Messengers to next week\u2019s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting who arrive in Orlando by plane will be greeted by a surprising billboard on their drive from the airport to the convention center.<\/p>\n
Baptist Women in Ministry has purchased space on a billboard on Beachline Expressway near the intersection of Sand Lake Road \u2014 the most likely path for conventiongoers to take.<\/p>\n
The billboard\u2019s message: \u201cGod calls women to pastor, preach and minister. Matthew 28:8, Acts 2:17-18.\u201d<\/p>\n
SBC influencer Al Mohler has announced he intends to propose an amendment to the SBC Constitution \u2014 slightly different from the amendments consider the last three years \u2014 that would make explicit the SBC\u2019s current ban on women serving as pastors but would add a prohibition on women fulfilling even the \u201cfunction\u201d of a preaching pastor.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany women who are committed to their SBC churches are navigating what the passage of this amendment would mean for them,\u201d said Meredith Stone, BWIM executive director. \u201cAs proposed, the amendment goes further in limiting women than anything proposed before. Its provisions would mean if a woman preaches, teaches, ministers or leads in any role that is interpreted as a \u2018pastoral function,\u2019 her congregation could be disfellowshipped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing stiff opposition to his original proposal, Mohler has since modified his amendment language, but the update still would ban women from functionally teaching or preaching to an entire congregation.<\/p>\n
BWIM is a national organization that supports women who pursue ministry and leadership, and advocates for the full affirmation of women in ministry in Baptist life. The group originated as Southern Baptist Women in Ministry but broadened its scope amid the late 20th century schism in the SBC that spun off two breakaway groups. BWIM today reaches broadly across the Baptist traditions in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven beyond the SBC, when women everywhere learn Southern Baptists are once again arguing about women\u2019s value to God and the church, they also feel the pain caused by harmful theology and rising threats to women\u2019s rights,\u201d Stone said. \u201cWe are speaking out so that they too will clearly hear the message that women are equally valued. We want all women to know that their callings, gifts and worth are determined by God and not by any denomination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Messengers to next week\u2019s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting who arrive in Orlando by plane will be greeted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[124527,124526,139,141,140,116352,124528],"class_list":["post-295512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-al-mohler","tag-bwim","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sbc","tag-women-in-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}