ORLANDO (BP) – As he spoke with the media Wednesday afternoon (June 10), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler leaned on one word to consistently answer a question posed in numerous ways.
It was the word he added two weeks ago in an effort to clarify his proposed addition to the SBC Constitution. When delineating an action reserved for men alone – “preaching the Word of God to the gathered assembly” – Mohler replaced the phrase “such as” with the word “specifically.”
Southern Baptist messengers approved his motion June 10. The amendment requires one more favorable vote with at least a two-thirds majority at the 2027 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.
“It (the amendment) specifies this (the action),” he clarified, adding that he sought counsel to get the wording right. “That’s the intention.”
Several media questions addressed concerns by churches that individuals would nevertheless expand the amendment’s intention in an attempt to narrow women’s ministry roles. Mohler disagreed.
“Let me be very clear, I don’t think the Southern Baptist Convention has the will to go into the life and ministry of individual churches,” he said. “I don’t think [the SBC] has any will to spend a great deal of its time and energy basically asking questions beyond what is specified.”
Earlier in the day, International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood mentioned concerns he had received from female missionaries related to the amendment.
“I do not think this applies to any setting other than the setting of the church,” Mohler said. “That would be the church wherever it’s found, but it defines the church in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. … This specifies one [central] function – preaching to the gathered assembly. I don’t think it says anything about anyone teaching Sunday School [or] missionary services. It doesn’t intend to.”
One reporter put forward the example of a woman giving her testimony during a worship service. Is that preaching?
“I would love to hear my wife share her testimony Sunday morning in church,” Mohler said, “if asked by the pastor and elders to do that. That’s not preaching.
“Legendary in Southern Baptist life was Ms. Bertha Smith, a famous missionary,” he continued. “She would give a testimony, and some of those went really long. I don’t think the SBC entertains any such action to contemplate whether Ms. Bertha Smith was violating Scripture.
“Let me be abundantly clear. The Southern Baptist Convention doesn’t deal with eccentricities. … That’s why I replaced ‘such as,’ which is indicative, with ‘specifically, which isolates.’”
As he has said since introducing the amendment, Mohler pointed to the SBC clarifying its stance on LGBTQ churches more than 30 years ago as evidence of a more concrete positioning on those who preach.
“We do not have an outbreak of women senior pastors in the SBC. [But] there are issues that clearly indicate there are some churches that are on the boundary lines and some that are headed in a different direction. The SBC is just making its convictions very clear.”
His motivation, he said, was to eliminate the need for messengers to deal with the issue year after year at annual meetings.
Mohler pledged to hold the line on the amendment’s intent.
“I don’t want to speak words I don’t want to live with,” he said. “I’ve tried to say it as carefully as possible. [The amendment] speaks specifically in terms of function to a woman preaching to the gathered assembly. I will say that over and over again.
“You heard me say that specifically, means specifically.”
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