First woman to lead Mississippi Baptist church

JACKSON, Miss. — Rivercrest Fellowship in Jackson, Miss., has become the first church ever affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention to be led by a woman pastor.

The congregation geared toward young adults commonly referred to as “Generation X” installed Carla Street as pastor Jan. 20. She had been co-pastor since starting the church in 1993 with her husband, Steve Street. He recently resigned to become coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Mississippi.

In October, the small church voted unanimously to call her as pastor. Since she was on medical leave at the time, however, the church actually functioned without pastoral leadership until January. About 35 churches among the SBC’s 42,000 affiliated congregations have women pastors.