Eight congregations have split from the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) following the denomination’s decision to ordain women and allow them to hold the title “pastor.”
The change was approved by a majority of delegates at the Alliance’s general council in June, after several years of discussions. According to an internal study, this is supported by more than 60 percent of the denomination of approximately 414,000 people.
Covenant women could previously be “consecrated” to ministry and serve as “consecrated women of God,” preaching and teaching even in Sunday services, at the discretion of local churches. The Alliance has a history of encouraging women to preach and sending them to plant churches while placing restrictions on their “ecclesial authority.” The updated policy regime maintains this distinction and does not allow women to serve as elders or senior pastors in CMA churches. The consecration process will now culminate in ordination.
“We take a rather unique centrist position in our policy on this issue,” CMA Vice President Terry Smith told CT. “For some, it went beyond what their beliefs allowed them to go. »
Elders of Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone, North Carolina, voted unanimously to separate in July.
“This decision was not easy. In fact, it saddens us,” Senior Pastor Scott Andrews. said. “Our hearts are saddened to see the direction we believe the AMC is taking that we simply cannot follow. »
Andrews called the shift “a significant step toward egalitarianism, which eliminates all gender distinctions in the roles of men and women in the Church.”
The church is one of the largest and most important CMA congregations in the South. Vice President Mike Pence visited in November 2020 as a special guest of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham. Just over 1,000 people attend each Sunday, and on the congregation’s website, new arrivals are directed to a special page with information about the church’s commitment to complementarianismdistinct from the generalWhat we believe” statement.
According to Andrews, “Alliance is the same church we were two months (and) 40 years ago. It is not us who have changed; it is the CMA that has changed.
The other seven separating churches have not made significant public statements about their decision to separate. The majority of them are in the CMA’s Southern District, according to several sources involved in the inner workings of the denomination. Area Superintendent Mick Noel visited congregations in East Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle in an attempt to calm things down . Area church leaders will gather for a regular conference in the Savannah area the second week of October.
Noel declined to speak to CT about individual congregations being departed.
“My role is to guide district churches as they work on these issues,” he said in an email. “The Alliance has always been a community of congregations closely centered on Christ and his mission. My job is to remind us all of this commitment and to encourage grace and kindness toward those who have differing opinions on minor matters.
Some pastors in the region also promote the message of the power of unity for the sake of the Gospel.
In anticipation of the general council meeting, Duane Mabee said his congregation in Hixson, Tennessee, that “our ability to maintain loving unity and work together despite our differences is far more important than the outcome of the discussions. The world can argue and divide over important issues. Only Christ allows us to continue to love each other and work together despite deeply rooted differences.
After the decision, he recalled tell them that who is called “pastor” is “not a central issue of the gospel” and that “we must hold fast to the fundamental issues of faith, love each other deeply, and work together passionately to advance the Kingdom of Christ and promoting the glory of God.” .”
CMA President John Stumbo reminded people that the Alliance brings together different Christian traditions, uniting Wesleyan and Reformed churches that taught different things in different times about women in ministry. The movement put these disagreements aside, because it wanted to prioritize a deeper life in Christ and the work of spreading the gospel.
“This has always been Covenant at its best,” Stumbo said, “experiencing the fullness of Jesus in us, the changing heart of Christ in us, sending us out on mission into the world.”
CMA leaders also argued that differences on this issue do not indicate that some Alliance members are less committed to the authority of Scripture. They say Christians can legitimately differ on their interpretations.
After all, while the Apostle Paul clearly writes, “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12), he actually appears to have permitted and even authorized several women to exercise authority. in New Testament churches, including Phoebe (Rom. 16:1), Priscila (Rom. 16:3; Acts 18:26), Junie (Rom. 16:7) and Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2-3). The apostle Peter also noted that Paul wrote “certain things which are difficult to understand” (2 Peter 3:16), so there must be room for reasonable differences of interpretation.
“Can we not admit that perhaps my brother or sister who loves Jesus and the Scriptures and reads faithfully might come away with a different understanding? CMA Vice President Terry Smith asked CT in 2021, when the denomination was discussing the issue. “What really gets our heart pumping is getting more people involved in ministry. It’s kind of the core of who we are.
However, not everyone is happy with this approach to reading the Bible. Some pastors believe AMC leaders are undermining the authority of Scripture.
Tom Sugimura, senior pastor of an Alliance church outside Los Angeles, said obviously there could only be one correct interpretation. Christians believe in “a God who does not contradict himself”, therefore “God only has A interpretation of his Word, no twoand any confusion must be present OUR part, no her.”
However, after the vote, the Southern California congregation decided to remain in the CMA.
“We humbly accept the decision,” Sugimura wrote, “as we continue our ministry in the local church. Christ will continue to build his church and we will be his servants.
For others, however, maintaining their Covenant affiliation seemed like a betrayal of their commitment to the authority of Scripture. Staying, they said, was no longer acceptable to them.
“We have no malicious intent toward them, nor do we wish to disparage them,” Andrews said in North Carolina. “We will continue to love them and pray for them as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission – our elders simply believe it is going in a direction we cannot follow. »
Congregations that have separated from the CMA have so far taken no steps to join another denomination or network of churches. Some, notably the Alliance Bible Fellowship, are affiliated with the Gospel Coalition.