Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband, John, at the Second Continental Congress in 1776, “Remember the ladies.”
Southern Baptists currently are remembering and debating the ladies.
I met a female associate pastor while visiting a Presbyterian church on recent travels. This practice is common in some American denominations.
Alabama Baptists have women in ministry since we’re told about 60 percent of the music ministers in our churches are female. And there are countless female youth, children’s and other ministers.
But the SBC debate centers on the word “pastor”-- a word, interestingly, used only once in the New Testament. Other descriptors include elder and overseer, or bishop. The discussion is about whether a female can have the title “pastor” and the church remain in “friendly cooperation” with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The polar arguments are based on different passages in the New Testament.
The apostle Paul is clear in 1 Timothy 2: 12 that a woman must not “exercise authority” over a man by teaching. And in the next chapter he explained that the “overseer” must be the “husband of but one wife,” so obviously a male pastor. And in 1 Corinthians 14 he wrote that it is forbidden for a woman to speak in church.
The belief called “complementarianism” asserts men and women have different roles in the church, and women cannot assume the role of pastor.
The opposite argument cites 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul permitted women to pray and “prophesy” in public worship as long as their heads were covered. The New Testament prophet received and shared the word of God in the day before the biblical canon was complete. So, if the Corinthian women followed the commonly accepted practice of modesty, they could pray and speak.
So why would Paul two chapters later tell the women to keep silence?
It seems in context he forbade women using glossolalia in worship. Some believe this was because the temple to Aphrodite was nearby with prostitute-priestesses, and seekers in the Christian service might misunderstand if they saw ecstatic women in leadership.
We hosted a Nigerian Baptist pastor a few summers ago when the Baptist World Alliance met at nearby Samford University. The pastor told me more than half of their pastors are female. Nigerian Baptists believe Paul spoke in a first-century culture where women had few rights, and the modern church can commission females if they believe God is leading them.
Nobody can say Nigerian Baptists aren’t steadfast in faith, since they and other believers face martyrdom.
Historically Southern Baptists have promoted the autonomy of the local church, believing the calling of ministers is a congregational decision.
How this affects denominational partnership in coming years will be interesting, indeed.
