126 FEMINIST VIEWS THAT UNDERMINE SCRIPTURE
Denomination 1971 1980 1990 2000
American Baptist Church 1,693,423 1,922,467 1,873,731 1,767,462
Evangelical Lutheran Church 5,500,687 5,273,662 5,226,798 5,113,418
in America
Episcopal Church 3,024,724 2,823,399 2,445,286 2,314,756
Presbyterian Church–USA 4,649,440 4,012,825 3,553,335 3,141,566
United Methodist Church 11,535,986 11,552,111 11,091,032 10,350,629
Not all the churches in those denominations have women pastors,
of course. And not all of the individual congregations within those
denominations have adopted a liberal view of the Bible. Therefore this
information must be used with caution. Anecdotal evidence that people
have told me about over the years suggests that a detailed study of those
denominations would show that within those denominations the con-
gregations that have grown the most also have the most conservative
views of the Bible and have resisted the trend toward women pastors,
but I do not have actual data to prove this (and I am sure that people
could point to individual exceptions).^14 In any case, the argument that
churches must ordain women pastors in order to do effective evangelism
and grow in modern society simply is not supported by the evidence.
D. WE CANNOT IMMEDIATELY SEE ALL THE CONSEQUENCES OF
WOMEN BEING PASTORS
When people say there is “much blessing” from the ministries of women
pastors, I do not think they are able to see all the consequences. Once a
woman pastor and women elders are installed in a church, several other
consequences will follow:
(1) Many of the most conservative, faithful, Bible-believing members
of the church will leave, convinced that the church is disobeying
Scripture and that they cannot in good conscience support it any
longer.^15(^14) Others could object that such statistics are not conclusive because some Pentecostal and
charismatic groups have seen rapid growth even though they ordain women. I agree that groups
such as the Assemblies of God and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel have
experienced remarkable growth, but pastors within those groups also tell me that the larger
and more rapidly growing churches in those denominations have men as pastors.
(^15) To take one example, I saw this happen at an influential evangelical church in Libertyville,
Illinois, in 1996 and 1997. The pastor attempted over a period of months to add women to
the governing board of the church, and as a result perhaps ten or more of the most conserva-