DALLAS — Messengers to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority to amend the denomination’s constitution and bylaws to restrict the title and role of pastor/elder/overseer to men only.
The proposal, introduced by Juan Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, aimed to add language to the SBC’s constitution requiring cooperating churches to “affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” This marked the third consecutive year the amendment, known as the “Law Amendment” after Virginia pastor Mike Law who first proposed it in 2023, failed to pass. Constitutional amendments require a supermajority (67%) vote in two consecutive years.
In 2023, the motion reportedly passed with an estimated 80% approval via raised ballot, though the count relied on visual estimation. In 2024, ballot voting in Indianapolis yielded 61% in favor. This year, also by ballot, 60% voted yes (3,421 yes; 2,191 no).
Before the vote, SBC President Clint Pressley recognized Sanchez to address messengers.
“The aim of this motion is to clarify what the Baptist Faith and Message already states regarding the office of pastor,” Sanchez said, noting it would guide the Credentials Committee, which evaluates whether churches align with SBC standards. The amendment would have allowed the committee to deem churches with female pastors “not in friendly cooperation,” potentially barring them from seating messengers at future meetings.
Sanchez clarified the amendment would not affect all women on pastoral staffs or church staff positions.
“By that measure, High Pointe Baptist Church, where I serve, would be disqualified,” he said, citing his church’s female children’s ministry director. He emphasized his church’s “robust complementarianism,” with male and female deacons, stating, “Complementarianism frees women to minister in appropriate roles alongside men, not limit them.”
SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Jeff Iorg, also recognized to speak by Pressley, raised concerns about legal risks. “This motion means that any woman who has the title of pastor would be inappropriate and that the church would be subject to being declared not in friendly cooperation,” Iorg said. He noted a pending Tennessee Supreme Court case involving a defamation suit against the Credentials Committee, where lower and appeals courts ruled against the committee.
“My friends, there is legal risk to putting this item in the Constitution. The courts do not interfere with our doctrine, but they do interfere with us when we move something into the Constitution and claim it to be a legal standard. You’re removing this conversation from theologians and pastors and handing it to attorneys and insurance companies,” Iorg said.
Sanchez countered that theology should take precedence over legal concerns.
“Look to the attorneys to give you counsel and guidance,” Sanchez said. “But we are not a people who are governed by attorneys. We are people who are ruled by a book and so trust in what the Word of God teaches.”
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (Article VI) states, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” This reflects complementarian theology, where men and women have distinct but complementary roles. However, interpretations vary, with some churches using “pastor” for staff roles, causing confusion.
The proposal by Sanchez and Law to amend Article VI to read “…affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture” would have made adherence to the stated pastoral standard binding for all member churches. B&R