Why should Fellowship Baptist churches vote for the upcoming motion to elevate the 1997 position statement to a policy statement? Hear from Pastors in FEB Pacific about the region's egalitarian practices and the threat of suspension if they continue advocating for complementarian policies nationally. Rosedale Baptist hosts the call.

Northwest College and Seminary opposes the motion to affirm Complementarianism and the National FEB Bylaw that restricts the pastoral office to biblically-qualified men, upholding the egalitarianism of Fellowship Pacific. In this video, Dr. Barton Priebe presents pragmatic and ecumenical arguments for rejecting both the National Bylaw and the 1997 Position Statement while defending the Pacific region's Egalitarian stance. His primary objections to the Complementarian Motion presented at IMPACT '25 include:

• It attempts to "change the goalposts" for students at the seminary
• It demoralizes young women entering ministry training
• It eliminates any room for differences on the issue of female pastors
• It inappropriately elevates secondary matters to tests of fellowship

Our Response: Why Complementarianism Matters

While Dr. Priebe characterizes this as an unwelcome change, we maintain that the motion presented at the Fellowship Pacific meeting actually sought to restore the historic FEB position on gender roles—a position that has always been understood as secondary doctrine yet essential, not tertiary or irrelevant. Complementarianism represents clearly revealed Scriptural truth that FEB churches have historically upheld as second-level doctrine, essential for maintaining both unity and missiological integrity.

The Problem with Theological Minimalism

Dr. Priebe advocates for theological minimalism, arguing that holding firm on secondary doctrines creates unnecessary division and distracts from the Gospel. This minimalist approach, however, serves as a gateway to ecumenism that ultimately, in time, compromises even the Gospel itself.

Why This Matters for Mission

The practical implications are significant. Consider these fundamental questions:

1. How can we effectively plant churches without agreement on church leadership structure?
2. How can we send missionaries without consensus on what they should teach regarding biblical gender roles?

Gender roles and Complementarianism are integral to the Gospel message and biblical witness. The good news of Jesus Christ calls both men and women to embrace their biblically defined roles and find their identity in Christ, promising healing and relational harmony through obedience to God's design.

The Path Forward

No fellowship can sustainably plant churches and send missionaries while maintaining fundamental disagreements on crucial secondary doctrines—particularly one as foundational as biblical gender roles. The solution isn't theological minimalism that reduces our faith to the lowest common denominator and leads to ecumenism. Instead, we must reaffirm our historic commitment to Complementarianism as revealed in Scripture. The unity we seek comes not through abandoning distinctive doctrines, but through submission to the clear counsel of God's Word.

In April 2025, ten Fellowship Pacific Churches presented a Complementarian Motion at the Pacific Conference with two goals:

1. Clarify the ministry roles of female elders, preachers, and pastors
2. Encourage Pacific churches to reconsider the Scripture on this topic

Significant confusion existed about Fellowship Pacific's stance on female leadership. The Fellowship National Bylaws state that member churches must reserve the office of pastor exclusively for Biblically-qualified men (National Bylaw 4). Many assumed this meant that while women might hold pastoral titles, their ministry and spiritual authority would be restricted to children's or family ministries.

These ten churches did not realize that the entire region of Fellowship Pacific embraced female elders to preach and exercise spiritual authority over entire congregations, including men.

This confusion was resolved when Ms. Lorrie Wassilew testified from the platform about Fellowship Pacific's history. Having attended every town hall and conversation twenty years ago when the policy was adopted, she confirmed that Fellowship Pacific has openly embraced female elders, preachers, and pastors throughout this period. Her testimony made the Region's actual position abundantly clear.

How should Baptist churches balance autonomy and unity for maximum Gospel impact?

Autonomous governance remains foundational to our identity - each congregation free to discern God's will without earthly hierarchy. Yet the New Testament shows autonomous churches voluntarily partnering in mission. Our autonomy reaches its highest purpose when we freely choose cooperation over isolation. But that cooperation must still be Biblical and convictional, not merely pretense...

In this video, the Executive Director of Fellowship Pacific, Brent Chapman, identifies the tension between local church autonomy and cooperation for the sake of mission. Yet he clearly comes out in support of a seemingly limitless church autonomy.

The Great Commission demands unity because no single church can fulfill it alone. When we gladly and convictionally pool resources and coordinate efforts, our Kingdom impact multiplies exponentially. This cooperation must spring from shared conviction, not institutional coercion, preserving both Baptist principles and spiritual vitality.

We unite around core biblical convictions, and we must also unite around some secondary matters such as baptism, complementarianism, and church governance, to freely partner together for the Great Commission.

Such voluntary cooperation showcases the Gospel's power - independent churches, collectively shaped by the Word of God, freely choosing to strive together for Christ's glory with a shared understanding and in submission to the Scripture.

In this video, Josh Claycamp very briefly examines 1 Timothy 2-3 and demonstrates why this passage remains a universally binding church manual rather than merely a set of first-century instructions that can be dismissed for our current day.

Josh challenges the common interpretation that these chapters only applied to Timothy's specific situation in the first century, revealing the implications of such a view- if these instructions were temporary, then the church's corporate role and organizational structure for fulfilling the Great Commission would have ended 2,000 years ago...

Instead, 1 Timothy 2-3 serves as God's blueprint for organizing churches to effectively fulfill the Great Commission throughout all generations, including our Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches.

Complementarian Leadership is a part of the Great Commission because the Gospel restores relationships and heals the divide between the genders, restoring man and woman to their proper role as image bearers. The Gospel does not eradicate differences between the genders, but restores them to beauty and harmony.

While there is much more than can be said about this passage, this is only an incredibly brief treatment, and it is narrowly focused on one concern, that this passage implicates the Great Commission as found within 1 Timothy and is obviously intended to be a church manual for all times in all places.

Did you know? Did the other FEB churches in your region know? What's Really happening in our National Fellowship? 🤔

A Fellowship Pacific Board member recently spoke against complementarianism, revealing some surprising claims about church leadership and gender roles. One of the arguments made in Fellowship Pacific is that everyone knows they are egalitarian, and that there is unity... but did YOU know?

In this video, we examine three key assertions:

•  The 2005 policy did NOT contain "loopholes" that inadvertently allowed for female elders, pastors, and preachers. It was allegedly designed to promote egalitarianism from the start.
• National leadership has allegedly always known about this and been united with Fellowship Pacific.
• Female elders, preachers, and pastors are being appointed based on the "biblical requirements" of the office as recorded in Scripture.

But here's the question: was there real unity? Were everyday church members and regional FEB churches actually informed? This raises important theological discussions about biblical interpretation and church governance that affect us all.

Did you know?