Each year, the Southern Baptist Convention holds its annual Pastors’ Wives Conference which bills itself as a forum to minister to the wives of pastors. In 2023, the SBC hosted Rachel Gilson, a notorious promoter of Side B theology who led the downfall of Cru. This year, the luncheon tapped TBN host Sheila Walsh to headline the wives’ luncheon.
Born in Scotland, Sheila Walsh has been around for decades, first starting out as a recording artist before being pulled into The 700 Club with Pat Robertson in the late 80s. In the 90s, she would pursue theology and struggled with depression, which ultimately served as the basis for much of her materials. Her most famous works include It’s Okay Not to Be Okay: Moving Forward One Day at a Time and Praying Women: How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say, with her 2024 release being titled The Hope of Heaven: How the Promise of Eternity Changes Everything.
On TBN, she hosts a program called Praise while also being a cohost on Better Together. Her materials at TBN feature a range of guests both good, neutral, and bad. On one hand, her show will interview David Jeremiah, but at the same time, she will also interview Jackie Hill Perry and Lysa TerKeurst—both of whom are negative influences in the church.
Apart from issues surrounding mental health and depression, Walsh is not known as a renowned theologian but nevertheless represents an egalitarian force within the modern church. She is a gateway to false teaching and has participated with numerous false teachers of the female variety. She has even preached at megachurches like Hillsong, Transformation, Saddleback, and James River Church. In practice, she has functioned as a female pastor while also interacting with numerous false teachers that cater specifically to women. Her participation in the 2014 Unwrap the Bible Conference at Lakewood Church had her alongside Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer, which notoriously ended with Moore “commissioning” eleven thousand attendees.
It should go without saying that such luncheons themselves are a sign of excess and therefore unnecessary, but it is more egregious that it is used to subvert true doctrine to the pastors’ wives on the eve of many contentious battles. Despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s outward commitment to “complementarianism,” they have invited a female teacher to speak to their women’s ministry event.
In practice, they are soft egalitarians. They are fine with female pastors, provided they are subject to male “lead pastors.” Lifeway exists to promote female authors and “theologians” while being managed by an egalitarian. SBC seminaries admit female students who then become pastors or egalitarian advocates themselves.
Even though Sheila Walsh is not as dangerous as Rachel Gilson, she is nonetheless a gateway to subversion and bad doctrine while reflecting the larger theological degradation of the SBC.
Source: TBN’s Sheila Walsh Headlines SBC Pastors’ Wives Luncheon
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