Wanted: Courageous Men for Local Church Reform

When Andy Davis was called to be the pastor of First Baptist Church of Durham, N.C., in 1998, he did not expect the first controversial issue he would face in reforming the church to be the role of women in the church.

After all, FBC Durham had existed since 1845 and in its long history had never experienced turmoil over that issue. Shortly before Davis took office, the church voted to change its bylaws to allow for women to be deacons. In many modern-day Baptist churches deacons teach, hold positions of authority and function de facto as lay elders, which was the case at FBC Durham. Davis patiently taught the congregation on the Bible's portrayal of gender roles in the church and endured no small controversy. The congregation eventually voted to change the bylaws again to reflect biblical teaching on the role of men and women in church.

Davis said a major factor in the church's return to biblical fidelity on the issue of gender roles was the presence of a number of godly male leaders in the church who boldly stood firm with the pastor upon the teaching of Scripture. A small faction in the church dug in for a battle over female deacons, a group that had fractured the church to such a degree that it had fired three pastors in as many years. But Davis said the male leaders in the church, by God's grace, displayed profound courage, held the line and helped to restore both pastoral equilibrium and theological stability. 

In his address last week at the 2008 Southern Baptist Founders Conference in Owasso, Okla., Davis encouraged pastors to surround themselves with a group of strong, biblically-astute godly men, to stand with them in the ongoing task of local church reformation. Godly men are the key to reformation in the local church, Davis said.

"You've got to have men around you. Jesus chose out those 12 apostles to be with Him and whom He would send out to preach. Paul had his men, Timothy and Titus to train some men so that they would be qualified to teach others. Have your men around you. Reformation is led by godly men, and I do mean men."

"At First Baptist of Durham, there were godly men who were sick of what those folks were doing to good pastors and they stood up with me and said ‘no more. The word of God is being preached here and we are not going to stand for this.' And they won. You need men with faces like lions, the ones who will speak up. I hate it when you hear of men coming up after the church conference and they whisper to you, ‘We're with you pastor; we're praying for you.' You've got to have men who will stand up and say something and who will be vocal and will lead...Build a strong group of godly men around you who will lead the way in reforming a church."

May it please God to raise up scores of modern-day Martin Luthers in local congregations, men with backbones of steel, lion hearts for biblical truth and the tenderness of good shepherds leading lambs.