Posted: 5/12/06
Baptist women in ministry face ongoing challenges
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
ABILENE—When she was growing up, Amanda Cutbirth didn’t know women could be ministers. But she knew God was calling her to ministry.
“I didn’t know if women could be ministers,” the Logsdon Seminary student said.
“I didn’t know what my parents would think. I didn’t know what I could do. We never had a woman minister at my church.”
So began her journey of discovery. She studied the Scriptures and talked with people she admired. She spent hours in prayer. There was no doubt in her mind. God wanted her in vocational ministry.
Cutbirth is one of a growing number of female students in seminaries throughout Texas. Between 14 percent and 19 percent of students at Logsdon Seminary each year are women. Nearly one-third of George W. Truett Theological Seminary’s student body is female.
Slightly more than 26 percent of students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are women. At Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School, women have consistently made up at least half of the school’s student body.
Each of these students believes she is led to serve in some way—whether on the mission field like Cutbirth or on a church staff in the United States.
“I know for sure I’ll be in ministry somewhere,” Cutbirth said. “If not overseas, then in a church in America. My heart is with other cultures.”
These women may be called, but some Baptists have wondered if they will fulfill that calling in Baptist churches.
A growing number of congregations seem willing to call a woman as a preschool, youth or children’s minister, but many are reluctant to consider female candidates for other positions such as senior or associate pastors.
Of nearly 5,700 Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated churches, four are led by female senior pastors. The convention’s annual statistics do not indicate how many women serve on staff of Texas Baptist churches.
Therein lies the disappointment for many women. All Texas Baptist seminary students are endorsed by their respective churches, which means congregational leaders acknowledge a student is called by God and has demonstrated a commitment to wanting to fulfill that calling. But that same congregation may not be willing to consider hiring a woman.
| "I don’t want to discourage them in any way, but I want them to be realistic that their ministry may not include being the pastor of a church."
–Paul Powell, dean of Truett Seminary |
“I think there are a lot of us who have grown up in churches or go to churches who support us … but the practicality of hiring us may not be there,” said Shannon Rutherford, a third-year Truett student.
Truett Dean Paul Powell said he realizes the reality of this situation, but there is little seminaries can do about it.
According to Baptist polity, seminaries cannot dictate doctrine to churches and cannot tell them who to call.
He and Logsdon Dean Tommy Brisco say their seminaries support women looking for church staff positions, just as they do men. Professors recommend them to search committees regularly. But the reality is some churches do not want women in certain positions.
“I don’t want to discourage them in any way, but I want them to be realistic that their ministry may not include being the pastor of a church,” Powell said.
“Our role as a seminary is to equip those the church is sending,” Brisco said.
Even those women who are hired may not be on a level playing field as their male counterparts, critics claim. Some churches have pastors, associate pastors, music pastors and youth pastors, but use the term children’s “minister” or “director” to avoid applying the term “pastor” to a female employee.
Some women feel they are not treated the same as male church staffers. They say their ministries are not supported financially or spiritually by staff members like other ministries within the church.
Susan Shaw, a professor at Oregon State University working on a book about Southern Baptist women, believes women still are not on equal footing as their male counterparts when it comes to ministry in Baptist life.
A woman’s movement within Southern Baptist life was set back by the controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s, Shaw noted. Baptists focused on the struggle between two groups seeking control of the SBC, and the role of women faded into the background.
Now, attitudes about the role of women within Baptist life fall largely along generational lines, Shaw said. Women raised before the controversy generally are satisfied with believing they can be missionaries and pastors’ wives.
Women who matured during the controversy tend to feel betrayed by their denomination, Shaw found. They were told in Girls in Action classes—a Woman’s Missionary Union missions organization—that they could be anything they wanted. Then they found out they couldn’t in most churches.
This generation also tends to be somewhat unhappy with moderate Baptist groups as well, Shaw said. They like the rhetoric about women being accepted in ministry but do not see any action. Churches and denominations overwhelmingly still are run by men.
Shaw believes the generation emerging after the Southern Baptist controversy falls into two groups. The more conservative group feels it can fulfill God’s calling without holding certain positions. They do not see any limitations.
Moderate Baptists tend to feel there are few if any limitations to God’s calling in their lives because they can find a way to serve as God wants them.
“They’re happy,” Shaw said of the second group. “They have role models. They have (Calvary Baptist Church in Waco Pastor) Julie Pennington-Russell. Of course we can be pastors. Look at Julie.”
This trend will continue to gain strength in moderate Baptist life, Shaw believes. As ministers such as Pennington-Russell lead dynamic, growing churches, other congregations become convinced women can serve in various roles. It is difficult to argue with results.
“Where you do see change is where people see women in ministry,” she said. “That does make a difference.”
Comparing the woman’s movement within Baptist life to the slow progression and eventual Baptist acceptance of the civil rights movement, Powell said a culture change must take place before women are widely accepted in Baptist ministry positions.
And it’s a change he believes will take place over time. He compared it to wearing braces—change takes place gradually over time until the situation is completely different.
“It’s going to happen. You might as well try to hold back the Gulf of Mexico than stop women in ministry,” he said.
Men can play a crucial role in helping advance women in ministry, Shaw said. They can be advocates for women ministers, hiring them and recommending them to churches.
Some leaders will take a man’s viewpoint more seriously because it does not come across as self-promoting, Rutherford said.
They are not trying to attain a position by advancing women. They bring a needed viewpoint to the conversation.
“It’s very important that men support the calling of women in their churches,” Rutherford said.
Women serving in Baptist churches strengthens ministry, Brisco noted. They are gifted in unique ways, but also complement the talents of men. That combination improves the outreach and service of Baptists.
“I do think Baptists are very much needing the gifts of men and women of all ethnicities to do the work God has called us to in Texas and around the world,” he said.
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