![]() We both felt that one minister in the family already was one too many. Betty and I both considered their visit outrageous, as well as the idea that she might be considering ministry. They wanted to know if my house was in order and expressed their bias against having any more women in the church (we had one in seminary) and especially my wife, aspiring to ministry. These men were not at all pleased that Betty was taking a class under these radical women and that her studies had anything to do with feminism or spirituality. Upon learning that “Sister Betty” was taking this course, a delegation from the deacon board visited me. “These men were not at all pleased that Betty was taking a class under these radical women and that her studies had anything to do with feminism or spirituality.” At the time, Betty primarily was interested in getting some Christian education beyond Sunday school, and trying to recover from the shock of my having told her that the whale story in the book of Jonah was not factual. ![]() When I was a pastor in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s, Betty took a class in feminist Christian spirituality under Rosemary Radford Reuther, Mary Daly and Patricia Reif at Immaculate Heart College. Besides that, she had 15 years of grassroots experiences in two churches where she took on leadership in youth ministry and Christian education as a layperson. Betty already had earned two master’s degrees and had a stellar career as a speech pathologist, special education teacher, school principal and school district administrator. When Betty began seminary, we had children who were older than I was when I first became a pastor. I would be delighted to be corrected and to learn otherwise.īetty, on the other hand, had loads of real-life experiences before going to seminary or stepping into a pulpit. Sure, I had the academic credentials and the benefit of having been a “boy” preacher (there were no Black girl preachers when I was licensed to the gospel ministry as a 9-year-old in 1960), but the opportunities I was afforded never were hindered by my gender nor my age.Įven now, 30 years after I was called to serve as the head of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, I am not aware of any Black female who has held an equivalent post in the Baptist denominational world then or since. I often look back and wonder just what these churches and agencies must have been thinking to call a “kid” like me with absolutely no work or life experiences outside of the church to take on such major and daunting responsibilities. “I am certain that the percentage of Black women in predominantly Black Baptist denominations is far less than the figures that American Baptists recorded in 2015.” I progressed from being a 24-year-old church planter to being a 34-year-old pastor of an 800-member congregation to being a 40-year-old chief executive of American Baptist Churches’ national domestic mission agency ministering to 1.5 million American Baptists for nearly 25 years. But by and large, the trajectory of my ministry career from 1975 to 2015 (when I officially “retired”) was one most would describe as ascendancy. ![]() I have my share of stories of setbacks, heartbreaks and headaches over the course of my ministry. My Black male ministry journey certainly has not been one of gliding smoothly up a crystal escalator. Speaking of American Baptist women in ministry in 2015, irrespective of race and ethnicity, the Women in Ministry Task force wrote, “While progress has been made with women now representing 50% of students at ABC seminaries as well as increasing numbers in leadership positions throughout ABC life, women comprise less than 10% of senior or solo pastors, a figure that has not grown significantly over the past several decades.” I am certain that the percentage of Black women in predominantly Black Baptist denominations is far less than the figures that American Baptists recorded in 2015. We’ve received too few notices about pastoral openings to believe there is enough support. We’ve witnessed our brothers in the ministry be silent when they should have stood up too regularly. We have received too few invitations to one-on-one mentoring sessions and to preach. We’ve had to start too many ministries from scratch to believe there is enough support. We’ve been encouraged to be first ladies too many times. Writing in “ The Christian Citizen” in 2019, Charmaine Webster penned these painful words about Black Baptist women in, and aspiring to, ministry:
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