Southern Baptists advance ban on churches with female pastors

Southern Baptists voted Wednesday to advance a constitutional amendment that would clarify the denomination’s ban on churches with female pastors, a move that could settle one of the most divisive questions to surface in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination in recent years.

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting voted 6,028 to 2,026 in favor of the amendment, more than the two-thirds needed for approval. The proposal is not final. It must be approved again by a two-thirds vote at next year’s annual meeting in Indianapolis before it becomes part of the SBC Constitution.

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., proposed the amendment. The motion would add language to the SBC Constitution saying that a cooperating Southern Baptist church “does not affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”

The proposal should curb divisive debate, Mohler said.

“A generation ago, the SBC took this kind of action in the constitution by making very clear that our cooperation is not extended to those who would endorse or affirm LGBTQ lifestyles and activities,” he said when announcing the proposal. “That has clarified the SBC’s conviction. It has created even deeper unity in the truth. One of the greatest testimonies to that is that this is not an issue of open debate at the SBC year by year, and it hasn’t been for a generation. That’s exactly what we need on the issue of the office of pastor.”

The SBC’s statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message, already says the office of pastor is limited to men. The denomination also has removed churches in recent years for having women in senior pastoral roles, including Saddleback Church in California. But disagreement has continued over whether women may hold other pastoral titles or preach to the assembled congregation.

During Wednesday’s debate, Mohler called the proposal the “Truth and Unity Amendment” and said Southern Baptists needed clarity.

“This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to speak in truth, in unity, in conviction,” Mohler said, according to the Associated Press.

The only recorded opposition during the brief debate came from Doug Mize, pastor of First Baptist Church in Greer, S.C., who said the convention already has a process for addressing churches that depart from SBC doctrine.

“What we have already works,” Mize said, according to Baptist Press. “We have zero women lead pastors, co-pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention at this moment. We’re going to keep voting them out. But this amendment is over and beyond the reach that we need to have.”

Colin Smothers, pastor of First Baptist Maize in Wichita, Kan., spoke in favor of the amendment and called for debate to end.

“This amendment is not complicated. The need for it is not complicated,” Smothers said, according to Baptist Press. “We need clarity and the amendment provides clarity and truth and unity. We need it now, so I call the question.”

Both confirmed nominees for SBC president had expressed support for the proposed amendment before the vote.

Last year, a similar amendment to the SBC Constitution was defeated at the annual meeting. Although the motion received 3,421 votes in favor, about 61 percent of the ballots cast, it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority. Proposed by Juan Sanchez of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, the 2025 motion sought to add an item to the constitution that would require churches to have “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by scripture.”

Supporters say the new amendment would clarify Southern Baptist doctrine and reduce repeated debate over churches that use pastoral titles for women. Opponents say the SBC already has enough authority to remove churches that violate its statement of faith and that the amendment could go too far into local church matters.

–Dwight Widaman

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