Stanley criticizes SBC for removing Saddleback Church; says women pastors remove obstacles for people to follow Jesus

Georgia megachurch pastor Andy Stanley criticized the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for disfellowshipping Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting for having a female teaching pastor during a sermon at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., Sunday, June 30.

Stanley, the son of late Southern Baptist pastor and televangelist Charles Stanley, spoke in a sermon titled “Broken and Grateful” about removing obstacles for people trying to follow Jesus Christ. He identified himself as “theologically conservative,” arguing that the progress many churches were making to reach the lost is being undermined and reversed.

He said that Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has done great work in reaching non-believers, despite “all the political nonsense in the last few years. … fueled by conservative fearful fundamentalist … academics and pastors.”

Just like with the early church, Stanley said people who have been hurt by the church today most likely were hurt by a church “being biblical rather than Christ-like.”

Stanley explained that the first-century church exploded after Gentiles – who were previously outsiders – were welcomed into the church.

“The church naturally gravitates toward the insiders. Those who know the songs, know all the verses, that have their lives all buttoned up. … rather than people who are outside the faith,” he said.

North Point was part of a modern-day movement to welcome the community into the church along with many other innovative churches, Stanley said, adding, “And the Good News (of the gospel) became good again and all people began to mean all again.”

Churches like North Point started to grow so quickly as a result pastors and some Christians started to say that these churches were so big and successful that “they can’t possibly be preaching the true gospel about repentance; I bet they never talk about sin.”

Many thousands of churches began to adopt the same contemporary style to where every church today “kind of looks the same.”

However, many of these churches missed the heart and passion of the movement, he said.

“Our goal and the people who came before us, their goal wasn’t growth but reach,” Stanley said. These churches made the changes they made not to be cool – rather to remove obstacles to the gospel.

“We set out to invite people to follow Jesus,” he said.

Unfortunately, Stanley said much of that progress is being undermined and reversed today “with all of the political nonsense of the last few years.”

“The people fueling it are conservative, and I’m theologically conservative and even politically conservative,” Stanley said. “But this whole thing has been fueled by fearful fundamentalists. … academics, and pastors. And church leaders are resurrecting old barriers that we spent years tearing down, and they are adding new barriers.”

Stanley then discussed the controversy with Warren and the SBC, who he described as a “modern church reformer” who was at the fore of the seeker-friendly movement and author of the book “The Purpose-Driven Church,” which inspired so many pastors and other like-minded churches.

Stanley received criticism on social media for comments made during his sermon.

Andrew T. Walker, a theology professor at the Southern Seminary and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said on X/Twitter:

“A megachurch pastor criticizes the Southern Baptist Convention for separating from an egalitarian church. We would do well to use that as an opportunity to be mugged by reality. When Southern megachurch pastors can’t even be counted on for biblical faithfulness, it is not the time for us to be hyper focused on the good opinion of unbelievers. The ‘world is watching’ is no standard of faithfulness. Biblical truth is,” Walker wrote, adding “Southern Baptists have been expressing disagreement on the issue of women on pastoral staff, with some arguing that they should be removed for various sins, such as sexual, racial, financial, and leadership.”

Saddleback came to the attention of SBC leadership after the church ordained three female staff members, who were functioning as pastors. Stanley said in his sermon that many Evangelical leaders today are prioritizing politics over mission.

The SBC Executive Committee decided in February 2023 that Saddleback was not in “friendly cooperation” with the convention, prompting the vote at that year’s annual meeting. At the time the issue focused on Andy Wood, who succeeded Warren as lead pastor. Wood’s wife, Stacie, was listed as a teaching pastor at the church.

Messengers at the annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to uphold Saddleback’s expulsion after hearing arguments from both Warren and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler. At the SBC Annual Meeting this June a proposed constitutional amendment – called the Law Amendment – that would have permanently banned churches from allowing women to serve as pastors “as qualified by Scripture” failed to receive the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

Warren argues that the more than 1,100 Southern Baptist churches with women on pastoral staff are not in violation of Scripture, though the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, the denomination’s official statement of faith, clearly states that the “office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Mohler contends the issue is not just about church polity or hermeneutics, but about a commitment to biblical principles. Mohler agrees the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture (1 Timothy 2:11–12), and that churches like Saddleback have taken actions that reject the convention’s confessional understanding on the matter.