Southern Baptist Convention Refuses To Kick Out Egalitarian Megachurch

The Southern Baptist Convention is famous for resurging against the theological compromise of mainline denominations. The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 was even a step towards improving decades of compromise by taking a firm stance on the issue of female pastors, among others. However, female pastors remain rampant, a fact that goes beyond an open secret. In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention disfellowshipped Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church over female pastors. In 2024, Southern Baptist refused to ban female pastors outright, despite their faith statement’s position. And now, the Credentials Committee, the group in charge of determining whether a church is in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention is refusing to ban churches with female pastors.

Enter NewSpring Church in South Carolina, a church with 13 franchise locations. This church was reported for Meredith Knox being a “teaching pastor”  where she would regularly preach. This was a gross violation of Baptist polity.

Pastor Rhett Burns broke the story of the Credentials Committee’s decision not to disfellowship this church.

The Credentials Committee is stacked by years of liberal administration in the SBC. But Clint Pressley, though soft-woke himself, does hold the line on male pastors. In response, he commented:

My understanding is that our Credentials Committee deemed a church in friendly cooperation that has a female teaching pastor. The committee needs to take another look at this one. Our statement of faith is clear about qualifications for a pastor.

Clint Pressley’s actions here countersignaled the Credentials Committee publicly, a rare occurrence given the so-called 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not criticize a fellow Southern Baptist.”

Bart Barber, a notorious liberal, joined Pressley stating:

I generally want to be quiet, deferring to Clint, but I thought it might be helpful to support what he says here. This decision seems not to have given sufficient consideration to the overwhelming voice of the messenger body expressed in 2023 and 2024 on similar cases.

It will be interesting to see what develops from this fateful decision, be it another crack at the Mike Law Amendment to ban female pastors or the overturning of the committee’s decision.