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North Carolina megachurch exits Southern Baptist Convention after expulsions over women pastors

Delegates hold up their ballots at the Southern Baptist Convention at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, on Tuesday, 13th June, 2023

United StatesAP Less than a month after finalising the ouster of one of its largest churches for having women pastors, the Southern Baptist Convention has lost another of its biggest congregations. Elevation Church – a North Carolina-based megachurch that draws thousands of worshippers to its multiple campuses and has wielded a strong influence on contemporary Christian worship […]

Southern Baptists refuse to take back megachurch because it has women pastors

Delegates hold up their ballots at the Southern Baptist Convention at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Tuesday, 13th June, 2023.

New Orleans, USAP The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors. Southern Baptist church representatives at their annual meeting here also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a […]

Rick Warren campaigns for Southern Baptist reinstatement of Saddleback Church

US SBC annual meeting 2022 Rick Warren

United StatesRNS Days before the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, former megachurch pastor Rick Warren has appealed to his fellow Southern Baptists to overturn a denominational decision to oust his Saddleback Church because it permits women to serve with the title pastor. “This should be the moment where 47,000+ autonomous, independent, freedom-loving churches say NO […]

Saddleback Church appealing its ouster from the Southern Baptists on issue of women pastors

Congregants arrive at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Sunday, 16th October, 2022.

APUnited States Saddleback Church, the Southern California megachurch founded by best-selling author Rick Warren, is appealing its ouster from the Southern Baptist Convention for having women pastors on staff, according to the denomination. Saddleback is asking the annual meeting of the SBC, which convenes next month in New Orleans, to overturn a February decision by […]

In the US, Saddleback Church doubles down on support for female pastors

Stacie Wood and her husband, Andy Wood, stand for a portrait on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

United StatesAP The woman pastor at the centre of the Southern Baptist Convention’s decision to oust Saddleback Church – the California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren – says she will continue to serve as a ministry leader despite her longstanding ties to the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Saddleback has yet to say if it will […]

In the US, Southern Baptists oust Saddleback Church over woman pastor

Congregants arrive at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022.

Updated: 10am (AEST)United StatesAP The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted its second-largest congregation – Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren – for having a woman pastor. The vote by the convention’s Executive Committee culminates growing tension between the nation’s largest Protestant denomination – which officially opposes women […]

Sight-Seeing: NDAs are a tool for toxic church cultures

Silence

In an article published by Religion News Service, KATELYN BEATY, author of ‘Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church’, says while not every church that uses NDAs has faced scandal, of those that have in recent years, NDAs were inevitably in the mix…