ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) — Rabbit Creek Church, which the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) deemed not in friendly cooperation on Feb. 18 for publicly expressing egalitarian views, is not egalitarian, a state convention executive who is a member of the church said Wednesday (Feb. 19).

“They do not have egalitarian views,” Randy Covington, executive director and treasurer of the Alaska Baptist Resource Network (ABRN), told Baptist Press (BP) on Feb. 19. “Their positive impact on the community of Anchorage cannot be overlooked.

“Cooperation and unity are among the priority values of Rabbit Creek Church. Sadly, many within the SBC seek to divide us when we urgently need to come together to reach lost people with the gospel.”

Covington and his wife Robin have been members of the church eight years, he told Baptist Press, and he recalls when the church was planted in 1985. Covington announced his retirement from the ABRN leadership post at the network’s 2024 annual meeting, effective in September.

Rabbit Creek will not appeal the EC’s decision, Senior Pastor Mark Goodman told Baptist Press, but will continue to cooperate at the state level as allowed.

“I have been a part of the Southern Baptist family since in utero, in the sense that my mother and my father brought us to church from the beginning of our lives,” Goodman said. “And in fact my paternal grandparents served as IMB (International Mission Board) missionaries in Nigeria back in the early ‘70s and my parents are both very committed. And I love Jesus and I grew up in a household that did.”

In Southern Baptist churches, he said, he was saved, called to ministry, licensed and ordained, and was trained in Southern Baptist schools.

“Every church I have served,” he said, “has been part of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

At issue is an open letter published by Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) stating that in church leadership and asserting that “Jesus did not place any limits on women’s roles.”

“Jesus did not make a mistake by calling the women present at the resurrection to preach the gospel, and he has not made a mistake in calling women to pastor, minister, and lead today,” the letter says. “When anyone treats you as if you are not worthy to do God’s work, they are challenging Jesus’ own actions.

“You are worthy of God’s calling. You are valued by God equally to the way God values men. You have the right to be seen as made in God’s image, not as a secondary afterthought God designed to always be under the authority of men. When men say you must be limited for there to be unity in the church, they are not seeking true unity that brings all people, men and women, together in Christ. They are only protecting their own power.”

The letter garnered 3,775 signatures through March 13, 2024, according to BWIM, including that of Goodman, his wife and four Rabbit Creek ministry leaders.

The SBC Credentials Committee recommended the EC’s action, concluding, “the church has a faith and practice which does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the egalitarian beliefs publicly expressed by its leadership.”

Goodman said he and other staff members signed the letter in support of Lori Pepiton, Rabbit Creek’s children and families pastor, whose name was on an independently circulated list of women serving in pastoral positions at Southern Baptist churches. The BWIM letter was written in response to the list, Goodman said, and since Pepiton’s name was on the list, some of Rabbit Creek’s leaders signed the open letter.

“I am fully convinced that Jesus has — as in Colossians says through Him all things are created. Therefore we believe all men and women are created in the image of God. And I understand that each person who turns their life over to Jesus Christ, for His glory, is by the call of God,” Goodman said, “called into various areas of ministry to serve others and glorify His name.

“And therefore we believe that men and women are called into the service of ministry. Some, vocationally and some as volunteers, as we do believe every Christian is a minister — at least should be.”

He acknowledges debate within the SBC regarding the use of the term “pastor” for women in subordinate church leadership roles. While Rabbit Creek employs Pepiton as children and families pastor, her post was not noted as a reason for the EC’s decision.

Messengers to the 2024 SBC annual meeting failed to achieve a two-thirds majority to add the so-called “Law Amendment” to the SBC constitution, which would have defined a cooperating church as one that “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” The amendment was up for its second required approval to pass as a constitutional amendment, having received the required vote at the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

Goodman said he is disappointed that Rabbit Creek is no longer a Southern Baptist congregation.

“I, as a pastor, have always valued, as Baptists historically have, the autonomy of the local church,” Goodman said. “And I feel that this is an overreach.”

He continues to speak highly of the SBC.

“I am fully convinced God will continue to use the Southern Baptist Convention in amazing ways, as He has for many, many years,” he said, “and I have every desire for that. And as I feel we are no longer part of that family, of course it is disappointing. But I am very thankful for what our church is doing and I see no hindrance to that.

“We will continue to exalt God, to preach Christ, to reach people. And so while we will no longer be considered a part of the Southern Baptist Convention family, we still consider them brothers and sisters. And they will do their work and we will do ours.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)