Editorial: Women in ministry still a question for BGCT

In 1998, the Baptist General Convention of Texas adopted a resolution on biblical gender equality during its annual meeting. In keeping with that resolution, it hasn’t disfellowshipped any local church for calling a woman as pastor or minister.

The BGCT also has supported at least one seminary that trains women for all levels of ministry. It has supported the Texas Baptist Women in Ministry organization and maintains a director of women’s ministry position on its state-level staff.

Even so, some in Texas Baptist life remain uneasy about the BGCT’s position on women in ministry.

This sense of unease may be because the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and a group within the Southern Baptist Convention have been very clear where they stand on women in ministry. Some wonder how their stances will affect the BGCT.

As the BGCT seeks a new executive director, some Texas Baptists are asking anew about where the BGCT stands on women in ministry. As other Baptists make their position clear, now may be a good time for the BGCT to do the same—or at least to talk about it.

1998 statements and actions

In June 1998, Calvary Baptist Church in Waco called Julie Pennington-Russell as pastor. She was “believed to be the first female senior pastor of a church affiliated with the [BGCT].”

Also in June, the SBC amended the Baptist Faith and Message to include “Article XVIII: The Family,” which states that while husbands and wives have “equal worth before God, … [a] wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband” and is “to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing” the home and children.

The language of this amendment makes clear submission is in one direction—wives to husbands.

The SBC went on to add another amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000 that specifies “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

For its part, the BGCT adopted a resolution Nov. 10, 1998, that went beyond marriage and the home. The resolution states men and women are “to mutually submit to one another” and “affirm[s] the freedom and responsibility of women and men to respond to the call of Christ to serve as they are gifted by God.”

When asked from the floor if this resolution intended to affirm ordination of women, then-chair of the BGCT Resolutions Committee Ellis Orozco said: “It was not the intent of the committee to affirm or not affirm ordination. The word ‘ordination’ was not in there and not intended in there.”

The resolution affirms “the priesthood of every believer in discerning God’s truth” and “the freedom of each local Baptist church to commission for service all persons regardless of race, socioeconomic standing, age or gender who are called of God to model servant leadership.”

During the same annual meeting, more than 500 messengers split from the BGCT to form the SBTC. The SBTC pledged from its founding to hew to the conservative theological positions of the SBC, and it has stayed true to that pledge.

2021 and 2022 statements and actions

Even with the actions of the SBC and SBTC in 1998, women in ministry continued to be an issue for both. As a result, the SBTC resolved during its 2021 annual meeting, “while acknowledging and respecting the autonomy of the churches, [we] encourage affiliated churches to reserve the designation pastor/elder/overseer for titles of positions held by scripturally qualified men.”

This resolution followed Saddleback Church’s—one of the largest churches in the SBC, started by influential pastor Rick Warren—ordination of three women as pastors to serve on its staff.

The following year during the 2022 SBC annual meeting, Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., moved that the SBC adopt an amendment to Article III: Composition of its constitution.

Article III sets out the criteria for “friendly cooperation” between a church and the SBC. The amendment would exclude from the SBC churches that “affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

After the 2022 SBC annual meeting, Law circulated his proposal in a letter to SBC pastors, elders and seminary professors, asking for their signatures. As of this writing, the letter has received 1,613 signatures from across the SBC.

The Committee on Order of Business referred the proposed amendment to the SBC Executive Committee, which is expected to discuss the referral during its upcoming meeting in February.

Reaffirm and clarify

With ongoing efforts in the SBC to exclude churches with women pastors—of any kind—some Texas Baptists wonder anew where the BGCT stands on women in ministry. Since the BGCT hasn’t updated its stated position on women in ministry since 1998, now seems a good time to reaffirm and clarify that position.

BGCT churches said, in essence, they agree to disagree about the role of women in ministry, and such disagreement will not preclude voluntary cooperation among BGCT churches, nor will it be used as a test of fellowship. This is good and only part of what the BGCT should reaffirm.

The BGCT also needs to clarify the phrase “model servant leadership.” Does modeling servant leadership include women serving in pastoral roles? Does it include women having pastoral titles? These are questions that will need to be answered at some point.

And the BGCT can and should go further by doing at least three things: (1) acknowledging all the ways women serve in BGCT churches, many of which would fold if it weren’t for women; (2) communicating the BGCT’s history with women in ministry; and (3) providing pathways for women to follow God’s call on their lives wherever that call leads.

CORRECTION: When Mike Law circulated his letter was corrected from “prior to” to “after” the 2022 SBC annual meeting.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed are those solely of the author.