Newsworthy Stories We're Following

The ordination of three women at Saddleback, regardless of context and ministries, will prove to be a story worth watching this week. When a church this big and a pastor this influential make a decision this noticeable … this will test whether or not the SBC really does value “soul freedom” and “local church autonomy,” and it will also challenge the SBC’s revisions of its statement of faith:

Saddleback Church, the California-based megachurch headed by Pastor Rick Warren, announced that they ordained their first three female pastors, despite being affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, which prohibits female ordination.

In an announcement posted to their Facebook page on Friday, Saddleback said that they had a “historic night” on Thursday when they ordained their first three female pastors.

“We ordained our first three women pastors, Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty, and Katie Edwards,” Saddleback Chuch said in the post. “We commissioned three new elders, Anthony Miller, Jeremiah Goley, and Jason Williams! And we appointed Pastor Johnny Baker as the new global leader of Celebrate Recovery!”

As of Saturday afternoon, the Facebook post garnered around 575 likes and over 360 loves, but it has also garnered some critical comments from those opposed to female ordination.

Preaching and the pandemic vaccines, ugh: this is a no-brainer for many of us but pastors walk in the midst of people of different persuasions. When everything gets political preaching can’t help but wade into the mix.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed this spring, Americans’ attention turned toward the groups less likely to get the shot, including white evangelicals. …

“I know pastors who won’t even mention masks because people would leave. I’d say vaccines are even more sensitive,” said Dan DeWitt, who directs the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity at Cedarville University. “Pastors feel so constrained. They want to take care of their people, but they know one careless comment could cost them.”

The issues dividing the country in 2020 divided churches too. While pastors tried to adapt worship services and continue to provide spiritual care for the suffering and mourning, congregational disputes over politics, racial issues, and COVID-19 responses spiked. Church leaders fielded complaints for being too cautious or not cautious enough, with members threatening to leave or simply making the move over reopening plans.

After a year like that, some don’t feel comfortable publicly endorsing or rejecting the shot; maybe they would if tensions weren’t so high. Even pastors who personally trust the vaccine and would recommend it may worry that it’s not their topic to preach on or that doing so would unsettle their congregation.

Pastors — the fallout from the pandemic will be real, by Bob Smietana: Yes, Bob’s right — the pandemic taxes and vexes and tests pastors more than many know. Everything becomes more complicated.

(RNS) — Jeff Weddle, a 46-year-old, wise-cracking, self-deprecating, Bible-loving, self-described “failing pastor” from Wisconsin, was already thinking of leaving the ministry before COVID and the 2020 election.

He was, as he put it, fed up with church life after two decades as a pastor.

Then, what he called “the stupid” — feuds about politics and the pandemic — put him over the edge. People at church seemed more concerned about the latest social media dustup and online conspiracy theories — one church member called him the antichrist for his views on COVID— than in learning about the Bible.

Sunday mornings had become filled with dread over what could go wrong next.

He eventually decided, “I don’t need this anymore.” Weddle stepped down as pastor, walked out the door and hasn’t looked back.

The last eighteen months or so have been difficult for pastors like Weddle. Already stretched with the day-to-day concerns of running a congregation at a time when organized religion is on the decline, they’ve increasingly found that the divides facing the nation have made their way inside the walls of the church.

And the pandemic’s impact on church attendance is also a new reality. Who knows what the latest studies are showing? A story to follow, for sure.

The cavernous lobby was buzzing as parents rushed to drop their children at the youth ministry and other people, clutching cups of coffee, headed into the auditorium. Inside, the lights went down. The crowd of roughly 1,500 rose to their feet to greet the swell of rock music that washed over them from the stage.

It felt almost like a normal Sunday morning at Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette — almost. But several months after the megachurch resumed in-person services, more than half of the 4,000 seats at its once-burgeoning flagship campus sat empty last weekend. These days, most regular attendees across the church’s five Denver-area campuses are still participating by watching its online live streams from home, scrambling the usual communal dynamic.

Their reluctance to return is understandable while the pandemic’s embers still smolder and vaccination campaigns continue. But it poses new challenges for church leaders who are trying both to appeal to two distinct audiences — and to chart out the long-successful Flatirons’ suddenly uncertain future.