Southern Baptists are ‘in crisis,’ says Rick Warren, founding pastor of expelled megachurch

The Rev. Rick Warren, founding pastor of one of many Southern Baptist Convention’s largest congregations — till its expulsion for putting in a lady as a instructing pastor — says the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is “at the crossroads [of] denial or revival.”

“Over the course of 17 years, the denomination has lost 3 million members. This isn’t a glitch or the result of a pandemic: It’s a trajectory we’ve been on for a while,” Mr. Warren, founding father of Saddleback Church, stated in a 39-minute video that was posted Tuesday. “Some SBC leaders seem unable to admit it or talk about it, but denial is dishonesty. We should be worrying about it.”

He blamed a departure from distinctive Baptist teachings for the disaster.

“Every year Southern Baptists have become less Baptist. We’re becoming more Presbyterian in structure and more fundamentalist in our actions and attitudes,” Mr. Warren stated, including that native church buildings “are losing their independence and autonomy,” falling prey to a centralization of energy.

“We are increasingly controlled by our institutions and bureaucracies, who have been systematically increasing their power to enforce uniformity as the difference between uniformity and unity. This is a very un-Baptist idea,” stated Mr. Warren, creator of the best-selling e-book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

The megachurch founder’s critique of the SBC comes as Saddleback prepares to attraction its expulsion from the denomination on the June 12-13 annual enterprise assembly. The SBC expelled the Southern California church in February over its employment of a lady as a “teaching pastor.”

According to the denomination’s “Faith & Message” assertion, which summarizes SBC beliefs, “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

In his video, Mr. Warren stated a future posting will focus on “all the New Testament passages that support the Great Commission ministry of women,” referring to Jesus’ injunction in Matthew 28:19-20 for the church to “go and make disciples.”

He stated he rejects “complementarianism,” a theological place that rejects girls from ordained ministry, and “egalitarianism,” which in evangelical Christian circles consists of help for ladies exercising non secular management as clergy.

“I don’t expect to change many minds … but I just want to show you that there are biblical alternatives” to these positions, he stated, noting it was one thing “it took me years of Bible study” to find.

“It was a difficult journey to have my biases and cultural traditions blown away by the word of God. But when I was confronted with the truth, I had to humbly repent, no matter what my friends would think of me,” he stated.

He additionally decried “the politicization of the convention presidency,” referring to the annual election of an SBC chief.

Former presidents such because the Revs. Adrian Rogers, Jimmy Draper and W.A. Criswell didn’t use political marketing campaign ways to win their elections. “Now we’ve got candidates who are actively campaigning for SBC president for years to be elected. And they’re posting their list of campaign promises,” Mr. Warren stated.

An SBC Executive Committee spokesman didn’t reply to a request for remark.

One SBC pastor has taken Mr. Warren to activity in a Twitter message considered greater than 351,000 instances.