” and works as the “executive pastor” of the congregation. Multiple social media accounts for the church contain video of her preaching.
Jason Paredes, the lead pastor of Fielder Church in Texas, has at least seven women working as “pastors” at his congregation: three bear the title of “children’s pastor,” a fourth bears the title of “associate pastor,” a fifth bears the title of “girls pastor,” a sixth bears the title of “college pastor,” and a seventh bears the title of “foster care and adoption pastor.”
Victor Chayasirisobhon, a pastor at First Southern Baptist Church in California, has a woman working as a “music minister.” Gregory Perkins, the lead pastor of The View Church in California, has a woman serving as “pastor of discipleship, family, and life.”
The tally of task force members with female “pastors” or “ministers” does not count the several churches led by members where women bear titles such as “coordinator” or “director,” reflecting an increased level of ministerial responsibility. Bellevue Baptist Church in Tennessee, where the husband of task force member Donna Gaines serves as a pastor, for instance, has two women who work as “director” of high school and young adult ministries. The tally also does not count Tara Dew, a task force member who is married to the president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and leads an organization focused on “equipping women for ministry.”
Mike Law, a pastor at Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia and the author of the amendment on female pastors, observed in comments to The Sentinel that the members of the task force who lead churches with female pastors are in “open rebellion to the explicit teaching of the Bible” and the denominational statement of faith. “I am deeply concerned that the forthcoming recommendations will downgrade our doctrinal and cooperative commitments,” he remarked. “My sincere prayer is that my concerns will not prove true.”
Attendees of the annual meeting last year also overwhelmingly voted to disfellowship Saddleback Church, the megachurch founded by Rick Warren which installed a number of female pastors, as well as Fern Creek Baptist Church, which has employed a female “pastor” for three decades. Elevation Church, which is led by Steven Furtick and where his wife works as a “pastor,” withdrew affiliation from the denomination shortly after the annual meeting.
Members of the largest association of Protestant churches in the country are slated to consider the recommendations of the task force at the next annual meeting in Indianapolis. One analysis of publicly available church website data from American Reformer found that some 1,200 of the 48,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention have at least one woman working in a pastoral position. Attendees must approve the Law amendment for a second time in order to officially alter the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention.
