When the North American Mission Board announced it would no longer endorse women chaplains who were ordained, most people concluded the door to chaplaincy ministry for Southern Baptist women was closed. It turns out that conclusion was mistaken.
According to information provided by NAMB “about a dozen” women have been endorsed for chaplaincy service since that announcement in February 2002. While most state-related chaplaincy agencies require ordination for their chaplains, not all do. One can even serve in several federal chaplaincy posts without being ordained.
The lack of an ordination requirement in some places has allowed NAMB to endorse women for chaplaincy service in these areas.
One agency that does not require ordination for its chaplains is the Department of Defense, which sponsors military chaplains. Last fall NAMB endorsed a woman to serve as a military chaplain who was neither ordained nor licensed to ministry by a local church. Her case is helping to bring several questions into focus.
Evidently the person in question (her name has not been released) is well qualified. Reportedly, she earned a seminary degree, served overseas with the International Mission Board, was an active duty military officer for a time and now serves on the ministerial staff of a Baptist church.
NAMB originally endorsed her for an army position. However, the Chief of Chaplains in that branch of service, a Lutheran whose background recognizes and practices ordination, expressed reservations about a Baptist chaplain who was neither licensed nor ordained by a local Baptist church.
Evidently the Army Chief of Chaplains understands that Baptist polity places credentialing for ministry in the hands of a local church. Would a Baptist chaplain, male or female, who was neither licensed nor ordained be able to fully practice as a chaplain was his question. The conclusion was no. In most places such a chaplain would not be allowed to perform marriage ceremonies for military personnel. Most state laws require that the officiating minister be credentialed in a way consistent with that faith tradition. For Baptists, that means local church action.
The woman in question then was endorsed for a chaplaincy vacancy in the Navy and was accepted. The Navy Chief of Chaplains comes from a Seventh-Day Adventist background, which does not practice ordination. For him ordination was not an issue. Still, the question remains about the ability of the soon-to-be active duty chaplain to perform all the services expected of a Southern Baptist chaplain and, again, legal barriers seem to exist.
Military chaplains are not pastors. Chaplains are not called by the local congregation nor are they paid by the congregation. Chaplains do not exercise pastoral authority over a congregation. Yet, chaplains do function as pastors. They preach the gospel. They administer the ordinances. They teach the Bible. They visit the sick. They speak for God in their communities. They counsel those who come. They direct the affairs of their chapels.
Women also serve as senior chaplains in the military and function much as a senior pastor would in a local church.
That is why NAMB’s endorsement of a woman to the military chaplaincy is surprising. NAMB has expressed its support of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement that a woman cannot serve as pastor of a local church. The position has been clarified to mean senior pastor. Yet, NAMB endorsed a woman to the military chaplaincy where she will function as a pastor if not as a senior pastor.
To this writer, that comes close to being a distinction without a difference.
Perhaps a more serious issue is the issue of credentialing. As a group that believes in congregational polity, Baptists have stressed that churches ordain and license individuals to gospel ministry. Associations, state conventions nor the national convention has the authority to license or ordain anyone to ministry.
In the past, NAMB has recognized and honored that doctrinal commitment and only endorsed persons who first had been credentialed by a local Baptist church. Now NAMB is endorsing people for chaplaincy ministry who have no local church recognition of a calling to ministry, people whose gifts for ministry have not been affirmed by a local church, people who have no local church’s stamp of approval through license, ordination or commissioning to serve as ministers of the gospel.
Such a practice has all the appearances of a national body — in this case the North American Mission Board — providing the credentials for ministry through its endorsement. Certainly NAMB would not do that, for such action would be a major violation of Baptist doctrine as well as a violation of the purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention.
And there is the dilemma. If a woman’s calling and gifts for ministry are recognized by a local Baptist church through ordination, NAMB has said it will not endorse her. Indications are that if she is licensed or commissioned, she will not be endorsed. But if a woman is not credentialed by a local Baptist church for ministry, she cannot fully function as a minister or chaplain, because Baptist doctrine places credentialing for ministry in the hands of local churches.
How this dilemma is resolved will be interesting. It will also be vital to the future role of women in Baptist life.
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