What’s at Stake as Southern Baptists Move to Bar Women Pastors

The Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination that is often a bellwether for evangelical America, has expelled five churches from the convention this year over their appointment of women as pastors.

The move to enforce a strict ban against women in church leadership comes as some evangelicals fear a liberal drift in their congregations and a departure from Scripture.

Two of the expelled churches, Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and Saddleback Church in Southern California, appealed to the denomination’s annual convention in New Orleans, but their appeals were overwhelmingly rejected in voting whose results were announced Wednesday.

At the same time, ultraconservatives were moving to amend the S.B.C. constitution to further restrict the role of women in leadership, by stating that a church could be Southern Baptist only if it “does not affirm, appoint or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

The delegates are expected to vote on the proposal on Wednesday. Here is a guide to understanding what is at stake.

The S.B.C. is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, though its numbers have been declining.

With more than 47,000 churches and more than 13 million members, the S.B.C. remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. But its membership has been in decline. A 2022 report found that membership had dropped by about 3 percent annually over the last three years.

Southern Baptists have historically given priority to allowing individual churches to choose leaders as they like, and the denomination sees itself as an association, rather than as the kind of hierarchical organization seen in some other Christian traditions, like Catholicism.

While the denomination as a whole is overwhelmingly white, Black women are heavily represented as pastors among the churches that have female head pastors.

Ultraconservatives have been pushing against what they perceive as a leftward drift.

Much as have other parts of society, the denomination has had internal struggles over gender, sexuality, abuse, politics and race, including criticism from an energetic right flank that the group was drifting to the left.

In 2021, the S.B.C. expelled Towne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Ga., and St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., for church policies that were seen as accepting of homosexuality, in violation of the denomination’s statement of faith.

Towne View’s conversations about becoming an “affirming” congregation, and its decision to accept two gay couples as members in 2019, cost the church at least 30 percent of its membership, Jim Conrad, the pastor, said in February 2021.

The fight is now over purging churches led by female pastors.

Ultraconservatives are moving to enforce the position that women should not lead churches. Before this year’s convention in New Orleans, more than 2,000 male pastors and professors signed a letter supporting an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that would enforce that position.

Most Southern Baptists have long believed that the office of head pastor should be reserved for men, based on their reading of the Bible.

Those who opposed the expulsions said their church’s interpretation of the Bible affirmed women’s eligibility to lead.

It is not clear exactly how many women are Southern Baptist pastors now; estimates range from dozens to nearly 2,000 when a range of pastoral positions other than senior pastor are included. The role of minister or pastor can have many meanings in different Christian settings; children’s ministers, for example, often are women, even in theologically conservative churches.

The conservative crackdown in the S.B.C. comes at a moment when the country is broadly re-examining women’s rights, a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. For Southern Baptists, it also comes as victims’ advocates have pressed the denomination to take action after devastating reports of sexual abuse of women and children, and have been met with resistance from some men in the denomination.

Saddleback, a prominent evangelical church, is at the center of the dispute.

In expelling Saddleback Church, the ultraconservatives targeted one of the denomination’s largest churches and one of the most prominent evangelical churches in the country. Founded in 1980 by the celebrity pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback grew quickly in the 1980s and ’90s and was known as a “seeker-sensitive” church, attuned to the questions and preferences of people who were unfamiliar with or wary of traditional church experiences.

Mr. Warren, who wrote the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” actively tried to stop the convention from expelling Saddleback. In an open letter addressed “to all Southern Baptists,” he wrote that the vote on Saddleback’s reinstatement appeal would be “a vote to affirm the God-given freedom of every Baptist to interpret Scripture as a Baptist — by saying no to those who deny that freedom.” In the end, though, the effort failed.

The proposed change to the constitution would not take effect until next year at the earliest.

Amending the S.B.C. constitution to unequivocally bar women from top pastoral jobs will require favorable votes at two consecutive annual conventions, this year’s and next year’s. The delegates are expected to hold the first vote on Wednesday.

In a sign that the move to purge churches with female leaders had taken on the contours of a political campaign, convention attendees received printed voter guides at breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Three other churches that were expelled in February for having female pastors chose not to appeal. The churches can continue to operate, but can no longer identify themselves as affiliated with the S.B.C. or participate in its programs.

Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias contributed reporting.