DALLAS (BP) – A proposed amendment to the SBC Constitution stating the office of pastor should be held only by men was rejected by messengers, receiving approximately 60 percent of the vote, but not reaching the required two-thirds marker.
The motion was brought forward by Juan Sanchez, senior pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. With 5,632 ballots cast Wednesday (June 11), 3,421 messengers (60.74 percent) voted for its passage, and 2,191 (38.9 percent) voted against. Twenty ballots (.36 percent) were disallowed.
Motions to amend the constitution require two successive votes by a two-thirds majority and are typically presented to messengers after being referred to the SBC Executive Committee.
In 2022, Virginia pastor Mike Law presented a motion to clarify the office of pastor. The EC presented the motion to messengers in 2023 in New Orleans. With a friendly amendment by Sanchez, it received first approval to move on to Indianapolis last year. There, Southern Baptists voted in a higher figure than Dallas – 61.45 percent in favor – but fell short.
This year in order to vote directly on the amendment, messengers voted to suspend Standing Rule 6, which requires that motions regarding governing documents first get referred to the Executive Committee.
“The aim of this motion is simply to provide help by clarifying what the Baptist Faith and Message already says regarding the office of pastor,” Sanchez said to messengers prior to the final vote. He added that he hoped it would provide “further guidance” to the SBC Credentials Committee, which looks into whether churches are in friendly cooperation with the Convention.
“The aim of complementarianism is not to limit what women can do in the church,” he said, “but to actually free them to minister in the church in appropriate roles alongside men.”