The EC recommended “a $3 million priority allocation for future legal expenses and cost” as part of its 2025-2026 budget, and messengers approved that recommendation.
Addressing messengers about the Sanchez Amendment Wednesday, Iorg mentioned that one of the lawsuits the SBC is currently facing, which involves “defamation and other kinds of personal injury,” “singles out” the Credentials Committee.
“We went to the courts and said that we don’t believe the courts have jurisdiction over the Credentials Committee because it’s a religious committee functioning in a religious function of the Southern Baptist Convention,” said Iorg. However, the trial court and appeals court both disagreed, and the latter even strengthened the argument of the former. The EC has appealed the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court and is waiting on a ruling.
By adding the amendment to the constitution, said Iorg, “You’re removing this conversation from theologians and pastors and handing it to attorneys and insurance companies. Now I cannot tell you today how much risk you are taking, but I am telling you that you are taking some.”
Several messengers then took the mic to speak both for and against the amendment. Alexander Odum, a pastor from Northside Baptist Church in Ft. Myers, Florida, spoke in favor of the Sanchez Amendment, citing a “South Carolina church” that has a “female preaching pastor.”
In 2024, an inquiry was launched regarding whether NewSpring Church, a megachurch in South Carolina, was “in friendly cooperation” with the SBC. NewSpring has a woman on staff as a teaching pastor and allows women to preach to mixed gender groups, although women may not serve as elders.
In February, the Credentials Committee closed its inquiry into NewSpring without recommending the church be disfellowshipped from the denomination. SBC President Clint Pressley was among those who questioned that decision. “My understanding is that our Credentials Committee deemed a church in friendly cooperation that has a female teaching pastor,” he said. “The committee needs to take another look at this one. Our statement of faith is clear about qualifications for a pastor.”
In March 2025, NewSpring voluntarily opted to leave the SBC, saying its decision was “about preserving unity in the body of Christ.”
In their open letter announcing their “renewed effort to amend the SBC Constitution,” Sanchez and his fellow ministry leaders wrote, “A recent decision by the SBC Credentials Committee makes it clear that the committee needs stronger and clearer guidance in making decisions about which churches closely identify with the SBC and our confession of faith,” adding, “particularly regarding churches with women serving with the title and office of ‘pastor.’”
In his comments in favor of the amendment, Odum also mentioned the circumstances surrounding the disfellowshipping of Saddleback Church over Saddleback’s ordination of female pastors.
At the annual meeting in 2022, the Credentials Committee decided not to call for Saddleback to be disfellowshipped at that time “until clarity is provided regarding the use of the title ‘pastor’ for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of the lead pastor.” Saddleback Church was later disfellowshipped at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Odum pointed to these two examples as evidence that the Credentials Committee needs “the clarity this amendment provides.”
Pastor James Goforth of First Baptist Church in Ferguson, Missouri, took the mic to speak against the amendment. “Let us leave the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 to speak and not seek to head hunt a bridge too far,” said Goforth. “Let us…seek to redeem the lost, set prisoners free, declare the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Travis Cardwell, lead pastor of University Park Baptist Church in Houston, stood next and reiterated Odum’s arguments in favor of the amendment, also alluding to NewSpring. “If we don’t give [the Credential Committee] that clarity, then we’re going to have to come back here year after year and debate this indefinitely,” he said.
“I for one do not wish to come to the convention every year to debate female pastors,” said Cardwell.
Messengers then voted by ballot on the amendment, and the results were reported later Wednesday afternoon. There were 3,421 votes in favor of the amendment, which was 60.74% of the vote, and 2,191 against, which was 38.90% of the vote. The amendment thereby failed to move forward.
