This month, women pastors in Baptist churches across the nation will celebrate their role in the pulpit and for many — like Bailey Edwards Nelson, senior pastor of Flat Rock Baptist Church in Mount Airy, N.C. — the annual Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching represents an opportunity to educate congregations about women in ministry.
For the past four years, Nelson has participated in the annual emphasis, sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry. In 2010 she filled the pulpit for two congregations, one in Georgia and another in North Carolina.
“I was searching for a pastoral position and a search committee was present at each of those preaching events in 2010,” said Nelson. “As it turns out, those opportunities led to my call as pastor of Flat Rock Baptist Church.”
The month of preaching is named for an 18th century Baptist woman from North Carolina. Although less well known than her husband, David Marshall, Martha Stearns Marshall nevertheless preached alongside him and her brother, Shubal Stearns. They were leaders in a series of revivals along the Eastern Seaboard that came to be known as the First Great Awakening.
Last year, 6-year-old Sarah told her pastor, Bailey Edwards Nelson, she wants to be a preacher.
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The number of participating churches in the emphasis has increased from 54 in 2007 to 217 churches in 2012. BWIM a 30-year-old organization which promotes and nurtures Baptist women in leadership roles, encourages congregations to invite a woman to fill their pulpit to gain valuable experience preparing a sermon, contributing as a worship leader and interacting with a congregation on a Sunday morning.
Edwards said both pastors who had invited her to preach in 2010 were comfortable with search committees attending. “They welcomed it as a step beyond having a woman preach in their church on a single Sunday out of the year, but more significantly, as an opportunity to empower and encourage a search committee to consider calling a woman to serve them each and every day of the year,” she said.
According to BWIM, three Baptist churches in the Mid-Atlantic observed a “true MSM month” in 2012, inviting women to preach every Sunday in February. They were Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary, N.C.; Crozet (Va.) Baptist Church; and Grandin Court Baptist Church in Roanoke, Va.
“As a male senior pastor, I understand the importance of women in ministry,” said Ben Boswell, pastor of Greenwood Forest Baptist Church. “I feel very passionate about lending my support by giving up my pulpit for a month.”
“I am glad that some churches invite women to preach one Sunday,” he said. “But I think that’s the tip of the iceberg. Any church can have a woman once a year.”
Boswell introduced the MSM to the congregation at Greenwood Forest after having previously observed the emphasis while serving as pastor of Commonwealth Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.
Boswell said Muriel Roberson, a lay woman with seminary training, was to preach the first Sunday in February at Greenwood Forest. The church’s minister of children, Katie Morgan, will bring the message on Feb. 10. The following Sunday, Lauren Efird, minister of youth and congregational care at Greenwood Forest will be in the pulpit. And on Sunday, Feb. 24, Anathea Portier-Young, professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School in Durham, has been invited to preach.
Increased experience
Colleen Swingle-Titus, co-pastor at Crozet Baptist Church, said this is the fifth year her congregation has observed the emphasis.
“We always contact Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond for a referral of at least one seminary student to speak, but we always offer the entire month to a variety of skill and experience levels,” said Swingle-Titus.
“The reason this is important has to do with offering women the opportunity to gain experience and have their diverse voice heard,” she added. “It was so frustrating in seminary when many young men were offered a preaching position without experience. Yet one of the most popular excuses given to why women were not invited was they had no preaching experience.”
At Crozet Baptist Church it is not unusual to hear the voice of a woman in the pulpit, said Swingle-Titus. With her as co-pastor and a woman serving as youth pastor, church members regularly see women in leadership roles.
“However, we stress to our congregation each year that this is indeed not the norm and it is up to congregations such as ours to continue to faithfully offer this opportunity to others,” she said.
Preaching at Crozet in February will be Maria Lynn, adult missions coordinator for Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia; Julie Perry, chaplain at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Va.; and Susan Anderson, a graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
On Feb. 24 Crozet will ordain Tammy James to the ministry. “Tammy grew up in the Baptist church her entire life. However, she was always told women could not be a deacon, let alone a pastor,” said Swingle-Titus.
“She trained to be a registered nurse, but always felt called toward ministry. And now after years of not only battling voices from her past but the difficulty of being a working mother and student, she has received her master of divinity degree and is completing her internship as a chaplain at the University of Virginia,” she said. “We celebrate her story and are thrilled to ordain her into the gospel ministry to aid her in her journey as a chaplain.”
Still far to go
According to a 2006 study, 40 percent of students attending 14 theological schools affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are women, but just 6 percent of CBF churches are led by a woman pastor, co-pastor or church planter.
“I hope that whenever the times comes and I may leave the pastorate of Greenwood Forest Baptist Church that the congregation would think about what it would mean to call a woman pastor,” said Boswell. “I want them to have seen and heard women preach and be appreciative of their skills and know what to expect.” Yet Boswell admits that it’s difficult to overcome centuries of Baptists not supporting women in ministry.
Swingle-Titus said until moderate male pastors, especially those with influence in their communities and denominations, stand up and offer women preaching opportunities in their pulpits that this will continue to be a slow process.
“Initiatives such as MSM should be reminders of something we already know,” said Nelson. “God has called us as men and women to Kingdom service and we must daily cultivate communities that seek to more faithfully welcome and grow these called individuals, no matter their gender.”
“Last year a 6-year-old girl in my congregation came to me just before our MSM service began and said she had something very important to share with me,” said Nelson. “With an excited face and quivering voice she proclaimed, ‘I am going to be a preacher! I’m going to be just like you, Bailey.’” At the end of the service that day, Sarah shared with the congregation that she was going to be baptized and that she was going to be a preacher.
“I had the privilege of baptizing her a few weeks later and I continue to have the privilege of walking beside her in her own calling,” said Nelson. “We took a picture together that day which sits on my desk and each time I look at it I thank God for this challenging, joyous, frustrating and life-changing opportunity.”
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.