Baptist women in ministry

Yesterday I was in a meeting that featured a lively discussion about Baptist women in ministry. These folks were all enthusiastic supporters of Baptist women in ministry, so we spent a fair amount of time considering all the reasons that women - from young women fresh out of seminary to more "mature" women who have been called to ministry later in life - have difficulty finding positions on church staffs, particularly pastorates.

Two fathers among the group spoke eloquently about their desire for their daughters to understand that God can indeed call them to serve as pastors. A college professor noted that fathers of female collegiate athletes provided much of the impetus for achieving parity among men's and women's sports when they began to speak out about the inequities they had observed.

The best story, however, came from a minister who serves in East Tennessee. She recalled the time when her church was searching for a pastor, and some folks made the argument that the congregation shouldn't consider a female candidate since the church's other two staff members were women. One member actually had the audacity to say, "We can't hire a woman as pastor because then we would have an all-female staff!" Imagine that - a single gender staff in a Baptist church. Who has ever seen the likes of such a thing?