SBC Credentials Committee Under Fire For Deeming Two Churches With Lady Pastors ‘In Cooperation’

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Credentials Committee, led by the terrible Jeff Iorg, has deemed two SBC churches with women pastors on staff in friendly cooperation because they “closely identify” with the Baptist Faith and Message. These churches include Newspring Church in NC, and Abbas House in TN, which has at least FIVE pastrixes on staff.

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We further learn:

The move to make this call has been rightly criticized by many SBC pastors, including SBC President Clint Pressley, who shared on X:

Former SBC President Bart Barber, who did not support the Law Amendment because he thought the Credentials Committee was doing a good enough job weeding out egalitarian churches, offered his observations on the news that everyone with a modicum of sense and discernment could anticipate.

This past summer at the SBC annual meeting, in a blistering blow to biblical fidelity, SBC messengers flip-flopped on an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that would have barred churches with lady pastors from being considered in friendly cooperation with the convention, ensuring hundreds of churches with unbiblical and sinful leadership structures will live to fight another day.

The Law Amendment was a proposed change to the Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention that would have mandated that churches in friendly cooperation affirm, appoint, or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” First proposed in 2023 and initially supported by 80%, it was expected to gain similar levels of support at the 2024 annual meeting but fell short, needing 66% of the ratification vote but only receiving 61%.

At the time, we noted that many messengers likely felt there was no need to pass an amendment when the Executive Committee was doing a good enough job, despite Jeff Iorg’s openly advocating against the Law Amendment and despite the Committee’s disastrous track record of removing churches in the most needlessly slow and tedious process ever, sometimes taking years to cull.

This is not all bad news however. Providentially, these two incidents are proof-positive that even if the Credentials Committee walks back its ruling, the damage to their reputation and competence has been done. The Law Amendment WILL be reintroduced at this coming meeting, and this time, its proponents will have all the proof they need to convince messengers it must be passed.

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