Thousands of Black churches could face Southern Baptist Convention expulsion over women pastors

As many as 4,000 Black churches with women pastors could be kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention under the denomination’s new rules, warns the Rev. Gregory Perkins. 

Mr. Perkins, president of the SBC’s National African American Fellowship, said in a new letter to the head of the SBC that the denomination’s ruling against women pastors has “created division within the SBC and may disproportionately impact NAAF affiliated congregations.”

With 47,198 Southern Baptist churches in the U.S., the loss of 4,000 Black congregations could cost the denomination almost 9% of its membership.

Mr. Perkins asks in the letter for a meeting with SBC President Rev. Bart Barber.

Delegates at the SBC’s June business session in New Orleans voted to confirm the expulsion of two congregations that had women in pastoral roles, including Saddleback Church, based in Orange County, California — a church that had been one of the largest in the SBC.

The delegates — known as “messengers” in SBC parlance — also advanced an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that would ban membership in the SBC for churches with female pastors. The Baptist’s doctrinal statement already restricts the office of pastor to males.

That measure, proposed by the Rev. Mike Law Jr. of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia, received the required two-thirds vote to move forward despite the SBC’s executive committee recommending a “no” vote on the amendment. 

A second vote at the 2024 business meeting in Indianapolis would be required for enactment.

If approved, Mr. Perkins warned, the change “may signal” that churches that give the “pastor” title to women are no longer welcome in the denomination.

The issue of women in the ministry has become a flashpoint within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. 

Some 13.3 million Americans claim affiliation with the Southern Baptists, but the group lost more than 450,000 members last year. 

Officials said that was partly because of better record keeping that swept the names of deceased members and those who moved away from congregations off the books.

However, critics cited the women in ministry issue and the SBC’s 2023 disclosure of years of sexual abuse claims against clergy and other leaders as factors for some of the departures.

The removal of any SBC congregations over the issue of a woman holding the title of “pastor” would require individual action for each church, said Doug Weaver, chair of the religion department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

“If they actually implement what they passed a few weeks ago in New Orleans, they would have to bring up all those churches individually by name and ask them to be excluded,” he said in a telephone interview. “Based on what they did last a few weeks ago, that certainly is possible.”

Mr. Weaver said some congregations might change a person’s title from “pastor” to “minister” to remain in compliance, but others that don’t have a problem with the pastoral designation “could end up with a situation that some of the leaders didn’t anticipate.”

“There are some people that are just interested in purity, regardless of the costs. So wait and see who really is in charge,” he said.

Mr. Perkins wrote in his letter: “Many of our churches assign the title ‘pastor’ to women who oversee ministries of the church under the authority of a male Senior Pastor, i.e., Children’s Pastor, Worship Pastor, Discipleship Pastor, etc.”

Mr. Perkins said the decision by a congregation on who to hire as staff and their titles is an “independent” determination “based upon a local-church governance decision,” and thus should not be grounds for expelling a church from the SBC.

“The autonomy of the local church is a defining Baptist conviction and forms the foundational framework for our shared cooperation,” he wrote.

In a separate document, the National African American Fellowship said it believes “the decision to appoint or employ a woman with a pastoral title is not a national governance matter and should be decided by the local church.”

Mr. Perkins asked Mr. Barber for a meeting to discuss the matter.

In a message shared with The Washington Times, Mr. Barber said he looks forward to working with the Black caucus.

“Our sister SBC churches in the NAAF have asked us for a season of prayer and dialogue,” he said. “I plan to see many of our NAAF leaders next week in Asheville, North Carolina, where I trust that we will make a healthy start in both prayer and fruitful conversation with one another.”

Speaking to the denomination’s Baptist Press news service, executive committee head Willie McLaurin said, “NAAF’s call to prayer and dialogue speaks to the cooperative spirit of our Convention. The strength of our Convention is local churches. Local churches baptize, plant churches and send missionaries around the corner and around the globe.”

The Baptist leader said the executive committee “stands ready to engage in ongoing dialogue” on the issue.

It’s not only Black churches in the SBC pushing back against the denomination’s new direction.

The Rev. Rick Warren, founder and retired senior pastor at Saddleback Church, blasted the denomination as the “Shrinking Baptist Convention” for its restrictions and posted a response to the June actions at SBCstand.com, where supporters can register their agreement.