DALLAS (BP) — Texas pastor Juan Sanchez is urging Southern Baptists to revisit an amendment at the annual meeting this June that addresses the definition of pastor/elder/overseer in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Constitution.

Virginia pastor Mike Law originally presented an amendment to Article III of the Constitution — which came to be known as the Law Amendment — at the 2022 annual meeting in Anaheim. It asked for the addition of a sixth item that noted a cooperating church would “not affirm, appoint or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

The next year in New Orleans, Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, offered what Law accepted as a friendly amendment for churches that affirm, appoint or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”

The amendment received the first of two required successive 2/3 votes of approval by messengers, but failed to reach that mark last year in Indianapolis.

Support for the Law Amendment received momentum recently over the shared exchange of correspondence from the Credentials Committee regarding the submission of Newspring Church in Anderson, S.C., and its employment of a woman as teaching pastor. The committee informed the submitter that no action would be taken, and Newspring remained in friendly cooperation with the SBC.

The decision “makes it clear that the committee needs stronger and clearer guidance in making decisions about which churches closely identify with the SBC and our confession of faith, particularly regarding churches with women serving with the title and office of ‘pastor,’ Sanchez wrote on X today.

An “Open Letter to Our Southern Baptist Family” asks messengers in Dallas to give the majority vote needed to suspend the convention’s sixth standing rule. The rule states that all motions to amend the SBC’s governing documents or the Baptist Faith and Message that are not presented to messengers by the Executive Committee will be automatically referred to the EC for review and reporting to the next annual meeting.

The letter’s supporters say that time gap won’t do.

“Because we have already debated this language at the last two conventions, we do not believe that we need to spend another year waiting for the Executive Committee to decide whether to put the amendment before the convention for a vote,” said the letter.

In addition to Sanchez, those undersigning are:

• Nate Akin, executive director, Pillar Network
• HB Charles, pastor-teacher of Shiloh Metropolitan Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
• Jed Coppenger, lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Cumming, Ga.
• Aaron Harvie, senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
• Brian Payne, pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala.
• Clay Smith, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga.

The SBC annual meeting will take place June 10-11 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.

The full letter:

An Open Letter to Our Southern Baptist Family

We, the undersigned, are Southern Baptist pastors and leaders who love our family of churches and who are grateful for the hard-won complementarian commitments expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M).

A recent decision by the SBC Credentials Committee makes it clear that the committee needs stronger and clearer guidance in making decisions about which churches closely identify with the SBC and our confession of faith, particularly regarding churches with women serving with the title and office of “pastor.”

At the 2024 annual meeting in Indianapolis, a proposed amendment fell just short of the supermajority required to amend the SBC Constitution. That amendment would have clarified that the Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation which “Affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” It is apparent that the Credentials Committee needs the clarification that this Amendment would have provided.

For that reason, we are supporting a renewed effort to amend the SBC Constitution. We are not offering new language but are supporting an effort to adopt the same language that a majority of the last two conventions wanted to be passed. Because we have already debated this language at the last two conventions, we do not believe that we need to spend another year waiting for the Executive Committee to decide whether to put the amendment before the convention for a vote.

So we are asking messengers to is the 2025 SBC in Dallas to suspend the standing rule that would put the amendment in the hands of the Executive Committee, which may or may not report out the amendment the following year. It only takes a simple majority to suspend that rule. Then we are asking messengers to vote in favor of a motion to amend the SBC Constitution with the exact same language approved by 80% of messengers in New Orleans and by 61% of messengers in Indianapolis. After a supermajority approves the amendment in Dallas, we will come together as a supermajority for final passage at the 2026 annual meeting in Orlando.

Here is a summary of the process:

2025 in Dallas: Vote to suspend standing rule 6 (a simple majority)

2025 in Dallas: Vote to adopt the Amendment (66% supermajority)

2026 in Orlando: Vote for final passage of the Amendment (66% supermajority)

We are deciding right now what kind of convention we are going to be. We want to be a convention in friendly cooperation with churches that closely identify with our confession of faith, including our clearly stated beliefs about biblical qualifications for pastoral office. We believe this honors the Lord as we ask him to bless our efforts to reach the world for Christ.

Please join us in this effort.

In Christ and for His Fame,

Nate Akin, Executive Director, Pillar Network (Raleigh, NC)

HB Charles, Pastor-Teacher, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church (Jacksonville, FL)

Jed Coppenger, Lead Pastor, First Baptist Church (Cumming, GA)

Aaron Harvie, Senior Pastor, Highview Baptist Church (Louisville, KY)

Brian Payne, Pastor, Lakeview Baptist Church (Auburn, AL)

Juan Sanchez, Senior Pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church (Austin, TX)

Clay Smith, Senior Pastor, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (Marietta, GA)

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)