Former Alabama Baptist and new author Kristen Padilla remembers crying to her pastor father wishing she had been born a boy. At least then she could be a preacher, she said as a young girl working through her call to ministry.
Ordained Baptist minister Alice Hunt understands. “I remember hearing in a new way God’s call on my life at 16 but not knowing how to articulate that. I remember thinking that if I were male, then I would know what this call was,” she said. “Years later I understand that call more fully.”
Hunt grew up as a Southern Baptist missionary kid in Taiwan, the daughter of Alabama Baptist ministry and missions leaders Bob and Rosalie Hunt, members of First Baptist Church, Guntersville.
Rosalie Hunt added the struggles for women in ministry are “nothing new.” Women in early church life also faced difficulty in their roles, she said.
“The early women leaders like Annie Armstrong dealt with it,” Rosalie Hunt said. “Those women had to deal with the situation with men as they saw it and they managed.”
The Hunts and Padilla each have their own stories about how they discerned their own callings to ministry and how they navigated what is typically a man’s world in the process.
Rosalie Hunt grew up in China, the daughter of missionaries and served with her husband, Bob, as missionaries to Taiwan before retiring. She has served in countless ministry and missions roles, taught in educational settings and has become a popular author of books telling the missions story through the eyes of Ann Judson, Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend and others. Rosalie Hunt has served in vocational ministry as a woman leader her entire life and grew up in a home where her father “greatly respected” her mother.
“I never remember hearing him denigrate women in any way,” she said. “I also have been fortunate to have a husband who respected me, who did not demean me.”
Alice Hunt said having role models like what her mother had and what her mother and father were to her is important. “We have a responsibility to the little girls and boys in our churches to make sure they can see what is possible for everyone,” she said. “If kids only see men as deacons, what does that teach them? We have a responsibility to be better and to be more.”
By finding her home in the National Baptist Convention, Alice Hunt said she was able to find a setting that reminded her of her Southern Baptist upbringing but also feel welcomed in living out her calling. Her vocational ministry includes a journey in theological higher education. She serves as the executive director of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta and is the immediate past president of Chicago Theological Seminary as well as a former associate dean for academic affairs at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Alice Hunt has a Ph.D. in religion and Hebrew Bible from Vanderbilt.
“One of the things that has taken me over 50 years to do that I would advise any person to do, including women, is to trust your questions,” Alice Hunt said. “Live fully into them and follow them. For some people that will mean staying in their context. For others, that will mean moving somewhere else. … You have to make a choice. It is your own journey.
“My Southern Baptist heritage has given me and blessed me with a love for questions,” Alice Hunt said. “I followed my questions. My questions led me to a place where I saw beyond the selective literalism that prevented women’s full participation in the life of the church.”
Padilla, marketing and communications coordinator for Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, outlines her story as well as that of several women in vocational ministry that she knows in her new book “Now that I’m Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry.” She also works through the theological questions and provides a practical resource for women to use as they determine what God may have in store for them in the area of vocational ministry.
A description of the book at kristenpadilla.com says: “Perhaps you are feeling the Holy Spirit leading you toward vocational ministry but are unsure of what that means or if you are hearing the voice of the Lord correctly. This book will help you answer these questions and serve as a guide as you walk down this new and unfamiliar path.”
Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson, endorsed Padilla’s book. He said,”Now That I Am Called is a manifesto of encouragement for women who seek to follow Christ in vocational ministry. Personally disclosive and theologically rich, it doesn’t dodge the tough issues but approaches them with humility, sensitivity, and biblical depth. This is Kristen Padilla’s first book, but I bet it won’t be her last. She has something to say the church needs to hear.”
Also endorsing the book is Paul House, professor of divinity at Beeson. “Kristen Padilla discusses this important issue in the correct manner: from the Bible, with an emphasis on the Bible’s original languages and contexts, and with a heart for ministry rather than controversy. She represents many other women who have had similar experiences,” he said. “This volume is much needed, for conservative, moderate, and liberal Christians all seem confused about the nature and importance of rigorous theological training for women who teach the Bible in homes, churches, and academic settings. The book will prove especially helpful for young people struggling to find biblical vocations in a non-committal age.”
To learn more about Padilla and her new book, click here. To learn more about Rosalie Hunt and her books, click here.
“Be all God wants you to be,” Rosalie Hunt said. “He wants you to be a lot.” (TAB)
Share with others: