Saddleback is Wrong: It's a Mistake to Appoint a Woman Teaching Pastor

Recently one of America’s largest churches, Saddleback in southern California, was disfellowshipped by the Southern Baptist Convention for adding a woman teaching pastor to their staff in violation of the denomination’s doctrinal statement. Saddleback was founded decades ago by Rick Warren, author of many books, including The Purpose-Driven Life. The church has many thousands in attendance at its main campus in Lake Forest, California, as well as its 18 satellite campuses.

In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Warren defended his decision to appoint a female pastor. In this video I want to examine his reasons and tell you why I think he is wrong. Warren’s chosen successor—Andy Wood—also put out a video on the church website defending the decision to appoint a woman teaching pastor—who happens to be his wife. I link the interview and the video below. You can read and watch them and come to your own conclusions.

Before anything else let me say I praise God for the ministry of Rick Warren and Saddleback Church. They have done an amazing job of furthering the kingdom and I pray God will continue to use them in a powerful way. I am just a midget compared to this mighty man of God. Having said this, I think Rick Warren is wrong on this issue and is making a mistake.

Warren and Andy Wood make four main points in defending their decision to appoint a woman teaching pastor:

First, they say this is not an important issue. Evangelical Christians disagree on things like how the atonement works or when Jesus is coming back. Why can’t we disagree on women pastors? The passages used to deny women the pastorate have hundreds of interpretations so we should just throw up our hands and say no one interpretation should be considered orthodox.

Second, Warren says there are several passages of Scripture that caused him to change his mind;

He first cites the Great Commission in Matthew 28 where Jesus tells his disciples to make disciples, baptize and teach. Warren says that this command is for everyone; both men and women are to fulfill the Great Commission, therefore this justifies women teaching men in the church.

Another passage that changed his mind was the Day of Pentecost.  He refers to Acts 2:17: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…

Warren believes that in these last days a woman shall prophesy and that means she can be the teaching pastor of a church.

…the last passage that changed his mind was the very first Christian sermon, the message of the gospel of Good News of the Resurrection, Jesus chose a woman to deliver it to men. It was  Mary Magdalene who reported to the disciples that Jesus had risen.

Warren says these three passages changed his mind on women in the pastorate.

Thirdly, they argue that they are merely trying to follow God’s design;  they insist they are not caving in to the culture; Warren says, “I understand why people get upset about this because I believed the way they did until three years ago. And I actually had to change because of Scripture.” So it is their interaction with the Bible that has prompted the appointment of women as teaching pastors.

Fourth, Warren and Wood argue that appointing a woman teaching pastor isn’t harming the testimony of anybody. And it’s a disputable issue, as Paul says in Romans 14. It’s no different than eating vegetables or observing the Sabbath.

I would like to respond to these arguments and then make a few observations of my own.

First, they argue the issue isn’t important. Maybe not to them. But it was important enough that their own denomination disfellowshipped them. It’s important enough that hundreds of books and thousands of sermons have been preached on this issue. We are disagreeing over a lot more than women pastors; we are disagreeing over the authority of Scripture; over how much to capitulate to the spirit of the age. There can be no question that this is giving in to that spirit. It goes to the heart of what the church is and what are the unique created differences between men and women, a difference being denied in the modern world. So Rick Warren and Andy Wood may think it’s not important but many of their brothers in Christ think it is.

Warren argues that hundreds of different interpretations of passages that call for a male pastorate. No there aren’t. With regard to the main passage, 1 Timothy 2:12, there are only two interpretations—either we obey it or we don’t.

With regard to the second argument, Warren cites three passages that changed his mind. None of these passages address the issue. It is a mistake we all make from time to time. We arrive at a conclusion and then shoehorn verses into our position to justify it. I think that’s what Rick is doing here. There are several passages in Scripture that directly address this issue and they do not say what Rick Warren is saying. 1 Timothy 2:12 is as clear as it can possibly be: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” This verse, and others I cite in my most recent video, do directly address this issue.

When I was in seminary a classmate, an evangelical feminist, wrote a 90 page paper on just the word authority in the text. His conclusion: You know that part where Paul says a woman is not to exercise authority over a man. He didn’t really mean that. She can. In his video Andy Wood uses the same tortured logic to arrive at the same conclusion.

The Acts 2:17 passage—a quote from the Old Testament prophet Joel—has been used for a hundred years by Pentecostals to defend women pastors, but the text is not addressing the life of the church or its offices.

And Mary Magdalene’s so-called sermon on Jesus’ resurrection? Mary was giving an eyewitness report on what she had seen. To call this preaching a sermon to men is ridiculous. Was she functioning as an elder in a teaching ministry to the church? In what way was she exercising authority over men?

With regard to Warren and Wood’s third argument, that they are not caving into culture but just following God’s design; does it strike you as unusual that until a few years ago everyone agreed on what the Bible said about this subject. This new insight into Scripture has only recently been discovered. Warren says that is true of himself. He read the Bible his whole life and never noticed this until three years ago. In the nearly 2,000 years of church history no one has ever seen this before. Not Catholics or Protestants, not liberals or conservatives, not Christians of any denomination. If God is speaking to Rick Warren and Andy Wood about this it is worth asking why He hasn’t spoken to any of the millions of church leaders in the past. And why are the vast majority of church leaders today not hearing this message.

And their fourth argument, that this is really just a harmless disagreement among friends; millions of Christians don’t agree. We believe this is a serious doctrinal error and will cause great harm to the church. At the end of his video Wood says, “If you don’t agree with us we will bless you as you seek another church.” That doesn’t sound harmless to me. That sounds quite threatening.

A few observations:

Rick and Andy say God is leading them to appoint a woman teaching pastor? There are a number of denominations in America that are ordaining women pastors in large numbers but I do not hear them claiming that God is speaking to them. They are theological liberals who do not even really believe in a speaking God, at least not in the biblical sense.

Andy Wood says he church worldwide is looking for good examples of churches empowering women for ministry. No it’s not. The SBC has about 50,000 churches. Five of them are doing this including Saddleback. That’s one out of 10,000.  That’s not a lot of churches looking for guidance on this issue.  Is there a clamor for this in the churches of Africa? Asia? Latin America? No. 

This decision is a mistake; it will affect Saddleback negatively in the long run. I am glad Rick Warren’s revelation on women teachers came late in his ministry. If it had come early it would have diminished his effectiveness. Saddleback will continue to be rich and influential but in time this decision will hurt their ministry.

I would love to hear what you think. Please comment below. And may the great God of the church bless you this day in a mighty way.

More: See my recent video, “What is the Role of Women in the church?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhSitSo_nM

Saddleback disfellowshipped: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/saddleback-church-southern-baptist-sbc-disfellowship-female.html

Rick Warren defends his decision to appoint women teaching pastors: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/march-web-only/rick-warren-russell-moore-saddleback-church-women-preaching.html?utm_source=CT+Daily+Briefing+Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=722630&utm_content=12578&utm_campaign=email

A good treatment of the historic orthodox position: https://founders.org/articles/only-men-may-be-pastors/

How many female clergy are there? In What denominations do they serve? https://www.wataugademocrat.com/community/amid-growth-in-leadership-one-fifth-of-u-s-clergy-are-female/article_739b14a1-212a-5d06-b429-4d888a369255.html#:~:text=They%20were%20followed%20by%20the,percent%20and%2025%20percent%2C%20respectively.