Days before the recent annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in Dallas, the SBC was abuzz with talk about electing a woman to serve as convention president. Texas pastor Dwight McKissick, who is frequently involved in convention actions, announced he was willing to nominate popular Bible teacher Beth Moore for the office.
At least one news story asked whether a woman would be eligible to serve as SBC president.
Evidently Article 18 of the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) 2000 caused some to question the appropriateness of a woman in a leadership role. That article reads, in part, “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She … has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.”
Even though Article 18 affirms the equal worth of women before God, such statements about submission and serving as helper to the husband caused some to wonder if a woman could serve as a leader in the SBC.
Women in SBC history
Some may also have been concerned with the BF&M statement that “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture” (Article 6). Only ordained ministers, primarily pastors, have served as SBC president in the memory of most persons attending the SBC annual meeting. Some may have concluded that being a pastor was a prerequisite for service.
The last time a layperson was elected SBC president was 1973 when Owen Cooper, a Mississippi industrialist, was elected to his second term.
SBC Executive Committee vice president Roger Oldham was quoted in a news story saying there is nothing in the SBC constitution or bylaws that prevents a woman from holding an elected office. The constitution says only that officers of the convention “shall be members of Baptist churches cooperating with this convention” (Article 8).
That means any man or woman who is a member of a cooperating Baptist church is potentially eligible to serve in elected office.
A quick check of SBC history also answers the question. Some will be surprised to learn that a woman has been nominated for SBC president. It happened in 1972, the year Cooper was elected to his first term as president.
Marie Mathis, a longtime Texas and national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) leader, was among seven nominees for the SBC’s top elected office. Mathis failed to make the runoff that year but she made history as the first woman nominated for SBC president.
Some will find it equally surprising that Mathis had previously served as SBC second vice president. In 1963 she defeated three prominent pastors to earn a first ballot victory for second vice president.
In 1976, Southern Baptists elected another woman as second vice president. It was the bicentennial of our nation and messengers gathered in Norfolk, Virginia. President Gerald Ford addressed the convention and like this year, messengers objected to politicizing the annual meeting.
Convention proceedings record that immediately prior to the election of the second vice president, the registration secretary announced 18,191 messengers had registered for the annual meeting. That is almost twice as many as gathered for the recent convention in Dallas.
Again, four nominees were offered — three pastors and Myra Bates of North Carolina. Her husband, Carl Bates, had been elected president of the SBC in 1970 and 1971, but Myra Bates was influential in her own right. In 1975 she nominated the person who was elected SBC first vice president on the first ballot in a three-candidate race.
This time Bates herself won on the first ballot against her three opponents.
A woman also has served as first vice president of the SBC. Christine Gregory of Virginia won the office in 1982. Gregory, like Mathis, was a longtime state and national WMU leader. She was the top vote-getter in a field of five on the first ballot and defeated a prominent Texas pastor in the runoff.
So women are eligible to serve as elected SBC officers. A woman has been nominated for SBC president, and women have served as both first and second vice president of the SBC. Hopefully women will soon serve again as SBC elected officers — perhaps as president.
Openess to women
Yet there is no denying that it is more difficult for women to serve in church leadership among Southern Baptists today than it was 50 years ago. This is true for ministry positions as well as strategic decision-making bodies within local congregations.
Newly elected SBC President J.D. Greear explained at his first news conference that he understands the BF&M 2000 to bar women from serving in any church capacity that carries the title “pastor” or “elder.” That is different than the debate at the time the wording was adopted. Records show that those presenting the wording originally argued the term “pastor” applied only to the “senior pastor” and that women would be eligible for all other positions.
But the understanding of the term has evolved as Greear’s position indicates and at least one Alabama Baptist church has been kicked out of its association for having a woman serve as associate pastor.
Greear indicated he is willing for women to serve in the church as long as they carry titles like “minister” or “director.”
An adopted SBC resolution called for greater openness to women in leadership. It will be interesting to see how Southern Baptists react to that call.
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