In a last-ditch effort, longtime Southern Baptist churches expelled for women pastors fight to stay
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The robed choir performed a rousing missionary chorus, the worshippers sang from the Baptist Hymnal, and the pastor preached on the need to listen to God before inviting people to come forward and profess faith in Jesus.
If there was ever a blueprint for a traditional Southern Baptist worship service, Fern Creek Baptist Church followed it to a tee on a recent Sunday.
Except for one key detail.
The pastor is a woman.
And because of that, Fern Creek is no longer a Southern Baptist church.
In February, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee voted to oust Fern Creek for having a woman pastor — the same issue it cited for expelling four other churches, including the massive California-based Saddleback Church. All Baptist churches are independent, so the convention can’t tell them what to do, but it can decide which churches are “not in friendly cooperation,” the official verbiage for an expulsion.
Fern Creek and Saddleback are appealing the decision to the SBC's annual meeting being held Tuesday and Wednesday in New Orleans.
The Rev. Linda Barnes Popham has been pastor of the modest-sized Fern Creek in Louisville for the past 30 years, and involved in church work since her teen years in her native Alabama.
“When I was 8 years old, I knew that God was calling me in some sense,” she recalled. She’s not doubting her calling now, and neither are Fern Creek churchgoers.
“I’ve never seen anybody with a more dedicated heart for the Lord than Linda,” said longtime attendee Rick Pryor.
The SBC’s official statement of faith says the office of pastor is reserved for men, but this is believed to be the first time the convention has expelled any churches over it. Both of the congregations say Baptists should be able to agree to disagree — while making a common cause for evangelism.
“I want to worship under that same umbrella and do missions together like Southern Baptists have done all of these years,” Popham said.
Plus, Popham and supportive members of Fern Creek said, it’s not just about her. “We want women to rise up and be able to answer God’s call, just like men do," Popham said.
Holly Blansette, a recent college graduate who grew up in the church and was baptized by Popham, said the pastor is “not just an outstanding woman role model but a role model in general.”
Some members questioned whether there are other agendas at play — whether the denomination was seeking to divert attention from its struggles to address a sex abuse scandal, or if their removal was part of a wider political effort to push the conservative denomination even further to the right.
“I think that they’re very much fueling this conservative political ideology in religion that is going to be harmful in the long run, especially when you do lose out on great churches like Saddleback or Fern Creek Baptist," Blansette said.
The controversy is not the only one anticipated at the SBC's annual meeting, which will also feature a contested presidential election and deliberations on how and whether to continue reforms following a sexual-abuse scandal that has drawn a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.
They're also gathering in the wake of a recent failed vote by the Executive Committee to elect its own leader.
And the denomination is aging and experiencing long-term declines in membership and baptisms.
The issue of women in ministry has long been debated among Southern Baptists, dating back to the late 20th century controversies that led to a sharp rightward shift in its leadership. That movement culminated in a revised statement of belief in 2000, which included a declaration 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.”
Much of the debate in the 1980s and 1990s had more abstract theological claims, but often the dividing lines centered on issues like who could stand in the pulpit.
“Something like, ‘Do you believe the Bible?’ is pretty hard to show one way or the other,” said Nancy Ammerman, author of “Baptist Battles," a history of the denomination's late 20th century controversies. “They needed a concrete issue, something they could point to.” Both sides backed their positions with the Bible.
Saddleback's retired founding pastor, Rick Warren, is urging SBC delegates to reinstate the megachurch, one of the largest in the nation. He said the Baptist Faith and Message represents a consensus but should not be used to enforce uniformity.
“All we’re asking is that Southern Baptists ACT like Southern Baptists … who agree to disagree on many things in order to AGREE to fulfill our mission together!” Warren said in a written statement.
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