The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a major support for Baptist women seeking to serve God as chaplains. Under the current climate in the Southern Baptist Convention it is impossible for an ordained Baptist woman to obtain endorsement as a chaplain. Most certification organizations require a denomination’s approval of an applicant and female chaplains are denied that approval. The autonomy of the church stops at its doors and the SBC does not recognize individual churches’ good judgment in matters of ordination if the candidate is female.
Sadly, this is forcing female chaplains out of Baptist churches which have loved them and saw in them the special spirit of ministry that only God and those who know the candidate can possibly speak about or judge.
This is the very reason I sought the support of the CBF. In order to continue to seek certification through the Association of Professional Chaplains I found that the SBC was not willing to take responsibility for my calling and would have knowingly stood in the path of my calling.
Despite the fact that I was the product of the very ministries that the SBC favored, they absolutely refused to speak with me concerning endorsement as a minister. North Carolina is a traditional home of the Southern Baptist Convention and its long and proud history of biblical values and teaching. It is also growing into a strong CBF community because of a firm teaching concerning the study of Scriptures and an unwillingness to ignore the significant portions of Scripture that does not preclude women in ministry and seems to encourage ministry of all Christians both male and female.
Flat Rock Baptist in Mount Airy, N.C., has found a fine pastor in Bailey Edwards Nelson and she will serve them very well. I just thought it might interest you to see how deep this rift is spreading.
I think that it would be a surprise to most Southern Baptist churches that there is this sort of issue or to what lengths it goes to stand between women and fulfilling of God’s calling on their lives. North Carolinians — particularly those in rural areas such as Randolph County — generally live and let live, so by and large the idea that women should not be welcomed as leadership in church makes little sense as it is almost always the women beginning the work.
Southern Baptists as a denomination began when Sandy Creek Baptist (Separatist) Church was started by Shubal Stearns. He began his church with six families and it grew to over 600 members in the mid-1770s. Sandy Creeks partnered with a Baptist church in Charleston, S.C., and later the two gave birth to what is today the Southern Baptist Convention.
The convention was not always so forbidding and in my youth we studied the lives of Baptist women who set the bar for missions worldwide. Only in the past 20 years has it become so unwelcoming to women in ministry. It was during this time that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pulled away to form a group of churches and people who were willing to work within the practice of co-operation. For those of us who have left to serve God and found a welcoming spirit with the CBF we are grateful to those who acted boldly to provide our future home.
Anna Allred, Chaplain
Randolph Hospital, Asheboro, N.C.