Denny Burk, who is a professor at the SBC-affiliated Boyce College, posted on Thursday that he had no idea Elevation Church was even a part of the SBC.
“I was today years old when I learned that Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church was a part of the SBC. They are SBC no more,” Burk tweeted. “Reading between the lines here, I suspect that this is a consequence of the clarity from messengers at the New Orleans convention.”
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Burk was referring to the response of SBC delegates, called messengers, to the prospect of women serving as pastors in SBC-affiliated churches during the denomination’s annual meeting earlier this month.
During that meeting, the SBC overwhelmingly voted to uphold the decisions to disfellowship Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist Church on the grounds that they have ordained women as pastors and allow women to preach during Sunday morning worship services.
Although Elevation Church was not one of the four churches removed from the SBC this past year for ordaining women, Furtick’s wife, Holly, has routinely preached during Sunday morning worship services. On May 14, she preached a sermon titled “Sudden Strength.”
, Elevation Church, a multisite megachurch headquartered in Matthews, South Carolina, sent a letter to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee and Credentials Committee informing them that the church is “withdrawing its affiliation” effective immediately.){kind=link}