Will the SBC keep Lakepointe after kicking out Saddleback?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 6, 2025.

Given how often Dallas megachurch pastors have been in the news for abuse scandals or for run-of-the-mill sacralized misogyny over the past year, it’s only fitting that the Southern Baptist Convention would host its 2025 annual meeting in Dallas.

When they meet next week, one of the most glaring hypocrisies will be their unwillingness to hold Josh Howerton, who is one of those Dallas megachurch pastors, and Lakepointe Church to the same standard they held Rick Warren and Saddleback Church in 2023.

Saddleback came under fire in 2021 after ordaining three women who were longtime staff members. When Saddleback named Andy Wood as successor to Rick Warren, they also named Andy’s wife, Stacie, as a teaching pastor. So the SBC removed Saddleback Church — its largest and most influential church by far — from the denomination

But that same year, Lakepointe Church invited Beth Moore to preach on Mother’s Day.

And just like Saddleback, Lakepointe’s affirmation of women preaching extends to calling female pastors as well. According to a former leader at Lakepointe, “Josh Howerton does believe in female pastors and Lakepointe does ordain female pastors, allows women to preach during weekend services, and allows women to hold the title of pastor as employees of Lakepointe.”

For example, despite the fact that Lakepointe’s leadership page is password protected, Tiffany Rutledge says on her social media profile she is the “central marriage groups pastor for Lakepointe Church.”

Additionally, Pamela Baltazar preached for Lakepointe’s Mother’s Day service this year.

The former Lakepointe leader who spoke with Baptist News Global said Lakepointe’s position “is bizarre because Saddleback was removed from the SBC for the very thing Lakepointe does openly.”

Of course, some may point to the fact that Lakepointe still holds to male headship in the highest levels of pastoral leadership. For example, when Baltazar preached on Mother’s Day, she said she was preaching “under the fathers of this house — our pastors, our elders.”

But Saddleback essentially holds the same position. In his 2023 interview with Christianity Today Editor in Chief Russell Moore, Warren said despite allowing women to preach, “In our church, we’ve decided that the senior pastor is to be a man, a married man of one wife.”

So why are Rick Warren and Saddleback Church removed, while Josh Howerton and Lakepointe Church allowed to remain? The only substantive difference seems to be Warren’s publicly kind demeanor in contrast to Howerton’s openly misogynistic demeanor. But now that Warren has retired, his public kindness is no longer a threat to the SBC. Instead, Lakepointe continues to be led by Howerton, while Saddleback is led by Wood.

And when we compare these two men, they are virtually identical in every bad way imaginable.

Andy Wood, Josh Howerton and Jana Howerton at a conference. (Via Facebook)

The Strategic Launch Network

Both Howerton and Wood were mentored by Steve Stroope, who was the congenial  founding pastor of Lakepointe Church before the leadership transitioned to Howerton. Stroope also founded The Strategic Launch Network in 2007.

When Andy Wood started South Bay Church in California in 2009, SLN reportedly loaned them $600,000, with the intention that South Bay Church would pay the money back through supporting the launch of additional churches. When the new church expanded its reach beyond South Bay, it changed its name to Echo Church in 2018. Howerton’s Lakepointe Church took credit for Wood’s Echo Church in 2019, posting on social media, “Echo Church is a church that our team planted in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Additionally, Howerton’s bio on Lakepointe’s website says one of the three things he’s most passionate about is “planting churches through the Strategic Launch Network.”

Today, the Strategic Launch Network has planted more than 70 churches, boasting a 95% success rate. Their 2025 annual gathering will be held at Lakepointe Church. And Andy Wood is one of the featured speakers.

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Building churches with the rich

In a video for SLN church planters titled “7 Systems for Donor Development,” Howerton tells SLN church planters, “You cannot outgrow the provision that your church has … because vision requires provision.” He criticizes pastors who don’t know what their donors are giving. Then while admitting the Bible prohibits showing favoritism toward the rich, he says the Bible commands being thankful for and honoring those who give, and calls anyone who disagrees with him “stupid.”

Howerton says pastors need to check any team members who aren’t giving a full tithe of their income and then meet with them if they aren’t.

He says every church service concludes with a vision moment because “people don’t give to need. They give to vision.” In other words, while Lakepointe congregants think they’re being sent out to a particular theological vision, Howerton intends to bring in money. He says he often uses a stat or a story to accomplish this.

Then Howerton suggests automating your church’s giving like a Netflix subscription, saying, “You need to have a catalytic system where you’re consistently moving people to recurring online giving.” On every seat, they have a card that says, “Automate what’s important.”

“You need to have a catalytic system where you’re consistently moving people to recurring online giving.”

For those who give, Howerton says, “We send specific, handwritten notes with some specific language I craft to people who give a gift over a certain amount. … And then we have this unique tier where every now and then somebody will sell a business or have something unique happen in their life and they give like an obscene amount of money, and I’ll just make a quick phone call. And again, that’s not favoritism. That’s showing thanks.”

He says Lakepointe provides special “financial leader lunches” to honor the people who give the most money. He starts the lunch by saying he’s not fundraising. But then he says he asks three questions “that have been fine-tuned over the course of about 12 years” in order to remind them about why they gave and to address any concerns they may have that may “unlock a new level of giving.”

In an interview with Baptist News Global, former Echo Church Planting and Missions Pastor Jason Adams-Brown said Andy Wood had a similar approach.

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.