A few years ago, I attended a meeting of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EV Free or EFCA). At one of the seminars for training elders, the speaker told those in attendance, “Clarity is king…” He then proceeded to muddy the waters, explaining that there were Greek words whose meaning and function we could no longer be sure of. I had attended similar meetings before where we were encouraged, explicitly or implicitly to less clarity.
Invariably, with the Free Church (we are dually affiliated with both the EFCA and the Southern Baptist Convention), there seems to be increasing ambiguity about the ordination of women, women pastors, and women elders. While the official position of the EFCA is that women cannot be elders (seemingly something different than pastors), there is an increasing pull in the direction of the ordination of women. For now, leadership keeps kicking the proverbial can down the road. Meanwhile, women preach from pulpits as “shepherds.”
A number of EFCA churches use the term “shepherd” to allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. Churches play games, saying the Bible isn’t clear. Imagine that. God is unable to communicate with sufficient clarity to the beings he created in his own image. For the purposes of this essay, I find no need to explain 1 Timothy 3, Titus 2, or 1 Timothy 2:12-13.
I find the handling of this issue both disappointing and insincere.
In contrast, the Southern Baptist Convention voted this week overwhelmingly to limit the office of elder to biblically qualified men and used very specific language that covered the office of elder, the title of elder, and the matter of functioning as an elder. There’s no fudging with the term “shepherd” to get around this because women cannot “function” in the manner of an elder—preaching to and teaching men. The constitution will be amended to include this. Clarity is king. Real clarity. Honest clarity.
Forty-four (44) churches were removed from the SBC for violating existing restrictions on female pastors and elders. Twenty were expelled, and twenty-four were given the option of voluntarily removing themselves. Clarity is king when it comes to the SBC’s faith and practices. You may or may not remember when the SBC removed Rick Warren’s megachurch, Saddleback Church, after it ordained female elders and pastors.
I’m reminded that the SBC is one of the few denominations that bounced back from theological liberalism in the 1970s and 1980s to biblical fidelity. As far as I can tell, they just “keep getting better.” The same cannot be said of other denominations that seem inclined to drift “leftward” toward biblical ambiguity and liberalism.
One would think these groups could look around and see what happens to churches that ignore what the Bible has to say and choose to violate its precepts. Look at the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church USA, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA). They all ordained women. And they have withered.
It’s not about women; it’s about biblical fidelity. When you violate the clear tenets of the Bible, you initiate a drift. Women have a powerful role to play in the Church. They can serve, they can teach, they can lead. They cannot be pastors, elders, etc.. in either form or function. The Bible is clear. The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination that has increasingly embraced clarity. Clarity is king.
The SBC is far from perfect (as are all denominations). I am thankful for the SBC’s increasing biblical fidelity in an age when other denominations are not committed to the same.