SBC disfellowships 4 more churches, including 2 that support women pastors

Katie McKown was hired as senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Paducah, Ky., in February 2023. 

YouTube/Kyle Lake Center (The Christian Post)

 By Leonardo Blair - Posted at The Christian Post:

The Southern Baptist Convention has disfellowshiped four more churches deemed not to be in friendly cooperation with the denomination's regulations, including one for having a female senior pastor and another that allows women in church leadership.

The two other churches were ousted for issues related to sexual abuse and the retention of a "biblically disqualified" pastor.

Acting on the recommendations of the SBC Credentials Committee, the Executive Committee of the nation's largest Protestant denomination voted in Nashville on Tuesday to remove Immanuel Baptist Church in Paducah, Kentucky, from fellowship, reports the SBC's official news service Baptist Press.

The church, which hired Rev. Katie McKown as its senior pastor in 2023, was deemed to have a "faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female lead pastor functioning in the office of pastor."

New Hope Baptist Church in Gastonia, North Carolina, was formally disfellowshipped over a "lack of reported financial participation for at least the last five (5) years and its lack of intent to cooperate to resolve a question of faith and practice."

Although the church doesn't list any females as part of its pastoral staff, New Hope's website states, "We believe in equality in ministry and we do not discriminate between genders."

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