ATLANTA (ABP) – Supporters of Baptist Women in ministry hope that growing participation in an annual emphasis in which churches invite a woman to preach during the month of February indicates increased openness to females in Baptist pulpits.
Tina Bailey, a field worker for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, preached her Martha Stearns Marshall sermon at Gateway Community Church in Bali, Indonesia.
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Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., was one of 184 Baptist churches to take part in this year’s Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching. That is 77 more than the 107 churches that reported participation in 2010, an increase of more than 70 percent.
Holmeswood’s pastor, Keith Herron, said he believes the emphasis, now in its fifth year, “is making a difference in shifting the culture of our churches.”
“At Holmeswood, I’ve heard less and less from the old ‘thou shalt not’ traditionalism and more and more from some even very traditional Baptists who now affirm the idea that we can be a church that encourages persons, male or female, to grow in their calling,” Herron said. “They now see that preaching from our pulpit can be a generous way the called can stretch their gifts while we as a congregation hear a good word from God because we have ears to hear.”
Pam Durso, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said this year churches in 20 states “invited women into their pulpits to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.” Churches in Cuba, Indonesia and Uganda also participated.
Durso said two churches reported a true “month of women’s preaching.” Crozet Baptist Church in Crozet, Va., and Commonwealth Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., both invited women to preach all four Sundays in February.
Two others invited younger members of their congregations into the pulpit. St. Johns Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., heard sermons by two teenagers, Clara Howard and Mattie Kearse, and 12-year-old Hannah Reese co-preached a sermon with her father, Kyle, at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
Jessica Margrave Schirm, a hospice chaplain who also serves as children’s coordinator at Central Baptist in Lexington, Ky., preached twice for Martha Stearns Marshall Month, once at Central Baptist Church and again at Lyndon Baptist Church in Louisville, where she worked as a youth-ministry intern between her freshman and sophomore years in college.
Lystra Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C., welcomed Jennifer Ingold Asbill, pastor for discipleship at Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, N.C., to its pulpit as guest preacher.
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“I was just beginning to discern my call and was still very connected to my more conservative Baptist heritage,” she reflected on her experience at Lyndon. “Back then I could never have imagined myself as a preacher. Now 13 years later, I am an ordained Baptist minister, fulfilling my calling as a chaplain and church staff member.”
She called being invited to preach at two Baptist churches so important in her past and current ministry. It“was nothing short of an honor and a dream come true,” she said. “I felt welcomed, affirmed and supported.”
Durso says Martha Stearns Marshall Month has two aims. One is to provide women who feel called to preach an opportunity to hone their pulpit skills in a live worship setting. The other is to expose congregations not opposed to women preachers in principle but unsure if their church is “ready” to consider calling a female pastor to see what a woman preacher “looks like.”
Durso said Martha Stearns Marshall Month has grown since 55 churches took part in the first observation of the emphasis in 2007, but this year’s participation “far surpassed any previous year.”
“Baptist Women in Ministry is grateful to all the churches and women preachers who participated in 2011,” Durso said. She also said “it is not too early” to get Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching on the calendar for 2012.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.