Methodist woman on staff of Baptist church

RUTLEDGE, Tenn. — Betty Shirley uses the word “ironic” to explain how she, a United Methodist, became associate pastor of a Baptist church in a small, conservative Tennessee town.

Last spring, Shirley was expecting appointment to a congregation within the United Methodist Church’s Holston Annual Conference, but the appointment didn’t work out. Because all the other pastoral positions had been filled, she found herself without a church.

When the senior pastor of Rutledge Baptist Church, Rutledge, Tenn., asked if Shirley would consider joining the church staff, eyebrows surely lifted. The significance was heightened when the Baptist congregation voted unanimously to extend a call to her, and Holston Bishop James Swanson appointed Shirley to the church. Swanson said he made the historic appointment because the Baptist congregation asked and because “I know [Shirley] wants to serve the church as best she can.”