That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. — 2 Corinthians 12:10 I was ordained alongside my husband on a Sunday afternoon in…
It’s bad interpretation, not the Bible, limiting female pastors
The Southern Baptist Convention’s recent vote to further restrict women from pastoral leadership has reopened a debate many Baptists thought was settled long ago. Their denial of the Holy Spirit’s gift of ministry to women equally to men is reminiscent…
In conversation with Meredith Stone about Mohler’s amendment
As Southern Baptists prepare to consider Al Mohler’s so called “Truth and Unity Amendment” at their annual meeting in Orlando next month, many Baptist women are becoming weary of Southern Baptist men defining “unity” as joining together to silence women….
A sermon we’ll never forget
A few weeks ago, on the occasion of our church’s Children’s and Youth Sunday, I co-preached with a 10-year-old girl. She and I have known one another for a good long while now. I came to First Baptist on St….
Letter to my mother, my pastor
Dear Momma, Every March the church pauses to name Baptist Women in Ministry Month. Churches host panels, women write articles, women fill pulpits and deliver sermons about the long road women have walked just to stand behind a pulpit as…
Affirming women’s leadership as a pneumatological moment
“When churches do not recognize the leadership gifts of women, the whole body is impoverished.” — Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, A Many Colored Kingdom As a Latina and Baptist ordained minister, reading about the “Six Markers of Congregational Environments which are Empowering…
Women’s equality is a gospel issue, veteran pastor says
The equality of women is a gospel issue, not just a social justice issue, according to veteran pastor Cynthia Hale. She was among the speakers at the Nov. 6-7 annual gathering of Baptist Women in Ministry held at Second Ponce…
We Can Debate Women in Ministry. But Not the Historical Facts.
In 2021, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler reaffirmed his denomination’s stance against women in the pulpit. Mohler’s May 10 daily “briefing” quoted from the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, a statement that declares the following: “While both men and women are…
Dear men who support women in ministry …
Many years ago, a senior pastor said to me: “We don’t have a Sunday to celebrate women in ministry at our church because we already support women in ministry. It’s a nonissue for us.” At the time, I accepted his…
We’ve lost two trailblazing women in ministry in one week
I’m not sure if Esther Burroughs and Joy Fenner knew each other, but I suspect they must have. Both were trailblazing women in Southern Baptist life. Now they have died within four days of each other, causing an old-timer like…
Shared struggles: Kamala Harris and women in ministry
I never will forget the day I stood in the middle of the ICU waiting room at the local children’s hospital, embarrassed and a bit enraged. It was my last year of seminary, and I had spent the last four…
Do I belong here? A first timer reflects on the CBF General Assembly
As a first timer to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, I was new to name tag ribbons. After checking in, I paused with my name tag at the table strewn with colors, examining the various identities like “Chaplain,” “El Familia” and…