Yesterday at the Prairies regional convention for the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada (FEB) our church, along with two others (Fellowship Baptist Church, Edmonton and Park City Gospel Church, Winnipeg), were voted out. Our 66 year membership in the Fellowship was terminated. We were told this was not because of our beliefs but because of our behavior.
The conflict began over gender roles in the church. The Fellowship’s national bylaws state, “In member churches, the pastoral office is reserved for qualified men recognized by the local church for the oversight of the doctrine and practice of the church.” Along with this bylaw, the Fellowship has passed a position statement, “On the Gender Issue in Pastoral Leadership In Fellowship Churches” which clearly reserves the role of pastors/elders/overseers to biblical qualified men. The Scriptural support for this position is well-founded.[1] Egalitarianism (which allows for women as elders/overseers/pastors) has gained a foothold in the church as feminism gained a foothold in our culture.
I brought my concerns to Fellowship leaders in 2016 when I discovered that churches in our region have women pastors, elders, and preachers. My concerns were dismissed and I was put in the doghouse as one causing strife. The repeated refrain is that our church is free to practice “our” way (reserving the pastoral office for biblical qualified men), but we’re not to cause trouble by insisting that others in the Fellowship follow suit. However, I would not accept that since both our bylaws and position statement establish “our” practice as the boundary for fellowship. I have no axe to grind against egalitarian churches. The issue for me was egalitarian churches in a complementarian association. In my opinion, it is disingenuous to call yourself a complementarian when you are accepting of women pastors, elders, and preachers and remain in a complementarian association. That, in my opinion, is the true cause of division, not the one who points it out.
Since I could not leave this issue alone, and was part of a regional and national initiative to shine the spotlight on the egalitarian drift in Western Canada, our church has been voted out of the Fellowship for being “sinfully divisive.”
At this point, 11 churches who were signatories on a national motion to reaffirm our complementarian convictions in the Fellowship have been removed. (Read about the 8 BC churches removed here.) Six churches were leading this initiative, four of which have now been removed from the Fellowship. Coincidence? I think not.
It is a sad day for the Fellowship. Our church will move on. I’m trusting that the Lord has good things in store for us. But it is sad to see another conservative institution drift away from Scripture. My prayer is that those complementarians who remain in the Fellowship will stand up and seek to restore this association to its biblical foundations for the honor and glory of God.
Tim Stephens
P.S. I’m planning a more fulsome response next week. Stay tuned.
For more on this issue, see https://keepfebcomplementarian.com/
[1] see Gen. 1:26–28, 2:7, 18–25, 3:1–22; Rom. 8:16–17, 12:3–8; I Cor. 11:3–9, 12: 1–31; Gal. 3:26–29; Eph. 5:21–33; Phil. 2:3–4; Col. 3:12–19; I Tim. 2:11–14, 3:1–7, 5:17–20; Tit. 1: 5–9; I Pet. 2:13–25, 3:1–7, 4:10–11, 5:1–6.