Southern Baptists reject appeal for women pastors at Saddleback, Fern Creek churches
The Southern Baptist Convention soundly voted to uphold bans on churches that employ women pastors in voting results announced today.
Saddleback Church’s appeal was rejected with 9,432 votes to uphold the Executive Committee’s ruling earlier this year to disfellowship the congregation, and only 1,212 votes in favor of overturning. That was 88 percent in favor of agreeing that Saddleback is “not in friendly cooperation” with Southern Baptists.
Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville also lost its appeal by a vote of 9,700 to 806, or 91.85 percent agreeing that the church was not in “friendly cooperation” with the denomination.
That means neither church will be allowed to send voting messengers to future meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination.
Saddleback founder Rick Warren, a legendary figure among Southern Baptists for starting what is now the largest church in California and for his bestselling book, “The Purpose-Driven Life,” argued for overturning the decision to oust Saddleback.
See also: Rick Warren’s impassioned speech to Southern Baptists: Women pastors ‘have not sinned’