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In the year 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) made complementarianism a part of its foundation for cooperation by including the doctrine in The Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Two additions to the BF&M are worth noting. /1
Article VI on “The Church”: “Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
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Article XVIII on “The Family”: “The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people…”
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/3
“…A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family…”
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“…A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ…”
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“…She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.”
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Everyone understood at the time that Complementarianism/Egalitarianism is a second order issue. Nevertheless, it was included as a basis for cooperation among our churches alongside a long list of other second order issues (e.g. baptism).
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Why? Because there were some within the denomination who believed that women should be pastors of SBC churches and that husbands were not indeed to be the leaders of their families. And those who held those views often also denied inerrancy.
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For example, the institution where I teach was once in the throes of egalitarian teaching, and many of the egalitarians on our faculty also denied inerrancy.
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Grassroots Southern Baptists were correct to view a link between inerrancy and the gender debate. They were also correct to include both issues in the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. I, for one, am grateful that they did.
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The label “complementarianism” isn’t the issue. Biblical faithfulness is the issue.
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If the Bible teaches that “A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church” and that “a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband” (Eph 5:22, 24)...
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And if the Bible teaches that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture” (1 Tim. 2:12, 3:1-7), then we ought to believe, obey, and teach these truths joyfully.
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And we ought to be grateful that grassroots Southern Baptists who came before us were faithful to contend for these truths and to elevate them as a basis for our cooperation as Southern Baptists.
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