If your Facebook feed is anything like mine, you have been inundated with reports of a vote at the Southern Baptist Convention last week. I was there. Let me explain what happened. For years, our denomination has been governed by a guiding document we call the Baptist Faith and Message. It’s not a binding creed, but more of an agreement that gives our cooperating churches common ground to stand on. It states “the office of pastor is reserved for males.” This statement is derived from the Bible’s list of pastoral qualifications found in 1st Timothy and Titus. I realize this interpretation is much debated today and I’m not here to push it. That’s what Southern Baptists believe and I just happen to be one. What I am here to talk about is why a vote like that appeared on our horizon.
One of our members felt it necessary to clarify that statement for our churches, so he added the phrase “specifically when it comes to preaching” to an amendment he proposed. It passed with a 75% margin. That’s an overwhelming statement coming from a body with 11,600+ messengers. I voted “No” to the amendment. Here’s why. We didn’t need any clarification. That one vote stirred up so much dust, people never heard about the 63 new missionaries we sent to the field, the 3500 armed forces chaplains we affirmed, the 25,000 students engaged by our collegiate ministries this last year, or the 263,000 people that were baptized in our churches last year. Those numbers are staggering. God is using the SBC, as I’m sure He’s using your denomination. Why didn’t we hear about those numbers? Because we’ve made a mistake.
The Church (not just SBC) has fallen into the trap of elevating pastors to hero status. It’s easy to do. We stand on the stage week after week, delivering messages that we say are from the Lord. The honest truth is, many times those messages bring about meaningful life change. God has always used the preaching of His Word to change hearts, mend lives and transform minds. But that miracle doesn’t belong to the preacher; it belongs to the Holy Spirit. We should always be quick to point people to Him.
We care for people when they are hurting, afraid, broken and don’t know what to do next. Often, we meet people at their most vulnerable spot and walk with them until they are on solid ground again. But this isn’t just the role of the pastor. This role belongs to the entire church.
Social media has elevated the individual role of pastor to hero status by sharing bite-sized pieces of sermons, stories and pictures that make us look like celebrities. I believe one of the reasons this last SBC vote made such a splash, is because it was perceived as a bunch of males keeping females from the heroic roles they are due. Let me state that again, the role of pastor, gender aside, is not a spotlight role. It is primarily the role of a servant. There is nothing different in the church between the pastor and the janitor, the nursery worker, the people who sing on the stage on Sundays and the people who sing in the pews… The pastor is just another person. Certainly, we enjoy a gift that gives us a very unique role, and for that role we will be judged more strictly. Our payment for that role comes in the form of overflowing joy, not recognition or fame. The pastor who leans on Facebook for his approval, is leaning on a broken prop. Like an addict, he will require more and more ‘likes’ to get his high. These are the ones who make a show out of what they say and do. And they raise a false bar that makes people who can’t achieve it feel guilty or robbed.
The primary role of the pastor is simply to love the Church, because she is the Bride of Christ. Rather than arguing over who can aspire to the role of pastor, I encourage churches to embrace the idea of total church ministry. This perspective qualifies every single person to serve, based on spiritual gifting and the boundaries established in the Word. I would argue that single moms have just as much room to serve the Lord as degreed dads. And CEO ladies have just as much room to engage as blue collar men. The role of pastor is one job out of many the Bride is called to fill. When just one of these jobs goes undone, the world feels its absence. They are all equally important.
Paul says it best in 1st Corinthians 12, “…just as the [physical] body is one and has many members…so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” There is distinction, but there is no division in the Body of Christ. We all have a job to do and each job is equally vital to the health and goal of the whole.
I would challenge you, rather than arguing about your favorite or least favorite pastor, advance the things that will matter in Heaven. In the end, we are all just a bunch of broken voices praising Jesus together.
