The proposed ban could affect hundreds of Baptist congregations and have a disproportionate impact on predominantly Black churches.
From its towering white steeple and red-brick facade, to its Sunday services filled with rousing gospel hymns and evangelistic sermons, First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, bears many of the classic hallmarks of a Southern Baptist church.On a recent Sunday, its pastor for women and children, Kim Eskridge, urged members to invite friends and neighbors to an upcoming vacation Bible school — a perennial Baptist activity — to help 'reach families in the community with the gospel.
Since Baptist churches are independent, the convention can't tell them what to do or whom to appoint as a pastor.But the convention can decide which churches are in and which are out. And even without a formal amendment, its Executive Committee has begun telling churches with women pastors that they're out. That included one of its largest, Saddleback Church of Southern California.
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