From the Pastor’s Desk: Biblical Complementarity, the Law Amendment, and the Southern Baptist Convention

Editor’s Note: The following article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Eikon.

The first time I knew myself to be a Southern Baptist was in the year 2000 when, while watching the news, I saw the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) had adopted an updated doctrinal statement making clear the biblical convictions that the office of pastor was reserved for qualified men and that wives were required to submit to their husbands. Before that news story, the only thing I really knew about my church was that they led me to Christ, faithfully taught the Bible, and loved and served others in Jesus’ name. It would be another few years before I learned that the newsworthy revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) were called complementarianism. But as a teenager, I was thankful to be part of a church participating in a convention that was willing to stand by what the Bible said.

That was nearly a quarter century ago. In 2024, the SBC was in the news again over the issue of complementarity, but this time, many conservative Southern Baptists are afraid it is because we are moving away from a commitment to biblical complementarity rather than toward it. That concern is because of a proposed amendment to the SBC constitution known as the Law Amendment, which failed to pass.

The amendment was proposed because, even though the BFM is clear that the office of pastor is reserved for men, many believed it was necessary to repeat that conviction in the SBC constitution to clarify that churches could not be considered in friendly cooperation with the convention without affirming that principle. The failure to get it approved has led some to question whether the SBC is moving away from its historic complementarian convictions.

There are four reasons why I do not believe the failure of the Law Amendment represents such a shift.

The Baptist Faith and Message Is Complementarian

The first reason has to do with the BFM, which is unmistakably complementarian. As I mentioned, it communicates the countercultural convictions of biblical complementarity in the home and church. It communicates these convictions even when so many other denominations are moving away from them. 

Even the leaders who strongly argued against the amendment made clear that they were in favor of the complementarian convictions of the BFM and believed they should be upheld.

In failing to pass the Law Amendment, the SBC made no decision to change its complementarian confessional document.

Removal of Egalitarian Churches

The second reason we can have confidence that the SBC has not abdicated its complementarian convictions is because of their votes to remove churches with female pastors. Over the last few years, the SBC’s messengers have removed several such churches. One of those churches was Saddleback Church, perhaps the most famous church in America. The SBC removed them from membership in 2023 because of their installation of a female preaching pastor. Another example was an historic SBC church who became vocal about their belief that women could serve as pastors. The SBC voted to remove that church by a vote of over 90% at the same meeting where the Law Amendment failed to pass.

A convention that votes to remove large and historic churches that ordain female pastors is not open to the charge of faithlessness on the issue of biblical complementarity.

A Complementarian President

2024 saw a relatively crowded field for the election of SBC president. Each candidate was on the record either in support of or in opposition to the Law Amendment. In the end, Clint Pressley won the election with over 56% of the vote. He is a conservative pastor who was an outspoken proponent of the Law Amendment.

Even though the Law Amendment failed, Southern Baptists did not choose as president any of the men who opposed it.

The Law Amendment Failed by the Narrowest of Margins

Even the failure of the Law Amendment to pass, which many conservatives have feared as a sign of creeping egalitarianism, is itself evidence of the complementarian convictions of the SBC. The evidence of complementarity is found in the appropriately high bar that is set for constitutional amendments to pass. In order to change the SBC constitution, amendments must receive two-thirds of the vote in two consecutive conventions. 

2023 was the first year the convention voted on the Law Amendment, and it was approved by at least 80% of messengers. Some estimates say it received as much as 90%. In any case, it was overwhelmingly approved. 

Then, opponents of the amendment began a loud and organized campaign to vote it down in 2024. I was profoundly concerned that many of the arguments advanced by the opposition were untrue, unhelpful, and mischaracterized the issues. Those arguments were ultimately enough to prevent the amendment from passing in 2024. 

But it is important to remember that the amendment failed to pass only because it required a two-thirds supermajority. In fact, over 61% of Southern Baptists voted to approve the amendment. The loud and misleading opposition only succeeded in shaving a few points off what would have otherwise been a victory for the amendment. 

In the end, the vote revealed that a large majority of Southern Baptists agreed with the amendment, even if there weren’t quite enough votes to change the constitution.

I was a vocal supporter of the amendment. I thought the constitutional language it proposed would have added necessary clarity to the SBC’s guiding documents. I was disappointed that it did not pass. But my disappointment does not make me think the SBC is moving in the direction of faithlessness regarding biblical complementarity. Instead, our Convention’s confessional documents, our commitment to remove egalitarian churches, the complementarian commitments of our elected representatives, and even the majority support for the amendment, which fell just shy of the required supermajority, make me encouraged about the complementarian faithfulness of the SBC.