In 1987, I was a junior at Baylor University when a worship song was released that became very popular. The song, “God Still Moves,” by Steve and Annie Chapman, was sung at so many revivals and altar calls.
The chorus goes like this: “God still moves. God still moves. In the hearts of his people, God still moves. He does not sleep, nor does he slumber. God still moves. God still moves.”
Paula Garrett
I heard it over and over and over again that year.
Meanwhile, about this same time, my friends and I were watching a story unfold. Nancy Sehested, now a friend and mentor to me, had been called as pastor of a church in Memphis, Tenn., and this had rocked the Southern Baptist world.
God would not do this, some Southern Baptists insisted. God would not call a woman to preach. The church was disfellowshipped because it had dared to call a woman pastor.
Southern Baptists were singing “God Still Moves,” yet when God did move, in the hearts of Nancy and the members of Prescott Memorial Baptist Church, the denomination took issue. We sang that “God Still Moved,” but we limited the ways in which we believed God could still move.
“We sang the words, but we didn’t actually believe them.”
In truth, we sang the words, but we didn’t actually believe them.
Fast forward some 39 years, and I got to hear Nancy preach today at First Baptist Church of Asheville, N.C., on Pentecost. As she preached, I kept thinking about all Al Mohler and his ilk are missing when they offer selective readings of Scripture. Mohler’s promise last week to offer yet another resolution at the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention to limit the roles of women would be funny if it were not so worn out and offensive.
As the Southern Baptist denomination continues to shrink, this year marking its 19th year of declining membership, I have to wonder what Mohler’s resolution will do to the denomination. Although it is the church of my youth, I do not regret its growing irrelevance.
I don’t celebrate it either. The conservative takeover, orchestrated about the same time as Nancy was answering the call to preach, is a disgrace for so many in my generation and an absolute heartbreak for the “moderates” in my parents’ generation.
What struck me as I listened to Nancy’s powerful Pentecost sermon was the courage and compassion Mohler and others have missed by staking out a position that eliminates the voice of anybody who does not look like them.
I know the verses as well as they do, especially those of Paul speaking to the church at Corinth. Nancy Sehested referenced them today, acknowledging that women have had to duck and cover when those verses are hurled at them.
What I do not know, and what I have yet to see from the conservative Baptist men who believe women should not preach, is what they really do with Pentecost.
When Peter speaks in Acts 2:16-18, he includes all people in his call: “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’”
To what contortions must one subject this Pentecost story in order to deny the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of women?
“To what contortions must one subject this Pentecost story in order to deny the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of women?”
I guess I feel a little sorry for Al Mohler. When I heard his explanation that even women speaking on podcasts are dangerously close to usurping his male privilege of preaching, I honestly laughed. But really, it is tragic, not comedic.
How much good preaching, joyful proclamation and clear evidence of the Spirit moving have he and his cronies missed because they continue to listen only to the deep voices of men?
Indeed, it seems to me they could use a good Pentecost experience themselves, so that they could listen to all voices and understand. So that they could receive the Spirit’s outpouring in ways they may not even imagine.
Today, our service happened to be led by all women. Our senior pastor was out of town, our coordinating pastor was with the youth at camp, and our interim music director just wrapped up his work with us, so we are waiting on our new music director to arrive later this summer.
All these folk happen to be men — men, I might add, who welcome women’s voices. Typically, we rotate through roles and make sure there are both male and female leaders in worship. Today, though, there were four pastors providing leadership, and all of us were women. It was the first time I had experienced such a service.
And it was holy. The music was glorious; children and a special needs young man threw red, yellow and orange rose petals to symbolize Pentecost’s fire; a young man committed to walk this faith journey as part of our church. Nancy preached. Wow, did she preach. And the Spirit moved.
The Spirit does not need Al Mohler’s permission to move. I find myself humming that chorus: “In the hearts of (God’s) people, God still moves.”
Paula Garrett serves as professor of English at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C., is a master of divinity student at Perkins School of Theology and serves as a pastoral resident at First Baptist Church of Asheville, N.C.