I’ve been gone from Texas 15 years. Fifteen years of moving about the country and experiencing life in different churches and in different communities.
Before I left Texas, I lived all over this great state — East Texas, West Texas, Central Texas — but then my husband and kids and I went sojourning across the U.S. before God tapped us on the shoulder late last year and said, “Hey, it’s time to go home.”
When we moved back in January, we knew the job of senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Abilene was waiting for my husband, Brandon. What we could not have guessed or been prepared for is that God had a job waiting for me as well.
Jill Hudson
I mean, we should have guessed. The whole process of God leading us back to Texas was one sneaky God move after another, giving us open doors to pique our curiosity and just enough to keep us moving toward the carrot so we could say a full-throated yes when the time came.
I was teaching school for the last several years, just as I’ve done off and on since 2001. But I knew that was not my life’s work. Teaching is such a noble profession, and it is a ministry through and through. I loved talking to students about their lives and their struggles and how God could fit into all of it. But I really don’t love math and, at the end of the day, that’s what I was there to teach, and it wore on me over time not to be able to put my heart and soul into what I was doing on a daily basis.
I’ve also really missed using my master of divinity degree in a professional capacity and being able to be creative on a regular basis. I have missed freedom in my work schedule and yearned for flexibility to help tend to our family’s needs.
So when the job of coordinator for Texas Baptist Women in Ministry came across my husband’s email in January, he stopped me mid-unpacking of boxes and said: “You’ve got to read this. It’s perfect for you.” And really the job is.
What I do
On a daily basis I get to connect with women across the state of Texas who are in the trenches ministering to people in their contexts. In Texas, women are serving as pastors (yes, preaching pastors), associate pastors (who are just as valuable), youth pastors, music pastors, administrative pastors, college pastors, children’s pastors, chaplains, seminary professors, missionaries and nonprofit leaders.
“It is inspiring to see women saying ‘yes!’ over and over again to the call of God on their lives.”
It is inspiring to see women saying “yes!” over and over again to the call of God on their lives. And at the same time, we all know there is a “but” coming to this story as well. But, women in Texas still face adversity and pushback on the call of God on their lives. And that is wearing to say the least.
It is so unfathomable to me that there are groups who believe they can tell another person what the Lord and Creator of heaven and earth has or has not called them to without even knowing them. I am not talking about congregations who are faithfully walking alongside women as they discern the call of God on their lives. I am talking about strangers who are deciding before God even speaks who it is that God can and cannot call or who God can or cannot use.
Let me say again, this is the Maker of heaven and earth. The God who created mitochondria and giraffe’s necks as well as our ability to sing out what is connected to our emotions. The God who created black holes with one-dimensional parts to them. As a former math teacher, one-dimension blows my mind.
This is God Almighty we are talking about. The Bible is full of stories of God using all the people the current culture said God could not or would not use. Tamar, a widow. Rahab, a prostitute. Jacob, a trickster. David, the youngest. Huldah, the wife of the keeper of the wardrobe. Mary, a virgin. Peter, the impulsive. Saul, the killer of Christians. Timothy, a youngster.
And these are the ones I came up with off the top of my head. I know all you Bible scholars are thinking of many more.
And that is my point.
“God uses whom God uses. And it is sometimes sneaky how God calls them.”
God uses whom God uses. And it is sometimes sneaky how God calls them. And it is often surprising whom God chooses. And it always gives us the opportunity to learn more about the heart of God and fall deeper in love with the one who crafted us with big toes and fingerprints and navels.
My three hopes for the future
I’ve been asked a few times since beginning my role as coordinator for TXBWIM, what I hope for the future of women in ministry in Texas.
First, I’d love to see an end to the gatekeeping that seems to be so popular right now. Gatekeeping is certainly not new. As one example, I refer you to the Pharisees’ disdain for those who Jesus ate with, talked to, touched, healed and did life alongside.
Gatekeeping remains a popular pastime for those in religious leadership who feel they have some sort of power and authority to let others know who is “in” and who is “out.” For example, this kind of person can preach but this group of people are disqualified. This characteristic makes you ineligible for church membership, but these other characteristics are acceptable.
When I read of Jesus talking about being the Shepherd (John 10:11) and the Gate (John 10:9), I don’t see any verses where he says he needs help knowing who to let in the gate or not or who to shepherd or not.
“I’d like to see churches committed to walking alongside girls and women who feel excited about the possibility of church ministry.”
In the place of systemic, dogmatic gatekeeping, I’d like to see churches committed to walking alongside girls and women who feel excited about the possibility of church ministry. I’d like to see them prayed over and nurtured and loved on and given chances to serve in every capacity within the church so when God does speak to them, their congregations will hear it too because they have walked so faithfully together and the call will be unmistakable to all.
Second, I’d love to see our seminaries and divinity schools bursting at the seams with women who feel called by God and supported by their local congregations to pursue theological education at master’s and doctoral levels.
I want women to learn to interpret the Bible from female faculty using resources written by women from the perspectives of women. And I want the men in seminaries to have the same chances — to learn alongside women and from female professors using books written by female scholars interpreting the Bible in new and expansive ways so that we can all more fully understand God.
Third, I’d love to see churches intentionally seeking out female candidates for their ministry positions. This means search processes will have to be updated to adjust for the discrepancies that resumes between men and women inevitably have.
“Search committees need education on how to create equitable search processes that won’t automatically exclude all their female candidates.”
At present in Texas, men are given far more opportunities to gain ministerial experience than women, so search committees need education on how to create equitable search processes that won’t automatically exclude all their female candidates.
These dreams can come true
The good news on all these dreams is that they are incredibly achievable. TXBWIM will happily help any Texas church with their goals to elevate and support women in our Baptist communities.
We will help you evaluate how well your church is engaging women who are interested in Christian ministry. We can help you create a plan to include women at all levels of ministry and leadership within your church. And we can help you create ministry search processes that will give women an equitable chance.
Baptist churches in Texas have the opportunity to mature beyond the temptation for in-fighting and join God who is already at work in a state full of diverse people that need the love, peace, joy, goodness and kindness local congregations can bring to their communities.
Women will continue to be vital to God’s work as pastors, preachers, leaders, ministers, directors, coordinators, chaplains and professors. I am thankful to be back in Texas and grateful to have a front row seat to watch as God equips and calls women to thriving ministries in Texas.
Jill Hudson serves as coordinator for Texas Baptist Women in Ministry. She is a 2005 graduate of both Truett Seminary and Baylor University and has served churches since 1999 across four states in paid and volunteer capacities. She currently resides in Abilene, Texas, with her husband, two teenagers and two dogs.