Dear Al, May I call you Al? We both have doctorates, so I would prefer we forgo honorifics; you can just call me Jonathan. I’m not sure we’ve met, although I’ve known you from a distance for years. I doubt…
Largest church in SBC ordains three women as pastors
The largest church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention ordained three women as ministers May 6, sending shock waves through the male-centric leadership of the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination. Saddleback Church, founded by Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay,…
Q&A with Meredith Stone about Baptist Women in Ministry
Meredith Stone is the new executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, coming to the role from a faculty position at Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. She succeeds Pam Durso, who has gone on to become president…
Bourbon, boobs and bedrooms: Will the Body of Christ choose people over purity?
Purity codes and other forms of Christian cleanliness have excluded people for centuries, keeping out entire communities who did not follow one way of living, one way of interpreting scripture and one way that works for one group of people – namely, those with all the power.
The stained-glass cliff and the Riverside Church: a double standard for our first female senior minister
Riverside’s church council held a double standard against the first woman to serve as our senior minister. Two contrasting investigations demonstrate how the council acted differently towards a woman versus a man.
From her mouth to God’s ear? Women’s voices, homiletical testosterone and radical redemption
Across the years, women in my family, in my classes and in the church have taught me this: Christ’s gospel isn’t measured by biology or hierarchy, but by radical redemption. God hears any voice that preaches Jesus.
Female jet pilot or astronaut? Sure. Preacher? No. So where can I buy a dragon?
Southern Baptists seem to have no problem with women serving on the Supreme Court or flying fighter jets or traveling into space. Heck, they would have been happy to put Sarah Palin in the White House. But a woman in the pulpit? No way.
Women cannot serve as pastors. Really, Southern Baptists, you’re going to go there again?
The Spirit of God keeps blowing where it will. Baptist women are now serving as pastors and associate ministers in all kinds of different settings and situations.
Women as pastoral leaders render a different vision of God
Many have dismissed inclusive language as “politically correct.” I believe it runs much deeper. It is an attempt to speak justly about humans, and it strives to offer a vision of God beyond gender