By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS: As the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Orlando, debate continues over women serving in pastoral and preaching roles. Focusing on Al Mohler’s Truth & Unity Amendment, this article examines efforts to uphold biblical qualifications for church leadership and resist doctrinal compromise.
Dr. Al Mohler is President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and a widely known and recognized conservative evangelical. He hosts 2 podcasts, “The Briefing”, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview; and “Thinking in Public,” a series of conversations with the day’s leading thinkers.
He has proposed an amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention, called the Truth & Unity Amendment.
This amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention bylaws clarifies the denomination’s stance on women preaching to men in church. It reads as follows:
The language states that a cooperating church would not “act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”
This amendment was proposed because it has been stated that churches “in friendly cooperation with” the Convention have been unapologetically installing women as pastors, co-pastors, and heads of missionally planted churches. The language of 1 Timothy 2:11-12 in the NASB states,
A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
Thus aligning with the Bible, the Convention’s bylaws say,
“Pastoral Office: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture”.
Though, to me, the verse language is clear, and others say the same, many who want to offer the job of pastor, or the function of preacher, to women say it needs “interpretation.” It turns out that over 1800 churches who claim they adhere to the Baptist Faith & Message, the official statement of faith and doctrinal standard for the Southern Baptist Convention have been violating it by installing, ordaining, or using women to preach.
When confronted about this, churches reply in an equivocating, hedging, or double-talk manner justifying why their pastoral jobs or roles are filled with women. They use sly language such as these women are a Shepherd, not a pastor, or are sharing, testifying, or speaking. Of late, however, the boldness has advanced to the point that their own web pages simply list women as Minister, pastor, or co-pastor. Attempts to get straight answers from leaders have consistently failed.
This is a problem because 1800 churches that are part of the SBC have women in leadership roles the Bible forbids them to possess. Even where their job might not be the formal job of pastor, they are functioning as one when they approach the pulpit in a church to preach to the congregation.
Dr. Mohler’s language is an attempt to leave no room for hedging. The amendment mentions the role and also the function, and adds the word “specifically” preaching to the assembled congregation.
The infiltration of women into jobs or roles for which they are not designed has proceeded apace to such an extent that this is the 4th year the SBC meeting in June will try to deal with it. At this point, the day of the opening bell, 20,000 ‘messengers’ from churches around the nation have signed on to attend. The issue has caught the attention of the Associated Press, which reported this week,
The denomination’s statement of belief, the Baptist Faith and Message, declares that the office of pastor is limited to men. While nonbinding on churches, this has prompted the SBC to expel some churches with women in leading pastoral roles. Now the focus is those who preach or serve in subordinate pastoral roles.
Even as the convention’s membership shrinks, the annual meeting serves as a bellwether for religious and political trends among evangelicals. And as is typical, the biggest attention will be on whether the already-conservative SBC decides to move further rightward.
Indeed. It has been almost 50 years since the conclusion of the Baptist Conservative Resurgence. This was a decade-long battle to return the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to a conservative stance on key issues. It was a serious controversy Dr. Mohler said in his 2006 retrospective, “The Southern Baptist Reformation–A First-Hand Account”.
When all was said and done, 1,900 churches left the denomination back then to form their own liberal-moderate denomination, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which affirms women in ordained ministry.
Now we battle again. In fact, Jon Harris from Conversations that Matter produced a video covering the issue, titled Battle for the Bible: Female Pastors in the SBC. It’s 58 minutes and very good.
Feminism is an affliction that infects. Paul told Timothy that useless chatter and false teaching spread like gangrene-
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 16But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene...” (2 Timothy 2:15-17a).
And it does spread. Many thought it was a minor problem of women preaching here and there turned out to be a massive infiltration of females from coast to coast usurping the letter of the command and its spirit.
Of course there has been opposition to Mohler’s Truth & Unity Amendment. Where satan has infiltrated he will not easily let go. Various media outlets have covered this issue, phrasing their headlines according to the level of their bias:
- AL.com- Southern Baptists to consider tough stance against women pastors
- Baptist Standard- Al Mohler addresses questions on ‘truth and unity’ amendment
- The Alabama Baptist- Opinion: Pondering how to understand the coming ‘truth and unity’ SBC amendment
- AP- 4 years running, Southern Baptists weigh tightening ban on churches with women pastors
- Baptist News Global- Mohler will propose new amendment against women
The SBC meeting technically opened yesterday, Sunday June 7. Today in Orlando there is a series of day-long micro conferences, the pastor’s conference, and Women’s Expo. Tuesday, June 9 from 8 am to 6 pm is the main meeting which also continues on the 10th from 8am-5pm.
The 2026 meeting is widely considered one of the most critical in modern history. Gathering in Orlando, FL, messengers are addressing defining issues like the role of women in pastoral leadership and political polarization. While the 1979 “Conservative Resurgence” remains the defining event of the last 100 years, this year sets a crucial course for the denomination’s future. The Tennessean.
Despite the specious claims that 1 Timothy 2:11-12 is unclear enough so that it needs interpretation, despite the functioning of women ordained to roles in which the Bible forbids, despite the long battle against liberal infiltration, here we are again, defending the Bible’s inerrancy, sufficiency, and clarity on this topic of women preaching. Yet the verse is clear.
Jon Harris asked North American Mission Board church planter Eric Stewart: “What would attract a church planter to an organization that prohibits women pastors, if they believe in that? Because there’s so many other places that they can go if they want to fellowship people who believe what they believe. I don’t understand why they feel the need to come into a denomination that doesn’t believe that. Do you have any idea?”
Stewart replied that he’d guess that the financial support would have been an initial attraction to a denomination whose bylaws state that women could not be pastors. “The support is quite nice”, he said. But later as more women pastors came in, “They have blurred the issue and attracted more like-minded people. And so it keeps perpetuating.”
See? Gangrene…it spreads. You have to stamp out the spark before it becomes a conflagration.
Be in prayer for the people who are standing up against this dilution of biblical standards and are pressing to keep a strict line on female preachers within the denomination. It is more of an issue than one would think. It’s not because anyone hates women or want to subjugate us. It’s because the Bible says no.
Satan is a master of incrementalism. He gets his nose under the tent and then creeps in bit by bit. A discerning Christian must not only combat the giants but also the fragments. Especially the fragments.
John MacArthur teaches the true depth of the problem, from the Bible:
the-end-time.org 