Do Southern Baptists believe women can be pastors? Recent inaction by the SBC’s Credentials Committee has left this an open question. But this month in Dallas, Southern Baptists will have another opportunity to answer definitively.
Pastor Juan Sanchez announced he will be bringing forward the so-called Law Amendment again, colloquially named after Virginia pastor Mike Law. This amendment would add language to the SBC’s constitution that clarifies for everyone that Southern Baptist churches only appoint men to the office of pastor/elder/overseer. This would bring convention churches in line with the Bible and the Baptist Faith and Message. The Law Amendment received the super majority it needed two years ago in New Orleans, but it fell just short of the 67 percent threshold last year in Indianapolis.
While the amendment is supported by a clear majority, this effort faces an uphill procedural battle that SBC messengers will need to pay careful attention to navigate.
Why the SBC Needs the Law Amendment
When it comes to the question of women pastors, it is obvious that the vast majority of Southern Baptists oppose the spirit of the age and stand with the clear teaching of the Bible and the Baptist Faith and Message. But a vocal minority in the SBC has led a concerted campaign against efforts to clarify the SBC’s position on women pastors and the Law Amendment, and there are still many churches in the SBC with women pastors that send messengers every year to influence the convention in their direction.
The Law Amendment — which The Baptist Courier supported editorially and remains in favor of — is a biblical, simple, straightforward solution to our current cooperative challenges, as it would encourage cooperating churches to affirm the Baptist Faith and Message in their faith and practice.
Specifically, the language of the amendment would make it clear that a Southern Baptist church in friendly cooperation is one that:
“Affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”
If the amendment language above passes, any cooperating church out of compliance with the Baptist Faith and Message on the question of women pastors would have the opportunity to make necessary structural or nomenclature changes. This action would strengthen our cooperation as a convention, as it would clarify our mission in planting churches and reaching the lost with the gospel according to the Bible and the Baptist Faith and Message.
Opponents of the Law Amendment have variously argued that the amendment isn’t needed or isn’t wanted in the SBC: (1) it isn’t needed because the current system works as it is, or (2) it isn’t wanted because some want to continue cooperating with churches that affirm women pastors.
It Is Necessary
But in February, the SBC’s credentials committee took the wind out of the sails of opponents’ first argument against the necessity of the Law Amendment when they failed to deem not in friendly cooperation several churches referred to them for violating the Baptist Faith and Message on women pastors. Instead of ruling against these churches that employ women pastors — an action that the Southern Baptist Convention has voted for overwhelmingly in consecutive annual meetings — the Credentials Committee affirmed these churches’ messengers, acting against the clear teaching of the Bible, the Baptist Faith and Message, and the will of the messengers.
The significant majority of Southern Baptists voting in support of the Law Amendment, as well as consecutive convention actions to declare churches with women pastors not in friendly cooperation — and this despite the vocal minority’s concerted campaign — disproves the argument that this change is not wanted in the SBC. Instead of challenging the credentials of churches with women pastors at every annual meeting, the Law Amendment would allow messengers to instruct the Credentials Committee and the convention on what cooperative compliance with the Bible and the Baptist Faith and Message should look like.
How the SBC Needs to Adopt the Law Amendment
The Law Amendment faces an uphill procedural battle now. A recent standing rule change complicates the effort to get the Law Amendment to a vote at this year’s meeting in Dallas. This rule change is a good development overall, but messengers will need to vote to suspend Standing Rule 6 to get a shot at passing the amendment. Below is some background on why and how.
In New Orleans in 2023, the SBC voted by simple majority to amend the Baptist Faith and Message from the floor of the convention. Afterwards, many (including myself) were alarmed at how easy it is to change our denomination’s statement of faith, a document that determines much of our cooperative work together across the convention. The aftermath of this vote led to an important standing rule change. The new rule, called Standing Rule 6, automatically refers any motion to amend the Baptist Faith and Message or the SBC Constitution to the Executive Committee.
What this means practically is that without suspending Standing Rule 6, Juan Sanchez’s motion for the Law Amendment to amend the constitution will automatically be referred to the Executive Committee. The EC’s president is on record opposing the amendment.
In order for the SBC to be able to vote for the Law Amendment this year in Dallas, Standing Rule 6 will need to be suspended, which will require an objection when Sanchez’s motion is reported as referred to the Executive Committee, and a simple majority to suspend Standing Rule 6. Once this rule is suspended, a vote on the Law Amendment will be scheduled during a subsequent time for business. It will take a two-thirds majority (67 percent) for two consecutive years to adopt the Law Amendment. If it passes this year in Dallas, next year in Orlando messengers would again need to achieve a 67 percent majority for it to take effect.
What this all means is that it is very important for messengers to be in the room during these votes, which will take place during the business portions of the meeting. Because of time constraints, the schedule is fluid and often subject to revision. The messengers in the room at the time of the vote will determine the future of the SBC on this question. Those who support the Law Amendment should make every effort to be in the room where it happens.
For easy reference, here is how Sanchez summarized the process in his open letter:
- 2025 in Dallas: Vote to suspend Standing Rule 6 (a simple majority)
- 2025 in Dallas: Vote to adopt the Amendment (67 percent supermajority)
- 2026 in Orlando: Vote for final passage of the Amendment (67 percent supermajority)
Why You Need to Be in the Room
While we do not know exactly when these votes will take place, we are fairly confident they will happen. If there is a simple majority to suspend Standing Rule 6, it will take a 67 percent majority for two consecutive years to get the Law Amendment across the finish line. If past years are any indication, this vote — and the future of the SBC — will be decided by a margin of a few hundred votes.
This month, tens of thousands of Southern Baptists will converge on Dallas to conduct the work of cooperation for the largest Protestant denomination in the world, in the largest democratic assembly in the world. As we have been reminded over and over, the world will be watching to see if Southern Baptists still believe and practice what the Bible says — and if we believe and practice what we ourselves say.
— Colin J. Smothers is pastor of First Baptist Church of Maize, Kan., and serves as executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He and his wife have six children.