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…
Tell the stories of women in church leadership, Vanderbilt dean urges
Women have served in ministry throughout the history of the church even as their courage and tenacity have been mostly overlooked and forgotten, said theologian Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Therefore, it is important to begin…
Why are we still calling ourselves ‘moderate’ Baptists?
A few weeks ago, I sat with a Baptist leader who described himself as a “moderate Baptist.” He meant it as a compliment, and most people in our circles would receive it that way. After all, “moderate” is one of…
The CBF witness is more important now than ever
When I was growing up in Eastern Kentucky, I spent most of my time inside the doors of our Southern Baptist church. Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday evenings — I was there. We were one of those small “church plants”…
Consider the cost of staying in the SBC
Although I left the Southern Baptist Convention several decades ago, I still keep up with them, especially during their annual meetings. This year’s SBC gathering, like all the others since I left, both saddened and disturbed me, including the constitutional…
Pastors announce formation of The Baptist Network
A group of Baptist pastors announced formation of The Baptist Network to foster collaboration and encouragement between minsters and congregations in a time of intense social and political conflict in the American church. “While affirming historic Baptist convictions, the Network…
I grieve for SBC women
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church. I attended Sunday school as a child in a Southern Baptist church. I made a public profession of faith, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and was baptized at the age…
To understand today’s SBC, listen to history
Across America this week, Baptist women are carrying a familiar weight. Some are pastors who have faithfully answered the call of God, only to watch the Southern Baptist Convention debate whether God possibly could have called them. Some are seminary…
Beauty, ashes and the Southern Baptist Convention
Attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention is, in a word, exhausting. Why any Baptist — pastor or layman — would take several days of vacation time, travel at significant expense, read all the printed reports, participate in…
What was there left to argue?
I was 6 years old the first time I was told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. I could be a teacher or a nurse when I grew up, but I couldn’t play on that team and I couldn’t do that thing because…
The ridiculous attack on women in ministry
As the president of another Kentucky-based seminary, I have to note Al Mohler’s forced conversation on women in ministry, like so much in our world today, is ridiculous. Those like Mohler wish to drag us into a debate about “what…
The denomination that protected predators just banned prophets
God calls women to preach. This is not a progressive talking point or a cultural accommodation. It is a theological fact, attested across centuries of Christian witness and confirmed in the lives of countless women who have heard the Spirit’s…