The First Woman Mega-Church Pastor of an SBC Church?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, May 31, 2007
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- (62) comments so far
According to a Decatur church member familiar with the process, the congregation reacted to the announcement with “solid approval.” Pennington-Russell, 46, is scheduled to preach June 17 in anticipation of election the same day.
First Baptist of Decatur—a 141-year-old church in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur—will immediately become a centerpiece in the effort to elevate and celebrate women in pastoral roles. But the congregation is not seeking that notoriety, said one church leader.
“Calling Julie was definitely not about ‘making a statement,’” the longtime member said. “Our committee and the deacon council really felt the leadership of the Holy Spirit as we navigated this decision-making process. And to have our entire congregation—minus five or six folks who are not happy about this—stand at the close of the service yesterday and applaud our committee was overwhelming to us.”
Calvary Baptist in Waco was the first church in the Baptist General Convention of Texas to call a woman as senior pastor. At the time, it also reportedly was the largest congregation of Southern Baptist heritage to be shepherded by a woman.
First Baptist of Decatur is affiliated with the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but also maintains ties with the Southern Baptist Convention.
In the past 30 years, the Southern Baptist Convention has taken an increasingly hard line on women in leadership. That move—which happened as part of an overall rightward shift in the denomination—culminated in 2000, when the denomination added a clause to its official confession of faith that said the Bible restricts the office of pastor to males.
However, the confession is not binding on local churches, and many congregations affiliated with the SBC have ordained women as ministers and deacons for years.
Nonetheless, several local associations and a handful of state conventions have dismissed churches that have called a woman as a pastor in recent years.
The Decatur congregation would be the third that Pennington-Russell has led. Prior to her tenure at Calvary, she served for five years as pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco. She also served that church previously as an associate pastor.
During her time in San Francisco, fundamentalists in the California Southern Baptist Convention tried three times, unsuccessfully, to get the convention to withdraw fellowship from the Nineteenth Avenue congregation.
Pennington-Russell also faced protesters when she went to Waco. However, Calvary has—according to multiple accounts—experienced a significant renaissance under her leadership. What had been an aging, shrinking congregation in a troubled neighborhood has grown numerically and attracted many young adults, as well as faculty and students from nearby Baylor University and Truett Theological Seminary.
While records on Baptist women in ministry are hard to track, experts in the field said May 29 that the Decatur congregation would likely be by far the largest church of Southern Baptist heritage ever led by a woman.
You can read more here at the Associated Baptist Press website.
Any reactions?
A female pastor who broke the "stained-glass ceiling" in Texas Baptist life is expected to move to a historic church near Atlanta, making it by far the largest Southern Baptist church led by a woman. A search committee of the 2,696-member First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., presented Julie Pennington-Russell's name May 27 as its recommendation to fill the open office of pastor. Since 1998 Pennington-Russell has been pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.
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DanielR (a different Daniel) on Thu, June 07, 2007
Wyeth, this interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14 may indeed be incorrect, but I don’t think I’m imposing a “20th-century feminist interpretation on Scripture”.
Paul’s letter is in response to communication he had rec’d from the church in Corinth, and although I agree we cannot absolutely attribute v.34-35 to the Corinthians I don’t think it’s clear that these are Paul’s direction to the church. If that were the case why would his next statement be “What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?”
I realize this is the KJV and other translations have it slightly differently so I’m willing to admit the interpretation may be flawed, but I disagree with your assertion that it is completely clear in scripture. If it were as clear as you maintain it would not have been debated as widely and as long as it has been.
I understand your position and beliefs, I was raised on the same beliefs, and I’ve come to believe scripture is not as clear as I was taught on this issue. I also do not believe Wendi or others are defiantly ignoring what scripture says, I think they just don’t believe it is as clear as you maintain and they interpret it differently. I don’t doubt your profession of faith and I hope you don’t doubt others’.
Jerry A Maddock on Thu, June 07, 2007
Although many denominations are allowing women pastors and elders in the church, is this biblical? You all seem to have your favorite scriptures and some of you have 2 or 3 women that you think to be exceptions, but I don’t understand what you do with the overwhelming theme in the bible of male headship. When we look at Paul’s teachings we see that the bishop/overseer is to be the husband of one wife (1 Tim. 3:2) (Pastors are elders) who manages his household well and has a good reputation (1 Tim. 3:4-5, 7). Deacons must be “men of dignity”(1 Tim. 3:8). Paul then speaks of women in verse 11 and their obligation to receive instruction. Then in verse 12, Paul says “Let deacons be husbands of one wife…” Again, in Titus 1:5-7, Paul says, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man be above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward. In each case, the one who is an elder, deacon, bishop, or overseer is instructed to be male. He is the husband of one wife, responsible, able to “exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9). Ther is no command for the overseers to be women. On the contrary, women are told to be “dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things” (1 Tim. 3:11). Why is it that it is that the men are singled out as the overseers? It is because of the created order of God (Gen. 1-2; 1 Tim. 2:12-14).
Additionally, in the Old Testament in over 700 mentions of priests, every single one was a male. There is not one instance of a female priest. This is significant because priests were ordained by God to hold a very important office of ministering the sacrifices. This was not the job of women. Therefore, from what I see in Genesis 1-2, 1Timothy 2, and Titus 1, the normal and proper person to hold the office of elder/pastor is to be a man.
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