ATLANTA (ABP) — Forty-five churches across the country invited women into their pulpits Feb. 4 for the Martha Stearns Marshall Day of Preaching.
Baptist Women in Ministry sponsored the event to celebrate women and educate congregations about women in ministry. The special day of preaching will be held each year on the first Sunday in February, organizers said.
“BWIM is extremely pleased with the number of churches participating,” said Ruth Perkins Lee, advocating leader for BWIM. “As we have heard from interested churches, their responses have been positive, encouraging and grateful for this emphasis.”
Melanie Vaughn-West, pastor of Broadneck Baptist Church in Annapolis, Md., filled the pulpit at Parkway Baptist Church in Duluth, Ga. Her parents, Janye and Gary Vaughn, are members there.
Broadneck Baptist Church is well-accustomed to having women in the pulpit.
“I come from an unusual church, even in the moderate Baptist tradition,” Vaughn-West said. “I am the third woman pastor in the 25 years our church has been in existence. There's a rumor in our church that one of the children once asked if men could be a pastor too.”
While in Georgia, Vaughn-West spoke from Luke 5, when Jesus asked Peter to row out on the water and let down his nets again after an unsuccessful night of fishing. She contrasted the gathered throng on the shoreline with Jesus' disciples, urging listeners to move from “being a fan of Jesus” to “being a disciple.”
“We're often more comfortable with empty nets than sailing into deeper water,” she said. “When Jesus climbs into our boat, it's beautiful and frightening.”
Vaughn-West also connected the passage to the life and calling of Martha Stearns Marshall, who preached in the late 1750s in North Carolina. A Separate Baptist preacher, she often preached alongside her brother and husband at Baptist meetings and churches.
“Preaching outside the established church at that time could get you in a lot of trouble,” Vaughn-West said. “Martha probably didn't just wake up one morning and say 'I think I'll get myself into some trouble today.' One day, she found Jesus had climbed into her boat. She may have said, 'Jesus, I'm fine right here on the shoreline.' But he said, 'Go out into deeper water, Martha.'”
Baptist Women in Ministry is a partner of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
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