Jason Paredes is the lead pastor of Fiedler Church, a multi-campus Southern Baptist Church out of Arlington, Texas. He was one of the slim minority of Messengers at the June 2023 Southern Baptist Convention who opposed the disfellowshipping of Saddleback Church. Saddleback, as has been widely reported, was disfellowshipped for appointing a female to the pastoral office. At the 2023 Convention, Southern Baptists doubled-down on their commitment to complimentarian theology by voting (by the required two-thirds majority) to adopt the Law Amendment, which would add the following language to the SBC Constitution:
“…only churches that affirm, appoint or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by scripture, would be considered to be in friendly cooperation with the SBC.”
In order for the Law Amendment to become a permanent part of the SBC Constitution, it must be again adopted by a two-thirds majority at the next Southern Baptist Convention.
The Law Amendment should be unnecessary. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is the official statement of faith of the SBC. It already proscribes female pastors and the language that does so was added to the Baptist Faith and Message (updated from the 1963 version) in response to the influence of liberal progressivism in the SBC. Yet, there are those who will see an SBC church with a female pastor and say, “Oh well, they still closely identify with us.” Thus, the Law Amendment was put forth to end such foolish conclusions
Enter the SBC elites. At the behest of a group of former SBC presidents, the creation of a “broadly represenative” task force to study what it means for a church to be in friendly cooperation with the SBC was approved by the messengers at the 2023 Convention. SBC President Bart Barber has appointed Jason Paredes to the task force:
This is Jason Paredes. He voted to keep Rick Warren and Saddleback in the SBC. He openly states that his church has women pastors.
— Nate Schlomann (@NateSchlomann) September 14, 2023
Our SBC leaders thought it would be a good idea to put a man who is proudly in defiance of the BFM2k on the committee to decide what to do about… https://t.co/ufz99Jm3l8 pic.twitter.com/5nd2HEFD3l
Fiedler Church should be kicked out along with Saddleback for defying the BFM 2000 and the Bible for appointing female pastors and definiantly refusing to repent for doing so. Bart Barber instead appointed its pastor to be a part of a task force intended to study how it could continue to cooperate with the SBC.
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
