It’s been months since my sabbatical ended, and I am still processing. Because of holidays, inclement weather and other hiccups, I didn’t give my official sabbatical report to our church for quite a while. The extra time to process was…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Beth Allison Barr
Beth Allison Barr holds the James Vardaman Chair in History at Baylor University. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the new book Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry and…
What I learned when I asked women if church is safe for them
Is the church a safe place for women? Well of course it is, right? I would have thought the church was a safe place, too, until the results came in from my research with more than 2,800 women who worked…
Marshall says ‘scandalous providence’ preserved her life’s work
When she was forced off the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and accused of heresy, Molly Marshall found “a scandalous providence preserved my vocation and my life’s work,” she recently recalled. Marshall, now president of United Theological Seminary of…
Alaska Baptist leader resigns after supporting autonomy of his church
The quest for conformity in opposing women in ministry is so strong in the Southern Baptist Convention that a state convention executive director has resigned after his own church was expelled from the SBC. Randy Covington resigned as executive director…
Law Amendment will be resurrected at this year’s SBC meeting
The Law Amendment is not dead yet. The controversial amendment to the Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention — which failed to get a two-thirds vote on second reading last June — would enshrine a prohibition on SBC churches allowing…
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…
BGCT: Listen to the women
One week after election day 2024, I found myself in another room where I needed to cast my vote. As a messenger to the 2024 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, I would need to vote on a motion…
BGCT tells Kevin Ezell no on 2000 Baptist Faith and Message
Kevin Ezell attempted to force Texas Baptists to adopt the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message or lose church planting partnerships with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. Texas Baptists overwhelmingly said they would not do it. Ezell, president…
May your search for truth land on these sacred words: ‘I am enough’
My life, like so many others, is a journey of seemingly unrelated worlds merging in joyous, messy, difficult, lovely ways that defy easy explanations. My experience in the arena of professional clergy intersects with the domestic sphere as a wife…
Remembering Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Jann Aldredge-Clanton was one of the most complex and compassionate people I’ve ever met. Her combination of Southern charm and progressive theology could be both disarming and alarming to those she encountered. She was a trailblazer for sure, setting plenty…
Get ready for the Kamala backlash
Like many in our country, the political events of the past few weeks have left me stunned and cautious. I feel as if I’m in the middle of a dystopian novel, wondering what unanticipated turn will happen next. In the…