Southern Baptist missionary agency rejects couple with woman pastor
A couple whose church has a woman pastor were rejected by a Southern Baptist agency for service as missionaries in Africa.
Don and Esther Gardner, members of Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, were notified by the International Mission Board on Tuesday that they would not be accepted as missionaries.
"We were half-expecting this," Esther Gardner told The Birmingham News. "I thought, `No, surely, they're not going to be this narrow-minded.'"
Southern Baptist missionaries are required to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, a summary of beliefs that includes opposition to women pastors, based on the writings of the Apostle Paul.
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The fact that they are in support of woman pastors is a sure sign that they might be failing in other more crucial areas too, especially when it comes to preaching the gospel! I must be in agreement on the teaching of Paul, regarding the role of woman in the gathering of the congregation. The church is luke warm as it is - it's high time to turn up the heat. Who shall we honour, God or man (or woman)?
Implicit here is a great lesson on a great strength and weakness of Baptists; we believe in the autonomy of the local church and voluntary association.
So the Gardners and their church are free to (unBiblically to be sure) support a woman pastor, and the SBC is free not to associate with that.
The down side, of course, is that un-Biblical actions of one Baptist church cannot be stopped by Baptists at large.
I'm still a Baptist, but am aware of this need to pray for unity in His Word.
Your title is misleading. It sounded like you were saying that they were rejected because they had a woman pastor. If they made it clear that they supported women pastors and were rejected it seems that Jerry Rankin was merely doing his job in supporting the Baptist Faith and Message. How could he do anything else? If they don't agree with the BF&M, my question is...why in the world would they want to be Southern Baptist missionaries???
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Rev. David DiCanio | 6/9/2005
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