Christian Music News: Rick Warren appeals to have church reinstated in open letter (2025)

Last Thursday, Rick Warren – the author of the internationally acclaimed books “The Purpose-Driven Life” and “The Purpose-Driven Church” – made a public appeal against a recent decision made by the Southern Baptist Convention to have the church he founded, Saddleback Church, expelled from the denomination.

For those who don’t know, the ousting of Saddleback Church took place earlier this year after three women were ordained as pastors. This goes against a term stated on the Southern Baptist’s policy from the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 which states “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

As many may know, whether or not women should be allowed leadership roles in the Church has been a long-going debate. Those against the idea will often quote 1 Timothy 2:12 which says “I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.” (NLT), even though many in-depth studies and commentaries have highlighted that there was a very specific context to this verse based on a specific church.

In his letter, Rick Warren makes his appeal based on a mindset the Southern Baptist denomination has had right from the start saying “They knew that we could never get 100% of Baptists to agree 100% on 100% of every interpretation of Scripture.“ and that “for 178 years, Southern Baptists have AGREED TO DISAGREE on dozens and dozens of doctrinal differences so we could cooperate for the Gospel.”

He implores the readers to ultimately work together for the sake of the Great Commission, and that rulings based on secondary matters will lead to unintended consequences that will harm the primary matter of the Gospel.

This opens a question, is there a need for churches worldwide to rethink how much of their resources are spent being distracted by secondary matters? How great is that need if we are to see more people come to Christ? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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