The Southern Baptist Convention—a Protestant Christian denomination with over 47,000 churches nationwide—rejected Saddleback Church’s appeal this week to remain a part of it after the Orange County megachurch in Lake Forest, California, was ousted for having women in pastoral leadership roles.
In February, the convention’s leaders voted to revoke Saddleback’s membership “on the basis that the church has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”
In recent years, the church has appointed four women pastors—including Stacie Wood, wife of Pastor Andie Wood, who replaced Saddleback’s founding Pastor Rick Warren last summer….