Warren said he believed women could not be pastors for most of the years he was in ministry. It wasn’t until recently that he was prompted to re-study the passage pertaining to the scriptural definition of what it means to be a pastor and whether or not it was gender specific.
“Why didn’t I look at it sooner?” he asked. “I don’t think I wanted to know. It was more comfortable for me as a man to be useful to the way I was raised and the way I was brought up.”
While answering a question at the press conference, Warren said he believes that half of the churches in the Convention would be disfellowshipped if every church that has ever had a woman speak on a Sunday morning was forced to follow the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 the way Saddleback and a few others were told they had to do so. Warren called the SBC ruling “hypocritical.”
Rick Warren: ‘I Was Sinning When I Held Women Back’
ChurchLeaders asked Warren if he believes it is a sin for people to speak against women teaching in the church and having a pastoral role.
When it comes to this topic, “I’m not going to tell other people that they are sinning,” Warren replied. “But I will tell you this. I was sinning when I held women back.”
Warren said, “You know, people always say, ‘Hate the sin and love the sinner.’ My philosophy is hate my sin and love the sinner. If I’m hating my sin, then I don’t have time to hate other people’s sins and judge others.”
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned in the last two years is that Southern Baptists don’t know their history,” Warren said. He went on to say that in his studies of the 28 different confessions of faith that Southern Baptists have had since the early 1600s, he found that in the 1866 confession, a person could get kicked out as a Baptist for two reasons.
The first reason was for “holding error,” and the second was for “holding the truth with an uncharitable temper.” Warren said, “That would kick out most people today.”
Just “go online,” Warren said, referencing how some SBC pastors display “an uncharitable temper” on social media.
Near the conclusion of his hour-long press conference, Warren clarified that he and current Saddleback Church senior pastor, Andy Wood—whom Warren chose to be his successor—are not in agreement when it comes to women being called elders.
“I have moved further past Andy on that…because as I’ve studied Scripture, I believe that women don’t ‘need’ the endorsement of male elders,” Warren said. He was referring to the belief that for a woman to preach on a Sunday morning, she must do so under the leadership of a male elder. Warren now believes that Scripture teaches that a woman can be an elder in the church just like a man can.
Warren clarified that although he and Wood disagree on women eldership, “there’s light between us, but there’s no conflict between us.”
