DIDCOT, England (ABP) — A woman minister noted for breaking the so-called "stained-glass ceiling" by becoming pastor of prominent churches associated with the Southern Baptist Convention and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will be a keynote speaker at a major Baptist gathering next year in the United Kingdom.
Julie Pennington-Russell
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Organizers of the 2011 Baptist Assembly in Blackpool, England, announced recently that Julie Pennington-Russell, lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., will deliver a main address at the April 29-May 2 joint gathering of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and BMS World Mission, the denomination's misions arm.
Pennington-Russell became the first female senior pastor of a church affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas when she moved from Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco — her first pastorate — to Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, in 1998.
She left Waco in 2007 for First Baptist Church in Decatur, a prominent and historic Georgia congregation. The vote to call a woman pastor set the church at odds with the Georgia Baptist Convention and its official position that only men qualify for the role of senior pastor.
In 2009 the statewide affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention formally ended its 148-year relationship with First Baptist Church, declaring the Decatur congregation "not a cooperating church."
David Kerrigan, general director of BMS World Mission, said Baptists in the United Kingdom will benefit from hearing the American pastor speak.
"I have followed Julie’s ministry for some years and been impressed by the strength and grace she has shown in the face of virulent opposition," Kerrigan said in a press release. "She is a gifted pastor and teacher and I am delighted she has been able to accept our invitation."
Pennington-Russell, a featured preacher at the 2008 Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta and a Bible teacher at this summer's Baptist World Congress in Hawaii, said she was first contacted by the Baptist Union of Great Britain about speaking at one of their annual assemblies in 2008.
"I'm glad that we were finally able to work out a date," she said. "It's an honor to be invited."
"It's obvious that the Spirit is alive and moving in the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and I'm very much looking forward to worshiping with them in 2011," she said.
Other announced speakers for the meeting include Jeff Lucas, an author, speaker and teaching pastor at Assemblies of God-affiliated Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colo.; Baptist Union of Great Britain president Pat Took and Wale Hudson-Roberts, racial-justice adviser for the Baptist union.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.