Contributing writer Laura Levens writes about challenges facing women called to ministry, noting her own experiences and those of some of her students. She also offers advice to Christians on how to help dismantle the patriarchy in churches.
For some in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the senior pastor must be a man, but staff and other pastoral roles can be filled by women. For others, pastoral duties, especially preaching, are limited to men, and women are only allowed to teach the Bible
Female clergy describe having a sense of anticipation for years before this summer’s elevation of Rev. Gina Stewart to president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. But questions remain about where Black denominations stand on women’s leadership.
In a pathbreaking decision, the Rev. Gina Stewart has been elected as the first woman president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, marking the first time a female has been chosen for the highest post of a Black Baptist organization.
Randall Balmer on the fraught process, complete with cautionary tales from other congregations. Read full piece
Thousands of Southern Baptists will gather next week in Nashville for their big annual meeting. Read full piece
Anne Graham Lotz, 73 and a breast cancer survivor, talked in a recent interview about her belief that ordination is not for her but that she is nonetheless called to speak in a variety of settings.
Laura Levens writes that the fiery arguments over women’s ordination, women as pastors, and women’s callings distract from constructive conversations about entrenched racism, Christian Nationalism, and sexual abuse.
Beth Allison Barr, author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood, responds to a metaphor by Al Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that compared the ordination of women to a growing rainstorm.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler recently panned the ordination of three women at Saddleback Church in California, the second largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention. To Mohler, the Southern Baptist Convention is approaching a test. Should women be ordained and hired as