ORLANDO, Fla. — Southern Baptists are convening their annual meeting today, where delegates from the deeply conservative evangelical denomination are poised to cast votes on a pivotal constitutional amendment aimed at officially prohibiting churches with women pastors.
In addition to addressing the amendment, representatives of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination are set to elect a new leader and deliberate on an array of resolutions concerning issues such as immigration and antisemitism.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that delegates, known as messengers, will vote on an amendment concerning the role of women pastors. While the Southern Baptist Convention’s guiding document, the Baptist Faith and Message, opposes women pastors, individual churches maintain autonomy, and the denomination lacks direct authority to enforce such policies.
However, the denomination does hold the power to exclude churches from its community. It has previously removed churches with women serving in senior pastoral positions. The debate becomes more nuanced when it comes to churches where women hold associate pastoral roles. The proposed amendment seeks to specifically prohibit churches where women serve as pastors or perform pastoral functions, including delivering sermons to the congregation.
For the amendment to be enacted, it needs to secure a two-thirds majority vote over two consecutive years—a threshold it has not yet met, failing to achieve the required votes despite gaining majority support in the past three years.
The latest version of the amendment is being proposed by Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He has said a constitutional amendment would provide clarity and prevent the long and time-consuming debates that the issue has drawn in recent years.
Mohler was also a lead author of the revision to the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000, which incorporated the opposition to women pastors. That statement was adopted in the the Orange County Convention Center, the same Orlando convention hall where this week’s meeting is taking place.
Southern Baptist leaders cite biblical passages they say clearly limit the role of pastor to men.
While that view has predominated within the SBC, advocates for women in pastoral roles have cited biblical passages where women are empowered to share the gospel. “God calls women to pastor, preach and minister” proclaims a billboard near the convention center. The billboard is sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry, an advocacy group working in a variety of Baptist denominations.
The messengers are also expected to vote Wednesday on resolutions that condemn antisemitism and call for humane treatment of migrants while affirming the legitimacy of immigration enforcement.
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