A pioneer among Baptist women in ministry in the South told a mostly female audience at Baylor University what to expect as they enter into ministry roles traditionally held by men.
“There will be voices inside and outside telling you, ‘You’re divine’ or ‘You’re demonic,’” said Julie Pennington-Russell, lead pastor of the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga. “But both are telling you a lie.”
Pennington-Russell spoke to nearly 200 people at Sacred Voices, the 2012 Women in Ministry Conference, sponsored by George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and Texas Baptist churches through the Cooperative Program of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT).
Pennington-Russell, who graduated from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in 1985 to become pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco, recalled the note she got at one point early in her ministry: “Everything God is doing right now is because of you,” the writer said. “You’re the best pastor this church has ever had.”
But on the same day, she received an anonymous letter informing her that “you’re the worst pastor this church has ever had. … I pray every day for your hasty departure.”
“One of those is harsh; the other leads to pride, which in my mind is the worse of the two,” Pennington-Russell said. “God is the only one who tells you the whole truth about yourself.”
In 1998 Pennington-Russell became the first female Baptist pastor in Texas when she relocated to Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. She left there in 2007 to become pastor of the historic First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. The Georgia Baptist Convention responded by withdrawing fellowship from what was formerly one of its leading congregations, citing a Baptist faith statement claiming the Bible does not permit women to serve as senior pastors.
More than a third of students in Baptist seminaries are women, and the number of women pastors is small but increasing, according to a report by the Atlanta-based Baptist Women in Ministry. Texas now has 23 women pastors — 19 senior pastors and four co-pastors.
Unlike the Southern Baptist Convention, which teaches 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,” the BGCT supports women serving in whatever capacity they feel called.
The BGCT hired Meredith Stone as Women in Ministry Specialist a year ago to be a resource for churches and is exploring other ways to aid.
Many churches “don’t know what they’re supposed to believe about women in ministry,” said Van Christian, chair of the executive board of Texas Baptists.
Debra Bell, a minister, life coach and former staffer at The Church Without Walls in Houston, recalled several years ago, when she was not allowed to stand in a raised pulpit but had to preach from a podium on the floor.
“A great joy is coming to a place in your ministry where you know who you are and what God has called you to be, where you’re comfortable, even if you’re not always confident,” Bell said.
(BP)
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