Stone also wonders whether SBC pastors — and not just churches — are being put on notice that any disagreement with the SBC statement of faith on the issue of women in ministry will not be tolerated. That’s not how the SBC handles other issues, such as baptism or who can take Communion. The SBC statement of faith says that only those who have been baptized by immersion can take part in Communion.
“But they’re not kicking churches out because someone who was sprinkled for their baptism took Communion,” she said.
NewSpring Church, a megachurch in South Carolina where Meredith Knox serves as a teaching pastor and preaches regularly, remains in friendly cooperation with the SBC. That decision has led to public criticism of the credentials committee.
Suzanne Swift, the risk and legal services director for NewSpring, said in an email that only men can be lead pastor or elders at the church but women are allowed to be leaders and to preach.
“We recognize a biblical distinction between the office of elder/overseer — reserved for qualified men — and the shepherding and leadership responsibilities that both men and women may carry,” Swift said. “The term ‘pastor’ at NewSpring refers to shepherding care rather than the formal office of elder. While women are not ordained as elders, they play an essential role in pastoral care, leadership, and teaching, all under the biblical framework of male eldership.”
A media representative for the SBC’s Executive Committee referred RNS to the credentials committee for comment, which did not immediately respond to that request.
At the SBC annual meeting in 2024, messengers failed to confirm a proposed change, known as the Law Amendment, that would have only allowed churches that have “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture” to be part of the SBC.
The amendment to the SBC constitution passed by a two-thirds majority in 2023 but fell short of that mark in 2024 during a required second vote — meaning it failed.
The credentials committee decision on NewSpring baffled Jared Cornutt, pastor of North Shelby Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. In an interview, Cornutt said a past credentials committee had recommended the Executive Committee expel Saddleback Church for having a woman teaching pastor. So why not NewSpring?
“This is exactly like Saddleback,” he said. “The inconsistency is pretty glaring to me.”
Cornutt, who backed a successful 2023 change to the SBC’s statement of faith meant to clarify the definition of pastor, said some churches are using the word in a way that’s not “biblically permissible.”
“There is no difference between a senior pastor, associate pastor or children’s pastor,” he said. “If you have the title pastor, then you have the office of pastor.”
The easiest solution, said Cornutt, is for churches to change the titles they use. Rather than calling someone a children’s pastor, call them a children’s ministry director, he said. The title of pastor should be limited to men who preach or have authority in the church.
He said one reason the Law Amendment failed is that a system was already in place to deal with churches that have women pastors. Now that system has failed. He predicts the Law Amendment — named for Virginia pastor Mike Law, who proposed it — or something like it will be reintroduced this year.
“I can’t see how it won’t pass,” he said.
The belief that only men can be pastors was added to the SBC’s statement of faith in 2000. But no churches were removed on a national level for violating that until 2023, when the Executive Committee voted out Saddleback. That’s for a number of reasons, said Griffin Gulledge, pastor of Fayetteville First Baptist Church, about 45 minutes south of Atlanta.
