Baptist Women in Ministry is inviting all churches to participate in the first of what it hopes will be an annual Martha Stearns Marshall Day of Preaching.
“On the first Sunday of February each year, we will join together to celebrate hearing the voices of women as they preach in pulpits across the United States,” the organization said in a release. “As more women enter the ministry, churches have a greater opportunity to welcome them into their pulpits.”
The Day of Preaching will give churches an opportunity to educate congregations about women in ministry, the release said. Churches participating this year on Feb. 4 can do so by inviting a woman from their church staff, their congregation or their community to preach. Churches might also might invite a female professor or student from a nearby seminary to preach. In January, participating churches will be able to find a certificate on the BWIM website that they can present to their female preachers.
BWIM plans to recognize those churches that choose to participate. Church names and the name of guest preachers should be sent to Ruth Perkins Lee at [email protected] or 128 E Glenn Ave, Auburn, AL 36830. A list of participating churches and preachers will be included in the spring issue of Vocare, BWIM's newsletter.
Martha Stearns Marshall was an 18th-century Separate Baptist preacher. She often stood alongside her brother, Shubal Stearns, and spoke at Baptist meetings. She also assisted her husband, Daniel Marshall, in his churches and preached to his congregations.
In 1810, Virginia Baptist historian Robert Semple wrote: “Mr. Marshall had a rare felicity of finding in this lady, a Priscilla, a helper in the gospel. In fact, it should not be concealed that his extraordinary success in the ministry is ascribable in no small degree, to Mrs. Marshall's unwearied, and zealous cooperation. Without the shadow of a usurped authority over the other sex, Mrs. Marshall, being a lady of good sense, singular piety, and surprising elocution, has, in countless instances melted a whole concourse into tears by her prayers and exhortations!”
In the late 1750s, the Marshalls founded a Separate Baptist church at Abbott's Creek in North Carolina. There Martha served alongside her husband and “was noted for her zeal and eloquence,” and her preaching “added greatly to the interest of meetings conducted by her husband.”
The first difficulty the new church encountered was that no minister would cooperate with Stearns in ordaining Daniel. A pastor in South Carolina refused to participate in an ordination service because Daniel and the Separate Baptists “allowed women to pray in public and illiterate men to preach, and encouraged noise and confusion in their meetings.” The ordination service finally took place when Elder Ledbetter, Daniel's brother-in-law, agreed to participate in the ordination.
In 1771, the Marshalls moved to Columbia County, Ga., where they founded the first Baptist church in Georgia, located at Kiokee.
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