In recent days, the feminist organization Baptist Women in Ministry issued a tweet declaring that over 1000 people had signed their open letter to the Southern Baptist Convention petitioning that they amend their constitution to allow female pastors in the convention. While the letter is unlikely to stir action at the SBC when they gather in June, their letter contains the same weak verses and examples that are far removed from their context and the women whose actions were extrapolated to equate to preaching under the authority of the church.
Rather than mansplain clear Scriptural teachings (again), there were some interesting findings regarding Baptist Women in Ministry, particularly amongst their leadership staff. On the leadership team is Michael Mills, Pastor of Agape Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Of the nine members of the leadership staff, he is one of two male feminists on board.
Michael Mills is one of two pastors at Agape Baptist Church, which does not have women pastors, but has permitted women to preach as guests. Agape is not Southern Baptist, but is member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which is a smaller and apostate Baptist organization that peddles Critical Race Theory under through race baiter Emmanuel McCall. This church was affiliated with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which is an overtly progressive version of the ERLC that advocates religious pluralism. The BLC filed a brief in support of homosexual adoption in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia and is against Jack Phillips in Colorado.
Going into Resurrection Sunday, Agape Baptist Church announced that the day Christ walked out of the empty tomb would be the final service for Agape.
Earlier this year, Agape Baptist Church made a significant decision. Recognizing the place that we find ourselves in our journey, our congregation decided that it is time for Agape Baptist Church to come to its ending. It was a difficult decision for many reasons, but we know that it is time.
It would be impossible to make mention of all the ways that God has been good to us. Throughout the church’s journey, God has provided such rich fellowship, such transformative worship and discipleship, and such meaningful opportunities to join in God’s mission of redemption and restoration. For all this and more, we have every reason to say, “Thanks be to God!”
We are confident that the ending of Agape Baptist Church begins the next chapter of God’s ongoing work. Through this process, the people of Agape Baptist Church have been intentional and forward-looking, seeking to create a legacy that will carry on far beyond us. In this, we are confident that God will do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
Easter Sunday, April 9, will be the final Sunday gathering of Agape Baptist Church. We chose this date because we believe that death is not the end of the story. Just as Jesus overcame death in his resurrection, we believe in the power of resurrection in us. We follow the one that knows the way out of the grave, the one that is “the resurrection and the life.” In Jesus, death has been swallowed up in victory. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You are invited to join us on Easter Sunday at 11:00am, as we celebrate resurrection together. We also invite you to come together on Sunday, April 23 at 4:00pm in Faith Hall for a Legacy Fellowship. This informal gathering is for all past and present members and friends of the church.
In the same way that we close our gatherings, we offer this benediction to you:
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how high and wide and long and deep is the love of God, that you may know this love that surpasses understanding, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
Now to God, who is able to accomplish immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Anytime a church has to shutter its doors, it is most likely due to financial constraints. Doubtless through Covid and the canonization of St. George Floyd, this church churned members and was a fraction of its 2019 congregation. The closure of Agape Baptist Church is the results of Get Woke, Go Broke.
Michael Mills is a progressive activist operating under the guise of Christianity. Agape lacks a faith statement on their website though claims to be operating under historic Baptist belief in the four freedoms: religious, church, soul, and bible. He also is on the board of Fellowship Southwest, an apostate organization affiliated with the CBF as a political arm. Fellowship Southwest advocates liberalism, social justice, and mass migration. Their activism page states that, “Among the many pressing issues worthy of our attention and voice, as guided by our board of directors, Fellowship Southwest will be most active on immigration, public education, predatory lending and the death penalty.” Fellowship Southwest supports and aligns with these organizations in Texas.
These organizations are mostly, if not entirely liberal. Abolishing death penalty is unbiblical as God prescribes it in Genesis and again in Romans 13. Aside from advocating for higher taxes to pay for welfare programs in a state without income tax and promoting the agenda of degenerate teacher unions, they also feature Every Texan and Texas Impact, which is pro-homo.
Apostacy on one issue leads to apostacy on others. Closer examination of Baptist Women in Ministry’s board and the people who signed their open letter would doubtless produce similar apostates to Michael Mills without the timely shuttering of their respective false churches. For example, Molly Shoulta Tucker of Ridgewood Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, who is on BWIM’s leadership team is unsurprisingly the leader of a Side A church.
Consider it a blessing that Agape Baptist Church will be closed forever
