According to this article, the huge, famed Saddleback Church of SoCal (in all its glory and multiplicity of campuses) isn’t a Baptist Church anymore. The value of being a Baptist Church could be debated, but I’ll focus here on the reason for the group’s expulsion.
To set the stage: I’ve long been rather bored with conversations around women’s roles in churches, but that’s not because they’re not important. I just think many churches have overemphasized them. My disenchantment with what still seems to be the relentless pursuit of the expansion of “women’s roles” probably began when I reneged on being an advance reader of this book back in the mid-1990s; I suppose I further lost interest after challenging boundaries myself during that time period.¹ To an extent, the concerns seem enmeshed in churches’ concepts of authority and the identification of officials.
The following clip from the article spotlights the reason for Saddleback’s new ignominy among Baptists:
The [Southern Baptist Convention] committee cited Saddleback’s having “a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor” . . .
My immediate, primary concern with the above is perhaps more practical than philosophical: I don’t like the “office” label and any official functions that tend to entail microphones and titles and office furniture. We’ll delve into the “office” aspect more below.
Let’s start, though, with the word “pastor.” Ignoring for now the matter of a national committee making a decision for a single, locally based congregation, we might note how the indiscriminate and/or under-informed overuse of the word “pastor” can play a role in creating (or at least exacerbating) the issue. We might simply ask, “What is a ‘teaching pastor’”? And “What is the ‘office of pastor’”? Several answers might be given, but these questions should at least be asked—by the Southern Baptist Convention, sure, and also by you and me. Our thinking about gender-appropriate roles is important, but so is the package of officialness, officialdom, and “offices.”
Practically, we could easily assume that a “teaching pastor” is someone (a) who has been appointed, hired, elected, ordained, or some combination of those; (b) who likely draws a church paycheck; and (c) who teaches publicly, either in interactive class sessions or in the form of sermons. I suppose a teaching pastor role could also be conceived in terms of individualized, discipling instruction, but that would be exceedingly (and unfortunately) rare, in comparison to public teaching in sermons or Bible classes. It would appear that the Southern Baptists didn’t take exception to the public teaching as much as to the “office.” so let’s hone in on that.
The term “office” implies organization, if not hierarchy. Famously, the word is used in some Bible descriptions of Judas’s fate and replacement. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t conceive of the twelve apostles as being officers; rather, they seem more like rabbi-followers and, eventually, mission-carry-outers. Regardless of my possible misconceptions, here is a sampling of translations of the last clause of Acts 1:20, in reference to Judas:
Let another take his office. (ESV)
His bishoprick let another take. (KJV)
MAY ANOTHER TAKE HIS OFFICE. (NASB, with caps indicating a quotation from an OT text)
Let someone else take his position. (CSB)
Let someone else have his job. (CEV)
Let another take his position of responsibility. (NET)
Most of those translations imply a sense of official organization. Add to that the contemporary notion of corporate officers and offices in office buildings, and you have a recipe for a business mentality. I suggest more emphasis on activity, role, and influence, instead of the assumption of authority based on an “office” or “position.” Positional authority is acceptable, for example, when asserted by police, and at times in the workplace, but with God’s people, leadership by mature influence should be the norm. Jesus did say not to “lord it” like the gentiles do. Yes, this is just one text, but its principle seems to harmonize with Jesus’ m.o., as derived from the four canonical gospels.
There are three words, nay, four, associated with the English “pastor” or “elder.” That’s not to say that there aren’t other passages or phrases that get at some of this, but if you have even a slight grasp of poimenos, episkopos, presbuteros, and hegoumenos, you know more than most. The first word implies shepherding; the second is most often translated “bishop”; the third, “elder”; and the last word seems more generic and is used just once, in Hebrews. Of course each word should be understood/defined in its context, but I’d say “bishop” comes the closest to implying a position or office. Here are the three NT uses of that word:
1 Tim 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
Titus 1:7 For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,
1 Pet 2:25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
The rendering “guardian” is interesting, and I hadn’t recalled that episkopos was the antecedent word in 1 Peter. The more common rendering, “overseer,” could almost connote a plantation master, with not only positional authority but also the power to punish physically. Looking a little deeper into the word, we might find the following definitions:
- one who watches over, overseer, guardian (Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon)
- one who serves as a church leader (Louw-Nida)
- a man charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others are done rightly, any curator, guardian, or superintendent (Thayer)
- supervisor, keeper (Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains)
The most authoritative lexicon, BDAG, mentions pre-Christian usage of the word and highlights the notion of watching over things that are done, “seeing to” them. I’ve been selective with these definitions, not repeating the ones given by the other resources. Each of them might shed some light on the history of thought about those in episkopos/bishop roles.
What are we to make of the gamut of NT words in this semantic range? Episkopos (bishop) and poimenos (shepherd) seem to speak to one’s activity, but only the former hints at an office/officer. Presbyteros (elder) might function somewhat as a synonym for “bishop,” but not always. What if we thought of a teaching pastor’s role more than that person’s office? And what if the roles hadn’t become so officialized, with titles and hoopla? Then, maybe the issue of whether a woman is functioning as a public teacher wouldn’t seem the same for the Baptists and others of us.
If we could reveal actual, first-century scenarios, we might find that a number of early churches had shepherds and elders more than bishops. (There is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for church “organization.”) I’ve just waved a pinky finger at the thread that dangles from the hem of the garment. So much more could be researched and written—and has been.
My aversion to the term “pastor,” as well as my lack of direct, personal knowledge of what it’s like to be one in any real sense, might disqualify me from commenting, yet I’ve commented. The whole “pastor package” would also presumably include things I haven’t ever thought of. Although I once had misguided designs to be a preaching minister, and then a shepherd-bishop, I never would have called myself a “pastor” in either case, because of the package deal.
Back to the gender roles side of the question. I’m at least as sensitive to the plight of the woman with squelched public teaching gifts as I am to the man with unused musical gifts. Both the woman and the man could feel frustrated to the point of losing faith in the system(s). Historical factors arguably makes the woman preacher’s situation worse than mine, but I actually don’t much care whether a woman preaches. (I don’t like preaching very much, anyway.) I do care that Christian people tie themselves in knots over things that aren’t weighty or deserving of space in our scriptures. It is at this point that the old “argument from silence” might rise up: if the Bible doesn’t say anything about a woman preacher (and I’m not saying it doesn’t, one way or the other), then such a thing is not allowed. Or so people say. Rather, I say that we shouldn’t allow a restrictive argument from silence to become a pet doctrine. Let’s use some wisdom and exercise some discretion, whether or not a Baptist or other church woman teaches publicly or is called a “minister” or “pastor.”
Let it also be noted that Rick Warren, the famed founder at Saddleback, is said to have pleaded emotionally with the SBC last year. His clout didn’t ultimately carry the day, and that’s about the only good thing I can see here: the power of a hierarchy-based leader was, in this case, impotent. I say that with tongue in cheek, because the SBC’s power constitutes a worse issue. The Saddleback church elders, for their part, commented, “We will engage and respond through the proper channels at the appropriate time in hopes to serve other like-minded Bible believing SBC churches.” If I didn’t know better, I’d read that statement as indicating the possible launching of a new affiliative group (read denomination). Wait. I do know better. Will power structured never stop their posturing?
Now let everyone who has breath do two things: (1) praise the Lord (2) refuse to let an “office” or title or any establishment of religion stand in the Lord’s place, governing faith or a faith-community. There is only one King.
¹ There were no women in public leadership roles in my church, or in others with which I was closely associated. Girls praying aloud in “circles” in homes and on youth retreats was OK, and I was part of that development. In certain small groups, I encouraged and participated with, women praying, and I think most men have missed out on a lot if they haven’t heard women vocalize their prayerful thoughts. One woman who led prayer in my “worship experience group” was so domineering and gruff in her manner that there was little chance that those who were “on the fence” could have accepted the move.
Having females singing or playing in praise teams was also something with which I experimented, without much success. I find fault with the “stealth mode” praise team, which existed, in part, because of concerns over women’s roles.