NASHVILLE, Tenn.—As churchgoers head to the polls for midterm elections, most expect the rest of their congregation to vote the same way they do.

Half of U.S. Protestant churchgoers (50 percent) say they’d prefer to attend a church where people share their political views, and 55 percent believe that to be the case at their congregation already, according to a study from Lifeway Research.

“Studies have shown that voting patterns and political affiliation correlate with the type of church and amount of church involvement someone has,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

“But when asked if churchgoers want political similarity to flow back into their church relationships, this is desirable for only half of churchgoers.”

Preference

While 50 percent of churchgoers prefer a politically homogenous congregation, 41 percent disagree, and 10 percent aren’t sure. Overall, the percentage of those looking to attend a church where people share their voting preferences is similar to a 2017 Lifeway Research study, when 46 percent said the same.

However, more churchgoers are adamant about worshipping alongside their political peers. Around 1 in 5 (19 percent) now strongly agree they prefer to attend a church where people share their political views, up from 12 percent in 2017.

“While almost 1 in 5 churchgoers are adamant that they want to attend church with those who share their political views, there are just as many who strongly disagree with that perspective,” McConnell said.

“The 23 percent who strongly disagree are clearly saying the source of unity they have with others in their church has nothing to do with partisanship.”

Younger churchgoers are more likely than older ones to prefer sharing a pew with someone of the same politics. Almost 3 in 5 of those under 50 (57 percent) want a congregation with people who share their political views, compared to 47 percent of those 50 to 65 and 41 percent of those 65 and older.

Ethnicity and education also play a role. White (54 percent) and African American (53 percent) churchgoers are more likely to want a church with shared politics than Hispanic churchgoers (25 percent). Those who are high school graduates or less (44 percent) are among the least likely.

Denominationally, Methodist (88 percent) and Restorationist movement (80 percent) churchgoers are more likely to say they want their congregations to have a common political perspective than Baptists (47 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (47 percent), Lutherans (38 percent) and those who attend a non-denominational church (38 percent).

Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs (44 percent) are less likely than churchgoers who don’t strongly agree with core evangelical theology statements (54 percent) to say they prefer a church where people share their political opinions.

Despite their preferences, churchgoers may stick around even if the rest of the congregation doesn’t share their views. Another 2017 Lifeway Research study found only 9 percent of Protestant churchgoers said they would consider changing churches over political views.

Political perception

Regardless of their preferences, most churchgoers believe they’re among their political tribe when at church. More than half (55 percent) of U.S. Protestant churchgoers say their political views match those of most people at their church. Fewer than a quarter disagree (23 percent) or aren’t sure (22 percent).

Just as more churchgoers strongly prefer a congregation of similar politics today, more churchgoers also strongly believe they are a part of such a congregation. In 2017, 51 percent felt their church was politically homogenous, with 11 percent strongly agreeing. Today, 21 percent strongly agree.

Additionally, fewer churchgoers are seemingly unsure about the political opinions of their fellow congregation members. In 2017, 30 percent said they weren’t sure if their political views matched those of most others at the church. That dropped to 22 percent in 2022.

 “If one looks at the culture today, you might assume that most churches have been arguing over politics as well. While it appears more churchgoers notice the political views of other attendees, only 28 percent of pastors agree (14 percent strongly) that their church has experienced significant conflict in the last year,” McConnell said.

“Those who want political continuity may simply want a respite from political strife at church, and others may want to move together in political action.”

For many groups, their perception of their church matches their preferences. Older churchgoers, those 65 and older, are the least likely to think most people in their church share their politics (46 percent) and the most likely to say they aren’t sure (32 percent).

African American (60 percent) and white (58 percent) churchgoers are also among the most likely to agree.

Denominational differences

Denominationally, Methodists (89 percent) and those a part of a Restorationist movement church (76 percent) believe most of the fellow churchgoers share their political views.

Churchgoers who don’t qualify as evangelical by belief are just as likely to say they prefer to worship in a church that shared their politics (54 percent) as they are to believe that is the case (53 percent).

Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs, however, are different. They’re more likely to believe they belong to a congregation that predominantly agrees with them politically (59 percent) than they are to say that’s what they’d prefer (44 percent).

The online survey was conducted Sept. 19-29 using a national pre-recruited panel. Respondents were screened to include those who identified as Protestant/non-denominational and attend religious services at least once a month. Quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to reflect the population more accurately.

The completed sample is 1,002 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.3 percent. This margin of error accounts for the effect of weighting. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Even in a place surrounded by water, clean drinking water can be hard to acquire.

In October, a team of seven Texas Baptist Men volunteers helped drill a water well and start a church building for an Amazon River island village in Peru.

Drastic difference for isolated community

TBM purchased drilling equipment in 2019 for a ministry called Access Water Peru. The new well in San Pedro became the first TBM Water project since the pandemic and will change the community radically.

“You can see the Amazon from the village, but the river water is never clear in this area, because it has a very muddy bottom,” said Mitch Chapman, TBM water ministry director who led the volunteers. “It looks like chocolate milk.”

Villagers normally get their drinking water by capturing rain from their roofs and from “what they call a lake half a kilometer from the village,” Chapman said.

The lake is formed by water which remains after Amazon flooding. It is muddy and is a breeding ground for anacondas. As for the captured rainwater, it flows along metal roofs and drains and can sit stagnant for days.

The new well hit water at a depth of 26 meters—about 85 feet—and went down another five meters to determine the depth of the water sand from which drinking water is extracted, Chapman said.

“We had no problems. We set up the drill in about a day and a half and drilled for four and a half hours. After setting the well casing, we flushed the well until we got clear water,” Chapman said.

“It was the neatest thing to watch when all of the kids and some adults were playing in the water and laughing. Most have never seen flowing water out of a pipe.”

Journey to remote location

The TBM team reached the island by flying to Lima, Peru, then taking another flight over the Andes mountain range to Iquitos, followed by an almost two-hour riverboat trip. San Pedro residents can reach the outside world only via the river.

The first well is simply a beginning. The TBM crew continued work on a platform dwelling where this and future mission teams can eat and sleep.

“This first team walked about 30 minutes to the drill site. Future teams will work their way down the river, drilling wells in different villages within a 30-minute boat trip,” Chapman said.

 Twenty-five more village wells can be staged from this location using the drilling rig provided by TBM.

Beyond the cost of the rig, each well costs between $8,000 and $14,000 in supplies and ongoing maintenance across the world, Chapman said. The price varies by region and available infrastructure. Drilling rigs cost $18,000 to $45,000, depending on the type and region.

“As TBM donors give, we are able to provide wells in places around the world where clean drinking water is needed,” Chapman said. “And as TBM volunteers step forward we are able to help provide workers for both labor and ministry through churches in those places.”

TBM facilitates the process in different countries by working with local ministries. Keny Ojanama, of Access Water Peru, did the advance work for the October TBM trip. Churches along the Amazon make their request to Ojanama and he sets priorities based on location and distance from drinkable water, Chapman said.

“Before our team went to Peru, Keny determined that the big problem in this village was how dirty the water was becoming” because villagers used the lake water for all of their water needs, Chapman noted. “The water gets very soapy and contaminated as it gets lower.”

On the plus side, the Peruvian villagers have plenty of healthy food.

“They will never starve to death,” Chapman said. Fresh fruit and fish are plentiful and free. There is no refrigeration or electricity, so villagers gather food each day for consumption. And, thanks to the chickens, the TBM team joined villagers in eating lots of eggs.

Supporting churches and ministries

The TBM team included seven men and one woman. They flew out of Dallas/Fort Worth Oct. 7 and returned Oct. 18.

TBM water projects include other work to support churches and their ministries. The Peru team began construction of a new church building, with the elevated platform floor and roof being completed by the team. They also shared the gospel with children through varied activities and with adults through preaching and teaching.

Teams also include people with varied abilities and strengths. Noel Tucker served as team photographer, children’s minister, and all-around support. It was her first “formal” mission experience.

“Being a mom, athlete, open-water sailor and attorney, my brain is always ‘on’ and covers a lot of ground in this type of environment,” Tucker said.

“Because I was not specifically tasked for most of the day, … I could see to minor health/injury issues and do whatever physical labor was needed that didn’t need direct supervision. I pretty much always had something in my day pack to accommodate the need. I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the service as well.”

The trip has given Tucker much to reflect on since returning. She still is pondering the “difference between [the villagers’] existence and ours in the U.S. Their lives are boiled down to the basics of food, shelter, procreating and hopefully developing their relationship with Jesus.

“They have all day and need all day to manage those tasks. We fill our days with so much unnecessarily, partly due to advancements in civilization but also because we are materialistic and enjoy our creature comforts,” she said. “There is a lesson in there somewhere.”

Messengers to the 2022 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Waco will elect officers and consider a $35.46 million budget for next year.

“Unwavering” is the theme of Texas Baptists’ annual meeting, Nov. 13-15 at the Waco Convention Center.

The meeting will include worship services and a variety of workshops, including one on “Bridging the Generational Divide” at 9 a.m. on Nov. 14, presented by the Millennial/Gen Z Task Force created in response to a motion at the 2022 annual meeting.

Featured speakers include Michael Gossett, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler; Tony Canady, pastor and church planter of Triumphal Christian Fellowship in Waxahachie; Ariel Martinez, pastor of Del Sol Church in El Paso; and Jason Burden, incumbent BGCT president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Nederland.

At this time, three individuals have been announced as nominees for convention office:

• Julio Guarneri, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen, will be nominated for BGCT president. Guarneri is the incumbent first vice president.
• Nebiye Kelile, pastor of both Pathway Church and Orchard Hills Baptist Church in Garland, will be nominated for first vice president. He is the incumbent second vice president.
• Ronny Marriott, pastor of First Baptist Church in Burleson, will be nominated for second vice president.

Proposed budget a 2.5 percent increase

Church-approved messengers will be asked to approve a $35,459,500 total Texas budget for 2023, a 2.5 percent increase over the 2022 budget, as recommended by the BGCT Executive board.

The proposed budget projects a $33.9 million net Texas budget—based on Cooperative Program giving and investment income—for 2023. It depends on $27.25 million in Texas Cooperative Program receipts from churches.

The proposed 2023 budget anticipates about $6.65 million in investment income, up from $5.4 million anticipated for 2022. It also projects about $1.77 million in additional revenue from conference and booth fees, product sales and other sources.

If approved by messengers, undesignated receipts from affiliated churches will continue to be divided 79 percent for the BGCT and 21 percent for worldwide causes.

An anticipated $1 million in worldwide missions initiatives and partnerships will be allocated in the same manner as the previous year: $340,000 for missions mobilization, $200,000 for River Ministry and Mexico missions, $100,000 for Texas Partnerships, $55,000 for the Baptist World Alliance, $5,000 for the North American Baptist Fellowship, $50,000 for intercultural international initiatives, $200,000 for Go Now Missions, $20,000 for the Hispanic Education Task Force and $30,000 for chaplaincy.

Special relationship with Denison Ministries

Messengers from BGCT-affiliated churches also will consider a special relationship agreement between the BGCT and Denison Ministries, and they will hear David Hardage’s final report to the Texas Baptists as their executive director.

Hardage has announced plans to retire at the end of this year. The executive director search committee is holding virtual listening sessions with Texas Baptists, and an in-person listening session will be scheduled at the annual meeting at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 14.

The proposed relationship agreement with Denison Ministries calls for:

• Jim Denison, co-founder and CEO of Denison Ministries, to be designated as theologian-in-residence for Texas Baptists.
• Denison Ministries to make available a keynote speaker or workshop leader for Texas Baptists’ annual meeting, and the BGCT to make available at no cost booth space to Denison Ministries at the annual meeting.
• Texas Baptists and Denison Ministries to work cooperatively on ministry projects such as training events and conferences.

Related events slated

On Sunday evening, Nov. 13, three rallies are scheduled:

• Texas Baptists en Español Celebration at First Baptist Church in Waco. A banquet is scheduled at 6 p.m., followed by the celebration at 7 p.m.
• African American Rally at Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Waco. A concert is scheduled at 6:30 p.m., followed by the worship rally at 7:30 p.m.
• Pastor’s Common for Young Adults at 6:30 p.m. at Heritage Coffee, 203 Halbert Lane in Waco.

The Friends of Truett Seminary Dinner is scheduled at 6 p.m. on Nov. 13 at Paul L. Foster Business School on the Baylor University Campus. Cost is $25 per person, and registration is required by Nov. 4. To register, click here.

The Wayland Baptist University Alumni and Friends Dinner also is scheduled at 6 p.m. Nov. 13 in Lone Star 104 of the Waco Convention Center. Cost is $15 per person, and registration is required by Nov. 10. To register, click here.

Various breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings and receptions also are scheduled on Nov. 14 and 15. For details, including cost and registration information, click here.

Texas Baptist churches can register messengers in advance online here.

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized a recently renewed Vatican deal with China, saying it emboldens the Chinese government to crack down on Christian communities.

The secretive provisional agreement, originally signed in 2018 and renewed Oct. 2, allows Beijing to have a say in the appointment of bishops in the officially recognized church.

Catholic officials hope the agreement will help to reconcile the government-approved church and the Catholic community, which is led by priests sanctioned by the Vatican.

But some members of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom—an independent bipartisan federal commission tasked with reporting to Congress and the administration on the state of religious freedom in the world—spoke out against the agreement, claiming it has made the situation worse for Christians in China.

Conditions deteriorate in recent years

Stephen Schneck, a commissioner who served in the Obama White House’s faith-based partnership office, says reports show conditions of Catholics in China have significantly worsened over the past four years since the agreement was signed.

“So much worse, in fact, that we think the agreement no longer makes any sense,” he told Religion News Service.

An advocate for Catholic social justice and former dean at the Catholic University of America, Schneck said he especially is concerned about the situation of 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, who was arrested along with five others by Chinese authorities in May for a bureaucratic error in a humanitarian fund viewed as a danger to China’s national security.

Zen has been an outspoken advocate for religious freedom in China and a strong critic of the Vatican agreement with Beijing. He played a crucial role in the wave of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2020 protesting the broadly written Chinese National Security Laws, which strongly limit the right to assembly. Zen’s trial resumed on Oct. 27, only days after the Vatican-China agreement was renewed.

“I don’t think that we cannot notice the timing of the restart of this trial,” Schneck said, adding, “It’s not a good sign.”

Vatican officials defend the deal

Vatican officials, including Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, defended the deal. While not perfect, it keeps a channel open for dialogue with Beijing and has led to short-term positive results with the appointment of six bishops recognized by the pope and the Communist Party, he said.

“Whatever communication they are having hasn’t thus far affected the release of their cardinal in Hong Kong, of folks who have been imprisoned for practicing their Catholic faith,” David Curry, another commissioner, said Oct. 28.

“I personally think the Vatican is willfully overlooking the egregious use of the agreement as justification of a crackdown on the underground church.”

While Schneck praised the “long game” approach that characterizes Vatican diplomacy, he voiced skepticism that the agreement would lead to significant change.

“When it was originally signed,” Curry said, “I believe the rationale from the Vatican was to show good faith with the Chinese Communist Party with the hope that it would open up some kinds of freedoms for other Christians within the country.

“Unfortunately, that hope has not panned out,” he added.

‘Things have gotten worse in China’

Curry, whose organization Open Doors USA advocates for persecuted Christians around the world, pointed to the technological means the Chinese government uses to monitor the religious activity of its citizens as an example of the “crackdown on religious expression” under President Xi Jinping.

The members of the so-called underground church, meeting online and in people’s homes, sometimes are arrested for practicing their faith, he said.

“Things have undoubtedly gotten worse in China, no question, as it relates to religious freedom,” said Curry, adding any religious practice in the country is allowed only under the watchful eye of the government and must obey Communist Party rules.

“In some ways,” Curry continued, the Sino-Vatican agreement “has emboldened the Communist Party because they are using the agreement to say that anyone who doesn’t practice in an officially recognized church is therefore operating illegally.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom plans to file a report to Congress and the administration that addresses the effect that the Vatican deal with China has had on religious freedom in the country. The commission mentioned the agreement and Zen’s arrest in its 2022 report.

This isn’t the first time U.S. government officials have been at odds with the Vatican’s rekindling of relations with China. While visiting Rome and the Vatican in September of 2020, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested the agreement compromised the Vatican’s ability to act as “a moral witness” for human rights in China.

“I think it would be very difficult for the Vatican now to be able to hold China accountable later for whatever is occurring under this agreement,” Schneck said.

Schneck, who described himself as a loyal Catholic and “a strong supporter of Pope Francis,” lamented the fact that the Sino-Vatican agreement has become a battleground for conservative and liberal factions in the church.

Catholics who have been critical of Pope Francis more broadly tend to criticize the deal, while defenders of the agreement praise it as a symbol of the pope’s efforts to build bridges and promote dialogue with Beijing.

“It’s too bad that it’s become a political football between left and right within the church,” Schneck said. “This is something that needs to be looked at with much more objectivity and separate from the polarization and squabbles on one side and the other.”

PLANO (BP)—Halfway between Possum Trot and Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ky., Steven Curtis Chapman grew up hearing his father intervene with prayer when family discord arose.

“I remember as a little boy hearing my dad pray prayers like: ‘God, I don’t know how to be a good father or a good husband ‘cause I didn’t have a dad in my life. But you’re my Father now, and will you please teach me how to do that?’

“And so, as a little guy, I got to see the change that Jesus would make in a heart, and in a life in my own dad and my mom, and my whole family,” Chapman said. “It didn’t fix everything. … We were still a mess. But there was this hope.”

Chapman shares a snippet of his journey in the latest “I Am Second” short film, a series of video testimonies featuring a diversity of Christian celebrities produced by a Plano-based ministry.

His testimony comes just weeks after the Oct. 14 release of “Still,” his latest album in a decades-long career distinguishing him as the most-awarded artist in Christian music history.

Describing himself as a “fixer,” his testimony also comes 14 years after a personal family tragedy he couldn’t fix, the accidental death of his 5-year-old daughter Maria Sue, hit by an SUV driven by Chapman’s own teenage son on a roadway in front of the family’s Franklin, Tenn., home.

“It’s been 14 years of a journey with my family of grief and questions and confusion and anger and: ‘God are we going to survive this? How are we going to survive this?’” Chapman said in the video.

“For a guy who’s a fixer, to ultimately face the most unfixable thing you could ever imagine as a parent, as a husband: How am I going to lead my family through this, knowing that most marriages and families don’t survive the loss of a child, because grief and that kind of grief is so devastating?”

‘Mountains and Valleys’

Maria Sue’s death happened at one of the highest moments in Chapman’s life in May 2008. Just hours previously, Chapman celebrated his oldest daughter Emily’s engagement. The family was planning to celebrate his son Caleb’s high school graduation. “Mountains and Valleys” is the video’s title.

He speaks of mountaintops beyond anything he “could have ever imagined” and “very, very, very deep valleys, deeper” than he “ever could have imagined.”

“Really, my songs have just been kind of tearing pages out of my journal of my life and saying: ‘This is what I’m learning. This is what I’m struggling with,’” Chapman said. “Taking three steps forward, I take two steps back, some days 20 steps back. And I’m going to talk to you about that journey as honestly and as vulnerably as I can.”

Chapman’s songs include 49 No. 1 singles and have won him five Grammys and 59 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. He’s sold 11 million albums, including 10 gold or platinum works. But his admirers view him as relatable.

“We feel like when you sing, it might not be the greatest voice that makes us stop in our tracks, or whatever,” he said many have told him, “but you kind of feel like a friend just sitting down in the car beside me, just telling me your story and encouraging me in my journey.”

He describes adoption as one of the most amazing parts of his journey with wife Mary Beth, offering challenges and blessings as they navigated life with three biological and three adopted children.

“So many ways I’ve wrestled and had to say, ‘OK, God, I don’t get this,’” Chapman said. “And yet, in all of this journey, the more I understand about who God is, the more I learn is that he says: ‘Bring all of it to me. I already know it anyway. I’m God. I already know you’re angry. I already know you’re confused. I already know all of that. Will you just come to me? And will you trust me?’”

He is strengthened by the fact that God knows everything.

“We only see a little part of the story,” he said. “And that’s what we have held onto. That’s what I have held onto, as a dad, as a husband, as a follower of Jesus. The story is not over yet, that I only see this little part.

“But the promises of God that there’s a day coming when he’s going to wipe every tear from our eyes. He’s going to make all the things that are broken whole again, and he’s not going to waste any part of our story.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke took the stage at the ReAwaken America Tour in Pennsylvania over the weekend, the throngs who had come out to hear conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric about Democratic candidates instead heard Locke aim some of his sharpest criticism at Pope Francis.

“If you trust anybody but Jesus to get you to heaven, you ain’t going,” Locke said, his voice rising. “You say, ‘Well what about the pope?’ He ain’t a pope, he’s a pimp … He has prostituted the church.”

It was an odd note to strike at a rally where perhaps the biggest name on the speaker’s roster was retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a Catholic who later made it a point to mention his faith while voicing support for Christian nationalism.

“I’m a Christian. I’m a Catholic, by the way,” Flynn said.

Locke had aired his anti-Catholic position a few days before in a Facebook post advocating for burning rosaries and “Catholic statues.” When another user urged him to abandon the anti-Catholic rhetoric, Locke doubled down.

“Catholicism is idolatry 100%” he wrote. “I will not be silent whether you follow or not. It’s a false pagan religion and so filled with perversity it’s ridiculous.”

Theological differences more obvious

Anti-Catholic rhetoric long has been a theme in nativist American thought, which includes some forms of extremist Protestant Christian agitators such as the Ku Klux Klan. But in the current surge that fuels the ReAwaken gatherings and others like it, Christian nationalist ideology has served as a glue holding together a wide range of right-wing coalitions.

Locke’s remarks injected an uneasy tension, raising the prospect that what was once a unifying force is now prone to causing potential divisions in right-wing ranks.

The theological differences among the hardline Christian nationalist groups—some now emboldened to the point of embracing the Christian nationalist label— have been present from the start.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, who rose to national prominence as an early supporter of then-candidate Donald Trump, is an ardent purveyor of Christian nationalism. As far back as 2018, Jeffress preached an Independence Day-themed sermon titled “America is a Christian nation,” and he now sells a book of the same name.

Before then, the pastor was known for railing against the Catholic Church. In 2010 he argued it was little more than a “cult-like, pagan religion,” adding, “Isn’t that the genius of Satan?”

A year later, he also decried the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a “cult” and a “false religion.”

But Jeffress and other faith leaders’ sectarian rhetoric faded as they made common cause in support for the president. After Trump was voted out of office, Catholics and conservative Protestants were unified in the Stop the Steal movement.

By the time the movement culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a curious form of Trumpian ecumenism had taken hold, as rioters of several faiths prayed together as they led the assault.

In the aftermath of Jan. 6, several types of extremists gravitated toward Christian nationalism and claimed it as their own, some linking it to opposition to pandemic restrictions, masks and vaccines, and others incorporating the ideology into attacks on LGBTQ people.

Variant forms of Christian nationalism

But within this cohort, the different variants of Christian nationalism began to show themselves and develop. Even as Locke was becoming a major Christian nationalist voice, Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist head of the group America First, and a Catholic, was on the rise as well. While Locke has advocated for burning rosaries, Fuentes has celebrated the idea of “Catholic Taliban rule.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Torba, the head of the alternative social media website Gab, which has been widely shamed for sharing antisemitic messages, has presented in a new book another form of Christian nationalism, one that rails against groups that center on End Times theology. Torba and his co-author refer to these ideas as “an eschatology of defeat” and blame their advocates for a moral decline of society.

“You cannot simultaneously hope for a revival of Christian faithfulness in our nation while expecting the world to end at any moment,” Torba and his coauthor wrote.

Torba’s critique is not likely to go down well with various evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions that have made the End Times central to their message, among them Trump’s biggest supporters. Jeffress has published two books focused on the topic — Countdown to the Apocalypse and Twilight’s Last Gleaming.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, who made headlines earlier this year for arguing against the separation of church and state, also outlined support for the theology in a recent speech.

“Many of us in this room believe that we are in the last of the last days,” she told attendees at a Republican dinner in Tennessee. “You get to be a part of ushering in the second coming of Jesus.”

These differences are unlikely to affect the Christian nationalists’ common front immediately or slow their approach to the coming elections. Hardline Christian nationalists across the ideological spectrum are more apt to focus on Democratic candidates and their supporters as a common enemy.

Nor are figures such as Locke likely to topple a conservative Christian coalition that dates back to the 1970s, when a truce was struck between the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and the anti-abortion Catholic right.

If Trump runs for reelection in 2024, it’s likely many who trumpet Christian nationalism will simply set their differences aside—just as they did the last two times he ran for office.

But with many on the extreme right distancing themselves from Trump, and the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccinations no longer making the headlines they once were, the faithful who are drawn to rallies such as ReAwaken America may encounter new fissures as they debate new causes to rally behind—or against.

Some Christian nationalist voices, such as Jeffress, have already peeled off.

“There is no legitimate faith-based reason for refusing to take the vaccine,” the pastor told the Associated Press last year. He also declined to argue that the 2020 election was “stolen,” a common refrain among many right-wing Christian nationalists.

And even if attendees and speakers at the ReAwaken America tour write off pastors like Jeffress, a question remains: How long will Catholics like Flynn abide attacks on their faith from even their most stalwart Protestant collaborators?

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Forty-five percent of Americans believe the United States should be a “Christian nation,” one of several striking findings from a sweeping new Pew Research Center survey examining Christian nationalism.

But researchers say respondents differed greatly when it came to outlining what a Christian nation should look like, suggesting a wide spectrum of beliefs.

“There are a lot of Americans—45 percent—who tell us they think the United States should be a Christian nation. That is a lot of people,” Greg Smith, one of the lead authors of the survey, said in an interview. “(But) what people mean when they say they think the U.S. should be a Christian nation is really quite nuanced.”

The findings, unveiled Oct. 27, come as Christian nationalism has become a trending topic in midterm election campaigns. Even some members of Congress such as Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene identify with the term and others, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, express open hostility to the separation of church and state.

In the road show known as the ReAwaken America Tour, unapologetically Christian nationalist leaders crisscross the country spouting conspiracy theories and baptizing people.

Pew’s findings suggest the recent surge in attention paid to Christian nationalism has had an effect on Americans, although some suggested politicians may be staking out positions to the right of those who merely say America should be a “Christian nation.”

“I used to think it was a positive view, but now with the MAGA crowd, I view it as racist, homophobic, anti-woman,” read one response to the question, according to the report.

One-third see US as Christian nation today

According to the survey, conducted in September, 60 percent of Americans believe the United States originally was intended to be a Christian nation, but only 33 percent say it remains so today.

Most (67 percent) say churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters, with only 31 percent endorsing faith groups’ expressing views on social and political issues.

Even those who believe America should be a Christian nation generally avoided hardline positions. Most of this group (52 percent) said the government should never declare any particular faith the official state religion. Only 28 percent said they wanted Christianity recognized as the country’s official faith.

Similarly, 52 percent said the government should advocate for moral values shared by several religions, compared with 24 percent who said it should advocate for Christian values alone.

But the pro-Christian America group was more split on the separation of church and state: 39 percent said the principle should be enforced, whereas 31 percent said the government should abandon it. An additional 30 percent disliked either option, refused to say or didn’t know.

Most in the group (54 percent) also said that if the Bible and U.S. laws conflict, Scripture should have more influence than the will of the people.

Smith stressed that some respondents who expressed support for a Christian nation “do mean that they think Christian beliefs, values and morality ought to be reflected in U.S. laws and policies.”

But many respondents “tell us that they think the U.S. should be guided by Christian principles in a general way, but they don’t mean that we should live in a theocracy,” he said. “They don’t mean that they want to get rid of separation of church and state. They don’t mean they want to see the U.S. officially declared to be a Christian nation. It’s a nuanced picture.”

Partisanship shape responses

Among U.S. adults overall, only a small subset believe the U.S. government should declare Christianity the national faith (15 percent), advocate for Christian values (13 percent) or stop enforcing the separation of church and state (19 percent).

Partisanship strongly shaped the responses, with those who are Republican or lean toward the GOP far more likely to say America should be a Christian nation (67 percent) than Democrats or Democratic leaners (29 percent). Republicans were also significantly more likely to say the founders intended the country to be a Christian nation (76 percent), although nearly half of Democrats agreed (47 percent).

These divisions appear to reflect national political trends. Democratic lawmakers—especially members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus—have voiced concerns about Christian nationalism’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But many congressional Republicans have declined to condemn the ideology, with only a small number affirming support for the separation of church and state.

The outsized presence of white evangelicals in the GOP may play a role. In Pew’s survey, white evangelicals were the faith group most likely to say America should be a Christian nation (81 percent). But they were followed by Black Protestants (65 percent), a heavily Democratic group. White nonevangelical Protestants were more split, with 54 percent agreeing the U.S. should be a Christian nation.

Catholics were the only major Christian group where a majority did not express support of the idea (47 percent) of a Christian nation, though they were split along racial lines: Most white Catholics (56 percent) agreed America should be a Christian nation, while Hispanic Catholics were the least likely of any Christian group to say the same (36 percent).

Few Jewish (16 percent) or religiously unaffiliated Americans (17 percent) thought the U.S. should be a Christian nation, followed by an even smaller subset of atheists and agnostics (7 percent).

Age is also a factor. Among Americans ages 65 or older, 63 percent said America should be a Christian nation, compared with 23 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Pew asked half of respondents to define a “Christian nation” in their own words and used their open-ended answers to group most people into three categories: those who see it as general guidance of Christian beliefs and values in society (34 percent); those who see it as being guided by beliefs and values, but without specifically referencing God or Christian concepts (12 percent); and those who see it as having Christian-based laws and governance (18 percent).

Those who think the United States should not be a Christian nation were more likely to describe a Christian nation as having Christian-based laws and governance (30 percent) than did those who believe it should be (6 percent).

The survey polled the other half of respondents about their views on Christian nationalism. Among all U.S. adults, fewer than half (45 percent) said they had heard anything about the term. Non-Christians were more likely than Christians overall to have heard or read anything about Christian nationalism (55 percent vs. 40 percent), and Democrats were more likely to express familiarity than Republicans (55 percent vs. 37 percent).

But researchers noted while 54 percent of those surveyed said they hadn’t heard of Christian nationalism, respondents overall were far more likely to view the concept unfavorably (24 percent) than favorably (5 percent), suggesting that people familiar with the concept generally view it negatively.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Three-quarters of Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction, and the majority of many religious groups agree with that sentiment, a new report shows. But they don’t all agree on what, exactly, has gone wrong.

The 2022 American Values Survey by Public Religion Research Institute finds religious Americans hold generally negative views of the state of the country, ranging from 93 percent of white evangelical Protestants to 59 percent of Black Protestants.

“Though most Americans favor moving forward, a sizable minority yearn for a country reminiscent of the 1950s, embrace the idea that God created America to be a new promised land for European Christians, view newcomers as a threat to American culture, and believe that society has become too soft and feminine,” the 60-page report states.

“This minority is composed primarily of self-identified Republicans, white evangelical Protestants, and white Americans without a college degree.”

PRRI President Robert P. Jones, who discussed the survey Oct. 27 at Washington’s Brookings Institution, said the results are striking to him despite his spending years studying U.S. cultural and political patterns.

“I’m still continually struck by how by party, by race, by religion, we are in many ways factions and worlds apart,” he said. “We have the two political parties, essentially, defending different histories, living in different realities, and even promoting two essentially incompatible views of America’s future.”

PRRI’s survey addressed questions of race, sexuality, abortion and immigration, as well as sentiments about the country’s origins.

About a third (31 percent) of Americans agree with the statement: “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.”

Those surveyed who said they believe God intended America to be a new promised land for European Christians are more than twice as likely as those who disagree to say true American patriots may have to resort to violence (32 percent vs. 14 percent).

Half of white evangelical Protestants agree, while smaller percentages of other religious groups do: 37 percent of white mainline Protestants, 36 percent of white Catholics, 32 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 22 percent of Black Protestants and non-Christian religious Americans and 16 percent of the religiously unaffiliated.

Americans are split about whether immigrants to the United States are a threatening (40 percent) or a strengthening factor for society (55 percent), with white Christian subgroups significantly more likely than others in the country to side with the idea that newcomers from other countries are a threat.

White evangelical Protestants, at 51 percent, are the only faith group where a majority say immigrants are “invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.”

By far among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants (61 percent) also agree “society as a whole has become too soft and feminine.” Americans in general are split on this notion, with 42 percent agreeing and 53 percent disagreeing.

The survey found the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is a significant motivator to vote in the midterm elections. That ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, which in 1973 determined abortion was a constitutional right.

Some 50 percent of white evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants and white Catholics said they were more likely to vote after the ruling in June, as did 48 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 47 percent of non-Christian religious Americans and 45 percent of white mainline Protestants.

A distinct minority across the board—from 35 percent of white evangelicals to 9 percent of the religiously unaffiliated—support laws that would make it illegal to cross state lines to obtain an abortion in a state where the procedure is permitted.

People with different religious affiliations varied in what they considered top priorities for midterm voting, but majorities of many faith categories cited “the health of our democracy” as being critical to their vote.

A majority of Americans planning to head to the polls (57 percent) listed the health of our democracy and increasing costs of housing and other everyday expenses as critical issues for their vote.

The research found disparate views among religious Americans about racial and LGBTQ issues.

Asked if “generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for Black Americans to work their way out of the lower class,” white Christians were significantly less likely to agree, while majorities of Black Protestants, religiously unaffiliated Americans, non-Christian religious Americans and Hispanic Catholics agreed.

Most white evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants, other Christians, white Catholics and white mainline Protestants say there are only two genders (female and male), compared with smaller percentages of Hispanic Catholics, religiously unaffiliated Americans and religious non-Christians.

The survey was based on a representative sample of 2,523 adults in all 50 U.S. states and was conducted online from Sept 1-11. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Serving as a visiting distinguished professor of history at Baylor University multiple times the past two decades has allowed David Bebbington to indulge what he calls his “hobby.”

He likes to visit churches and take careful notes on what he observes—“from ladies’ hats to prominent heresies” and “from the length of sermons to the choice of hymns.”

“Some people may take a few notes on the sermon. I think it’s important to keep a full record of what goes on in public worship,” said Bebbington, emeritus professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland and nonresident director of the Evangelical Studies Program at the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.

Visited 47 Baptist churches in Waco area

In addition to assorted Church of Christ, Methodist and other congregations in Central Texas, he has visited 47 Waco-area Baptist churches and recorded his impressions.

His visits have taken him to Primitive Baptist, Independent Baptist and Landmark Baptist congregations.

“At the Landmark Baptist Church, I actually liked being excluded from communion there. They view the Lord’s Supper as a church ordinance in the most distinct sense, limiting it to members of that local church. I respect the way they believe in their principles and stick to them,” he said.

Ministers have been understanding of Bebbington’s observation and note-taking in their worship services, he said.

He particularly noted the pastor of the Landmark Baptist Church made a point to let him know it’s not enough to have an academic interest in religion; a personal commitment to Christ is necessary.

“He took pains to inquire about my spiritual welfare,” Bebbington said. “I appreciated that.”

While Bebbington might have expected a note-taking white visitor to raise a few eyebrows in African American congregations, he said: “I’ve never detected any trace of suspicion. On the contrary, I’ve been met with a generosity of spirit.”

Bebbington lamented the continuing presence of nearly all-white and all-Black churches in Texas.

“I’ve not heard another race denigrated at a church I have visited, but I have observed a neglect and lack of concern for other races,” he said.

Variety among Texas Baptist churches noted

Most of the churches where he has been a guest are affiliated with Waco Regional Baptist Association, and even within Texas Baptist and Southern Baptist congregations, he observes diversity.

“I really like the variety,” Bebbington said. “I like being able to trace back where the various strands come from. Some are a long way down the trajectory from where they originated, but they still maintain some distinctive characteristics.”

At least one growing congregation has charismatic tendencies, and several use contemporary Christian music into worship services, he noted. However, others remain quite traditional, and a few incorporate elements of liturgical worship.

In the course of two decades, Bebbington has recorded how Central Texas Baptist congregations differ from Baptist churches in England and Scotland. He also has observed how Baptist churches in the Waco area have changed since he began visiting them.

‘Dying out of revivals’

On most Sunday mornings when he and his wife are in Waco, they worship at First Baptist Church. But on any given Sunday evening or when he learns about a weeknight revival service, Bebbington may attend a small African American church in an East Waco neighborhood or a remote country church.

So, he particularly views with regret two trends he has observed—the “dying out of revivals” and the discontinuance of Sunday evening worship services in many churches.

One characteristic Bebbington observed that sets Central Texas Baptist churches apart from Baptists in Great Britain is the “paucity of intercession” in worship services.

Typically, Baptist congregations in England and Scotland not only include prayers of intercession for their own members, but also for the larger body of Christ.

“That is neglected here, and it’s not a mark of churches just on the right or on the left,” he noted.

Bebbington views some ‘odd’ sights

Bebbington also pointed out worshippers at Baptist churches in England—like their Anglican brothers and sisters—“linger for personal prayer” at the conclusion of a worship service.

“I find the sudden rush to leave here and the chatter that follows the benediction very odd,” he said.

Another characteristic of most churches he has visited in the Waco area Bebbington considers “odd” is the presence of an American flag and a Christian flag at the front of the sanctuary.

“Churches here profess a commitment to the separation of church and state, but this reflects a merging of church and state,” he said.

He particularly finds troubling the image of a national flag and a symbol of Christianity at the same level.

“Love for one’s country is appropriate, but our superior allegiance is to Jesus,” he said.

What about the ordinances?

Bebbington also noted significant differences in the way Baptists in the Waco area observe the ordinances—or, as he prefers, “sacraments”—of the church, compared to Baptists in the United Kingdom.

“Baptisms here are extremely brief” and often seem rushed, he observed. Worship services in British Baptist churches often build to a baptism as their climax, Bebbington noted.

“Baptism is a powerful visual symbol, and it can be a powerful emotional experience,” he said.

In contrast, the Texas churches he observed often schedule baptism early in the service—apparently to allow the minister time to change out of his waders before the sermon.

“There are pragmatic reasons, but it can seem almost perfunctory,” he said.

Bebbington also noted with regret most Baptist churches he has observed in Central Texas schedule the Lord’s Supper once a quarter.

“In Scotland, churches nearly always have weekly communion. In England, it’s typically observed twice a month,” he said. “I genuinely feel spiritually impoverished by its absence.”

While he noted the frequency of baptisms in some Texas Baptist churches as a positive characteristic, he offered a word of concern: “The candidates for baptism here are much younger. … I hope it sticks for them, but I’m not so sure.”

Longer sermons in Texas

When it comes to whether members “stick” to a particular congregation, Bebbington has noted the “rise and fall” of several Waco-area congregations in terms of attendance and activity, but he does not discern any particular pattern to explain it.

Sermons at Baptist churches in Central Texas are significantly longer than those in Great Britain, Bebbington observed.

“Most are about a half-hour to 45 minutes. Few are less than 25 minutes. I’ve heard a sermon that lasted an hour,” he said. “By comparison, 17 minutes is the average in southern England.”

Baptists in Central Texas generally stress individualism and the priesthood of every believer rather than the priesthood of all believers and the kinship that knits them together, he observed.

Fitting into the evangelical movement

While not all the congregations would embrace the label, Bebbington would characterize all the Baptist churches he visited as evangelical.

From his historical and theological studies of evangelicalism, he developed what others now refer to as the Bebbington Quadrilateral—four identifying emphases of the evangelical movement: the Bible, the cross, conversion and activism.

Every sermon he has heard at a Baptist church in Texas was biblically based, and preachers demonstrate a strong commitment to the atoning work of Christ on the cross, although they may not articulate a specific theory of atonement, Bebbington said.

Worship services almost always include some sort of call to commitment at the end of the sermon, and that commitment includes putting faith into action, he noted.

“That’s true across the board—from the most traditional congregations to the most broad-minded and progressive churches,” he said.

Texas Baptists recognized nine public school educators as BEST—Baptist Educators Serving Texas.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas established the annual BEST Awards to celebrate Christian educators who are living out their faith daily among their students and to honor the Texas Baptists institutions that taught them.

The 2022 award recipients are:

• Adolfo Chavez, a graduate of the Baptist University of the Américas and school counselor in the Midland Independent School District.
• Jay Fischer, a graduate of Baylor University and middle school principal in Midway Independent School District.
• Phairen Yaites Brown, a graduate of Dallas Baptist University and school counselor in the Crowley Independent School District.
• Adrien Kenebrew, a graduate of East Texas Baptist University and basketball coach in the Hamshire-Fannet Independent School District.
• Molly Nipper, a graduate of Houston Baptist University and STEM teacher in the Spring Branch Independent School District.
• Pat Hardy, a graduate of Howard Payne University and Texas State Board of Education representative for District 11.
• Nicole Flores, a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University and elementary school teacher in the Abilene Independent School District.
• Lynda Solis, a graduate of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and director of bilingual and ESL services in the Waxahachie Independent School District.
• Cash Fortune, a graduate of Wayland Baptist University and principal in Petersburg Independent School District.

Cooperative Program Director Bruce McCoy and Texas Baptists’ office of Cooperative Program ministry coordinated the award process.

The annual BEST award is presented to select graduates of Texas Baptist institutions who currently serve in faculty or administration roles in the Texas public school system and are members of a church supportive of the BGCT. One graduate is selected from each Texas Baptist educational institution.

Graduates from these universities represent 6 percent to 8 percent of the more than 357,000 public school educators in Texas.

“We are so pleased to announce these splendid educators as this year’s recipients of the BEST Award. Each of these top-tier educators are representative of thousands of our graduates who serve as salt and light in the public schools across Texas,” McCoy said.

“They are standard bearers for quality education and personal integrity. They represent Jesus for us daily in and through their diligent and vital work.”

Award recipients will be honored during the 2022 BGCT annual meeting Nov. 13-15 in Waco.

WHEATON, Ill. (RNS)—Wheeler Parker Jr. still remembers clearly the moment as a teenager he thought he was going to die.

Parker was 16 years old, visiting family in Mississippi, when he woke in the early morning hours to the sound of voices in the house. Moments later, the door to his bedroom opened and a man pointed a flashlight and a pistol in his face.

He shut his eyes tight, but the shot never came.

The man moved on to the next bedroom and the next before finding and kidnapping his cousin, Emmett Till.

It was the last time he saw his best friend alive, Parker, now in his 80s, told a packed concert hall Oct. 25 at Wheaton College, the evangelical flagship school in the Chicago suburbs.

What happened next—Till’s brutal murder and his mother’s decision to allow an open casket at the 14-year-old victim’s funeral, so the country could see what had been done to her son—shone a light on racial violence in the United States and became a catalyst for the civil rights movement.

“A picture’s worth a thousand words. That picture made a statement. It went throughout the world, all over the world, and it still speaks,” Parker said of the photographs of Till in his casket, taken by David Jackson and first published in Jet magazine.

The story of Till continues to resonate because it “provides us with a lens to understand racial conflict in our own moment,” said Theon Hill, associate professor of communications at Wheaton College and primary organizer and moderator of Tuesday’s event, “Remembering Emmett Till: A Conversation on Race, Nation and Faith.”

“When we see George Floyd killed right in front of us due to the officer’s knee,” said Hill, “when we see Breonna Taylor’s death, when we see Ahmaud Arbery, we’re trying to make sense of what’s happening, and Till’s death, as tragic as it will always be, provides us with a grammar to understand this is what’s happening and this is how you might respond in your moment.”

Till’s death has enduring relevance

The enduring relevance of Till’s death is apparent in the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime and signed in March by President Joe Biden, nearly 70 years after Till’s murder.

It’s also borne out in the critical acclaim for a new film, Till, centering on Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, and her fight for justice for her son. In January, Parker will publish his recollections of his cousin, A Few Days Full of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till.

It was 30 years before anybody asked Parker for his account of what had happened over the handful of days in 1955 he and his cousin, who lived in Chicago, spent in Mississippi visiting family, according to Parker, the last surviving witness to Till’s abduction.

In Parker’s account, Till is a jokester, the boy next door he accompanied fishing, picnicking and on other trips. When his cousin found out he was planning to take the train down South to visit his grandfather, he insisted on going too.

“If you didn’t live in Mississippi at that time or experience what it was like, you have no idea what it was like,” Parker said.

He had lived in the South until he was 7 and knew “what you had to do to stay alive and what could happen to you,” he said.

Till didn’t.

When the younger boy whistled in the presence of a white woman outside a store, Parker said, the cousins left in a hurry. He worried what could happen in a place and time when a Black man couldn’t so much as look at a white woman, he said.

Life-changing event

But days passed, and they’d nearly forgotten about the incident. Then came the moment Parker heard voices in his grandfather’s home at about 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, asking about the boys from Chicago.

“Sunday morning should be the safest place on earth for a young man in his house—on Sunday morning, waiting to go to church,” he said.

Shaking and sure he was about to die, he prayed, “God, if you just let me live, I’m going to get my life together.”

That Monday, he returned to Chicago alone, his life changed “completely,” said Parker, now pastor and district superintendent of the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ in Summit, Ill.

What happened to Till changed the country, too.

Dave Tell, author of the 2019 book Remembering Emmett Till, told the audience at Wheaton he had become invested in civil rights because of Till’s story.

“The Till story prompted a new generation to stand up for justice, and I think the good news of the night is that the Till story—Reverend Parker’s story—is still motivating a new generation,” Tell said.

It’s a story, he said, the United States needs to hear today more than ever. Considering the stories of Floyd and others against the backdrop of Till’s murder, it’s hard to minimize their killings as “a problem of a bad apple or bad cop,” he said.

Church has a role in telling the story

And the church has a role to play in sharing that story, both Tell and Parker agreed.

The biblical Book of Genesis tells the story of Abel, murdered by his brother Cain, Tell pointed out. In the story, God says Abel’s blood cries out to him from the ground, where Cain tried to bury what he did.

Tell asked: If God demands that voices that have been buried be brought to light as part of the work of justice and healing, shouldn’t the church?

“We’ve got to keep the legacy going—got to keep the story going—and not with animosity,” Parker added.

“Just tell the story. It’s history. It’s real. Tell what happened.”

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)—Lead Pastor Andy Wood anticipates the number of women clergy will grow at Saddleback Church, something likely to heighten the discussion over the congregation’s relationship to the Southern Baptist Convention.

On Oct. 9, Wood’s wife, Stacie, preached a message at the church titled “The Courage to Slow Down” where she was listed as “teaching pastor” on the screen.

In Andy Wood’s bio on the church website’s leadership page, he and his wife are both referred to as “pastors.”

Teaching pastor, not overseer

In comments to Baptist Press, Wood offered clarification on his and his wife’s titles.

“Stacie and I are grateful to be called to serve at Saddleback Church,” he said. “We are not co-pastors but rather have unique roles on staff. I’m serving as the lead pastor and one of our Saddleback overseers, while Stacie is serving as one of our teaching pastors.”

Differences with other Southern Baptists on the role of a pastor doesn’t have to lead to a break in fellowship, he added.

“We believe pastoring and teaching are functions and spiritual gifts to be exercised in the church by both men and women,” Wood said. “The function of teaching and pastoring is not necessarily synonymous nor exclusive from the office of overseer.

“While many SBC churches share the same view, we are committed to stay in fellowship and unified with other SBC churches even when we disagree. Saddleback Church has a strong commitment to the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. We believe this approach is biblical and in alignment with the teachings of the New Testament as well.”

“The church should be a place where both men and women can exercise [their] spiritual gifts,” Wood recently told the Associated Press: “My wife has the spiritual gift of teaching, and she is really good. People often tell me she’s better than me when it comes to preaching, and I’m really glad to hear that.”

In announcing his retirement earlier this year, Saddleback’s founding pastor Rick Warren announced Andy and Stacie Wood would take his place at the helm.

SBC/Saddleback relationship a hot topic

Saddleback’s ties to Southern Baptists showed significant strain when a May 2021 Saddleback ordination service included three women.

That brought a motion at the 2021 SBC annual meeting in Nashville for the SBC to break fellowship with Saddleback.

At the June meeting in Anaheim, the Credentials Committee presented a recommendation for a study committee to look into ways churches assign the term “pastor” to various ministry roles.

The resulting discussion among messengers and a failed amendment to change the focus of the study committee to what makes a church in “friendly cooperation” according to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message preceded Warren addressing the crowd.

In his speech, Warren referred to “the gift of the pastorate as opposed to the office of the pastorate” while asking if “we [are] going to treat each other as allies or adversaries.”

When Warren finished, the Credentials Committee announced it would withdraw the recommendation and not call for Saddleback to be disfellowshipped “until clarity is provided regarding the use of the title ‘pastor’ for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of the lead pastor.”