Christine A. Smith calls sexism in the church’s ongoing life “the stained-glass ceiling” — the invisible but often impenetrable limits imposed upon female clergy. The stained-glass ceiling takes many forms. Among the most common are differences in salary between men…
At this Baptist gathering, there will be no debate about women preaching
The national media won’t be on hand, and there aren’t likely to be hot debates over women in ministry when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathers in Atlanta next week for its General Assembly. The largest of two breakaway groups from…
If you bet on how many churches the SBC will kick out, take the ‘under’
Southern Baptists will not excommunicate as many churches with women pastors as you might think. They won’t even get the chance. In fact, if Las Vegas oddsmakers set an over/under bet on how many churches the Southern Baptist Convention will…
The SBC 2023: When dogma trumps gospel
In 1964, Addie Davis was ordained to the gospel ministry by Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, N.C., becoming the first female ordained by a congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. A new generation of female ordinands soon followed, not…
The Southern Baptists left me
Last week in its annual meeting held in New Orleans, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention voted to uphold the denomination’s Credentials and Executive Committees in expelling Saddleback Church in California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville Ky. The…
The best way to protest the SBC is to carry on and preach louder
Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention’s overwhelming number of messengers voted to kick out Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist due to their inclusion of female leadership. I support the credentialing of female pastors as not only legitimate in our time, but also…
Baptists, football and women who changed the game
Baptists love football. How many college and pro football illustrations did I hear in sermons preached in my childhood Southern Baptist church? How many Baptists are just as likely to don college colors and spend Saturdays watching the game as…
My ordination is precious to me
When the Southern Baptist Convention voted last week to reaffirm its expulsion of churches with women pastors on staff and to begin the process of amending its constitution to make sure any member congregation “does not affirm, appoint or employ…
Picking up the pieces of the SBC
An email pen pal wrote me this weekend to point out the irony of the Southern Baptist Convention’s actions last week against women in church leadership: “Do we realize a 20-year-old boy in college can pastor a Baptist church? But…
We’re helping women and churches hear God’s call in Texas
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,…
A 1984 prediction comes true for the SBC
In 1984, Sarah Ann Hobbs, director of mission for the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, offered some predictions for women in ministry over the next 30 years. She rightly noted that as women took on more roles in the workforce,…
Anti-egalitarian forces make clean sweep at SBC annual meeting
Anti-egalitarian forces in the Southern Baptist Convention made a clean sweep of their agenda to exclude women from serving as pastors of any kind in SBC churches. In the process, they affirmed the expulsion of the denomination’s largest church and…