Al Mohler's Strange Definition of Pastor
He just can't quit the women question
What can a woman do for God, and who gets to make that decision? SBC leaders want to end the debate, at least within their own denomination.
Many orthodox Christian communities have moved past the argument about women in leadership, believing that Scripture affirms God’s calling on women as well as men. But since the 1980s, the SBC has increasingly narrowed its teaching regarding women in general.
Contradicting History
The SBC did not always limit women. Addie Elizabeth Davis was the first SBC woman ordained, in 1964. The 1984 SBC Annual Meeting drew hundreds of men and women to a gathering for women in ministry. The annual missionary fundraising drives are named after two women, Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon, who preached and planted churches abroad. But during the Conservative Resurgence in the 1980s, the SBC leadership began reserving senior pastor positions for men only. In the 2020s thus far, three Annual Meeting amendments have tried, but failed, to limit all pastoral positions to men only.
Now, Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Seminary, is planning a new proposition for next month’s annual meeting. He wants to add this amendment to the SBC constitution:
Churches that cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention must “not act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, such as preaching to the assembled congregation.”
Narrowing Definitions
He wants this issue settled for good so they can move on. But note two things:
“Office or function”—in the past, only the office of pastor has been in question, but now he’s limiting pastoral behavior to qualified men only. Any person fulfilling the function of a pastor must be male in order to align with SBC doctrine.
What is that behavior? Mohler qualifies what he means by function: “such as preaching to the assembled congregation.” He wants women out of the pulpit. But also, he’s equating pastoring with preaching. In a podcast conversation recently, he clarified: “If a woman is preaching to the assembled congregation, that is absolutely central to the understanding of pastor/elder/overseer, and I think it’s just incredibly clarifying.”
By limiting his definition of a pastor’s function to preaching from the pulpit, Mohler reveals a limited, narrow idea of what a pastor does. He’s targeting authority that comes from Scripture—in his mind, only men can communicate such content in a church. That’s why even male pastors who invite women to preach—under the pastor’s authority—put their churches at risk of being kicked out of the SBC. Those female preachers are acting too much like a pastor, according to this definition.
But if Al’s idea of preaching = pastoring is accurate, we’ve changed the meaning of the word pastor, which in the Bible is a translation of shepherd. Both men and women regularly practice the following activities, some because they are gifted as poimen (pastors, Eph 4:12) by the Spirit:
Offering spiritual, biblically-based counsel.
Teaching the Bible to children.
Administering the money, calendar, facilities, and personnel.
Evangelizing and planting churches overseas.
Serving communion and passing the plate.
If Al is correct, then counseling, teaching in non-church contexts, managing personnel, praying, encouraging, baptizing, etc.—even observing the Lord’s Supper—are not pastoral functions. Yet any pastor would tell you he (or she) does those tasks regularly as part of the job.
I mean, would any pastors in the room like to affirm that all they do is preach?
The Slippery Slope
But wait, there’s more.
In a follow-up conversation, Mohler decried the practice of a female church staffer joining the male pastors on a podcast that discussed the latest sermon.
“I think there’s one error in the question where she says she’s not a pastor by role or by title,” he said. “If she is functioning as a pastor, then she is assuming the role of a pastor, and I think that’s what’s implied here. And yes, I do see that as a problem.”
Al’s problem with women teaching and explaining Scripture isn’t relegated to the authority of a pulpit. In his mind, because preaching = pastoring and only men are called to pastor, women ought not preach. His limitations on women teaching Scripture have bled outward to various forms of media. If it’s all about spiritual authority that derives from the Bible, he’s being consistent. But behold the logical consequences:
If a woman can’t impart biblical teaching from a pulpit, why should anyone listen when she does it through a podcast? Or through a book? Or through an article? Or by leading musical worship? Why should young men listen to their mothers? Why should husbands seek their wives’ wise counsel or read the Bible and discuss it together? Should they be afraid they might learn something from her?
If this all sounds ridiculous, good. It’s supposed to. He’s just moving the goalposts on women’s participation. Even within the SBC, such limits have never been upheld. In declaring his views as “biblical,” Al ignores almost two centuries of Baptist history. Beth Allison Barr’s latest book Becoming the Pastor’s Wife ably describes the development of unofficial yet authoritative female roles in churches. She and Savannah Locke also addressed the issue in their podcast series “All the Buried Women,” Episode 3, which explored the myriad ways the SBC has exploited self-made loopholes to offer women opportunities to teach the Bible to men and women.
Al’s proposal to link pastoral function with the office includes an unspoken slippery slope to silencing women far more broadly. In that, he joins the radical likes of Doug Wilson, Dale Partridge, and others who actively promote a return to patriarchy in church, home, and society.
And that’s where the core error of Al’s theology lies. He’s imported the cultural patriarchy in which the people of the Bible lived into his understanding of the gospel, then fused it with current church polity. Where the Bible mentions men in positions of authority, he (and many others) takes it as “only men can hold authority.” Preaching is just the primary symbol of authority, which is what he’s concerned about.
But the Bible …
Al’s dogged focus on getting women out of the pulpit, literally and figuratively, ignores several biblical precedents.
In the New Testament church, women received the Spirit at Pentecost, which empowered them to do all manner of authoritative actions such as speak in tongues, interpret tongues, and prophesy. In the years following, women regularly prophesied (Luke 2:36; Acts 2:17, 21:9; 1 Cor 11:5), an activity defined as “relating divine communication to another person or people.” New Testament prophets were gifted leaders in early Christian communities (1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11), primarily within Christian gatherings for worship.
The Spirit also empowered women to teach, a synonymous term with preach, describing the proclamation and explanation of God’s revealed word (Priscilla in Acts 18 is the most prominent example). And if apostles joined prophets and teachers among the leaders of the church, Junia stood among them (Romans 16:7). Mohler ignores these authoritative activities within the New Testament church and has declared only preaching as the litmus test for what a pastor does.
Over all this, he ignores the actual meaning of pastor: shepherd. Preaching can be one form of shepherding, providing spiritual guidance once a week to a specific body of believers. But shepherding is so much more, and women do it as much as men do. (Plus … the Bible speaks of pastoring as a spiritual gift. Baptists have conflated it with the offices of overseer and presbyter. But that’s another article for another time.)
The End Game
Where does Mohler’s amendment lead? I see two primary results. First, applying his narrow understanding of a pastor’s position and function to an entire denomination limits the number of churches that can cooperate together for missions and good works across the world. Because that’s all the SBC is, a group of churches that have agreed to work together to further the mission of The Church. But women in the pulpit is their line in the sand. I fear it is one of the reasons, along with racial, justice, and political issues, for the denomination’s continual decline over the last twenty years.
Second, the good ole’ boy system thrives, and women suffer. A denomination more concerned about policing women preaching—a matter of interpretation—than about pursuing predators among their male leadership ranks—a matter of justice—has misplaced priorities. Let’s not let the SBC’s annual chest-thumping distract us from the true sin on the ballot.
A Different Way
Whether you worship within the SBC context or with a church family that affirms women’s calling to all kinds of ministry, no polity can limit your potential to serve God. He calls all believers to love him with our whole hearts, souls, strength, and minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
With the “minds” in mind, I want to introduce a new series on my Substack that will encourage women who dream of theological education. This summer, I will highlight the Doctor of Ministry degree, answering questions like, What is it, who can benefit from it, why pursue it, what’s it like . . . ? Once per week, I interview a fellow DMin graduate to explore her journey to the program, her research topic and process, and how the program benefited her current ministry. And yes, though we do have many wonderful male DMin colleagues, I chose to focus on the women for this series.
But first, we start with a Doctor of Ministry program director to help us understand the purpose of the program and what prospective students might want to know before applying. Look for my interview with Dr. Lynn Cohick of Houston Theological Seminary later this week, and enjoy this clip from our conversation as you wait.
This was phenomenal.