Southern Baptist Convention
Many African American SBC churches have women pastors on staff. Will they be expelled next?
By Bob Smietana — July 10, 2023
(RNS) — A letter from the president of the SBC's National African American Fellowship expressed concerns over recent SBC decisions to bar churches with women pastors.
The Supreme Court’s colorblindness
By Cheryl Townsend Gilkes — June 30, 2023
(RNS) — It's a different colorblindness than the one envisioned in King's 'Dream' speech.
Southern Baptists lose another megachurch: Elevation Church quits the SBC
By Bob Smietana — June 30, 2023
(RNS) — Led by charismatic pastor Steven Furtick, an author and television preacher, Elevation church has been part of the SBC for two decades. The church gave no reason for leaving the SBC.
How male headship became core to SBC identity
By Katelyn Beaty — June 29, 2023
(The Beaty Beat) — The emergence of the pastor’s wife model.
Southern Baptists say no to women pastors. But what does the Bible say a pastor is?
By Bob Smietana — June 27, 2023
(RNS) — The expulsion of Saddleback Church and other congregations for having women pastors led to national headlines. It’s also prompted questions about thousands of other churches where women serve in roles such as children’s pastor or music minister. Can the role’s title get a church in trouble with the SBC?
Southern Baptists uphold expulsion of churches with women pastors – but the debate’s not just about gender
By Andrew Gardner — June 27, 2023
(The Conversation) — In Southern Baptist history, rules on women and sexuality are often entwined. A scholar writes about the first congregation to be expelled from the SBC over LGBTQ+ issues
Mission trips are an evangelical rite of passage for US teens – but why?
By Caroline R. Nagel — June 21, 2023
(The Conversation) — Today’s short-term missionaries continue a long legacy, but in a very different way.
Southern Baptists rid themselves of women pastors, their latest self-inflicted wound
By Jonathan Merritt — June 15, 2023
(RNS) — The fundamentalists have won yet again, but theirs is a Pyrrhic victory.
Southern Baptists reaffirm commitment to abuse reforms, preview database of abusers
By Bob Smietana — June 14, 2023
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — Despite criticism, the task force charged with implementing abuse reforms was renewed for a second year.
Southern Baptists start constitutional step naming only men as pastors
By Adelle M. Banks — June 14, 2023
(RNS) — The new language would add that a church ‘affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.’
Ouster of Saddleback and Fern Creek from SBC over women pastors is affirmed
By Adelle M. Banks and Bob Smietana — June 14, 2023
(RNS) — Saddleback, whose case was argued by founding pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren, had been ousted for naming a woman to its pastoral team.
Rick Warren, other church leaders appeal Southern Baptist ouster at annual meeting
By Adelle M. Banks — June 13, 2023
(RNS) — The historic debate — which has been fought over social media, via documents and through a website campaign spearheaded by Warren — came to the floor of the two-day meeting.
SBC messengers reelect Texas pastor Bart Barber to a second term as president
By Bob Smietana — June 13, 2023
(RNS) — Barber was an unlikely candidate for president when he first ran in 2022. His election seems to indicate that Southern Baptists approve of the direction the convention is going. His reelection marks the third time a candidate backed by the Conservative Baptist Network has been defeated.
Vexed by quailing attendance, sex abuse and internal feuds, SBC takes on women pastors
By Bob Smietana — June 12, 2023
(RNS) — More than 12,000 local church representatives, known as messengers, will gather in New Orleans, ready to do their denomination's business.
Southwestern Baptist seminary ran up $140 million in deficit spending since 2000
By Bob Smietana — June 8, 2023
(RNS) — For decades, spending went up at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary while enrollment plummeted, causing the school to overspend by millions in 19 of the last 21 years.
