SBC soon could vote on female pastors for third time

Messengers representing Southern Baptist churches across the world traveled to Dallas for the annual Southern Baptist Convention starting Sunday. The denomination’s annual meeting will kick off on Tuesday and end on Wednesday after dozens of correlated meetings and events set to begin on Sunday. Nearly 47,000 SBC churches operate throughout the United States, with nearly 13 million members of the SBC church network, according to data the church released last year. Attendees are once again expected to discuss and vote on an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that clarifies female leadership within the church.

The Baptist Faith and Message, the denomination's statement of faith last amended in 2000, already states that only men may serve as elders or pastors.

The amendment would not bar women from holding leadership positions in churches, but it would exclude churches with female pastors from joining the SBC. Congregations remain split over the issue because some SBC churches also use the term pastor to refer to women who minister to women and children, but not the entire congregation. Other churches entirely reject the idea of women as pastors in any capacity.

The amendment to exclude churches that appoint women as pastors failed to pass at the 2024 convention, despite about 60% of the convention’s messengers voting in favor. 

The amendment passed overwhelmingly with an open ballot in 2023, but it needed a supermajority in 2024 to take effect. The denomination also in 2023 expelled several churches that had women serving as pastors, including the denomination’s largest congregation, Saddleback Church of Lake Forest, Calif.

Messengers to the convention this year could suspend a procedural rule and allow the amendment to go straight to a floor vote, according to the Baptist Record.

What else will be discussed? The SBC released a list of at least eight statutes messengers will vote on.

• A resolution denouncing the legalization of sports betting and calling for all government leaders to curtail the predatory practice. The proposed statute cited spiritual, moral, ethical, and societal concerns from the expansion and normalization of sports betting.

• A resolution calling on government officials to legally ban pornography nationally, citing its debasing effects on consumers and objectification of those it depicts.

• A resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the case legalizing same-sex marriage. The rule undermines the truth of God’s design and breeds social confusion, according to the statute.

• A resolution denouncing the use of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol, to affirm the dignity and sanctity of unborn babies. The resolution specifically called for the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of mifepristone and reevaluate chemical abortion drugs. The statute would also call on Congress to ban the manufacture, sale, distribution, and mailing of chemical abortion drugs.

• A resolution advocating for international religious freedom, citing international SBC members living in fear of practicing their Christian faith.

The 2025 convention came months after the Department of Justice formally closed its federal investigation into the denomination and its leaders after reports surfaced of mismanagement and sex abuse within the church. SBC leaders shared last fall that the church’s Nashville headquarters had been placed on the market to cover the over $12 million in expenses from the sex abuse claims. 

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Russell’s report from last month showing that the SBC lost more than 200,000 members in 2024.