women in the pulpit

When I registered for classes for my second semester at Beeson Divinity School in the fall of 2000, I took a course taught by Dr. Robert Smith, Jr., called "The History of Women in Preaching." Having spent a lifetime worshipping in Southern Baptist churches, I honestly did not realize that there was a history of women in preaching. The objective of the course was to help students "understand the background, rationale, and creative aspect of the preaching experience of women within the spectrum of the American tradition." (Yes, I still have that syllabus in my files.) There were eight women in the seminar, which met on Tuesday evenings from 4:30-7:00 p.m. - nine if you count Dr. Smith, whom we declared an honorary woman.

The first time we convened, we each drew the named of a woman preacher out of a fishbowl. (Dr. Smith was famous for using that object to make assignments.) We were then required to write a write a reflection paper and lead a homiletical teaching clinic on our assigned preacher. In this manner, we learned about Edwina Hunter, Ella P. Mitchell, Barbara Brown Taylor, Vashti McKenzie, Elizabeth Achtemier, Lucy Lind Hogan, Christine Smith, Cheryl Sanders, and Carol Noren. Of course, since this was a preaching class, we also each had to preach, and it was in this setting that I preached my first sermon on November 2, 2000. I chose to preach about Dorcas, whose story is recorded in Acts 9:36-42.

I cannot begin to explain how I felt each time I heard one of my seminary sisters proclaim the gospel or listened to one of the sermons preached by the luminary female homileticians we studied. I felt cheated that I had lacked female role models in the pulpit, but I also felt encouraged - and challenged - as I watched women using their God-given gifts to share His Word. Preaching had never seemed within the realm of possibility for me until I took that course.

I felt the same way this morning, when a woman preached in the pulpit of my church - only the second time in the 14 years that I have been a member there that I have heard a woman preach on a Sunday morning. As I listened to Ruth Graham's sermon, I prayed that the girls in the congregation would recognize that God might call them to preach one day. Maybe one day seminary students will study one of them in a history of women in preaching class.