Thoughts on the SBC

 As most of you know, the Southern Baptist Convention recently doubled down on their view of women in ministry. I’m not surprised. It’s no secret that the SBC does not support a woman’s call to ministry and, more than that, that they have moved away from the Baptist tenets of the autonomy of the local church and freedom of scripture. While I am not surprised, I am grieved for women and girls who remain in Southern Baptist churches where they are constantly told, consciously and subconsciously, that they are not enough.

 

If I had continued on the path that I was on 10 years ago, then I would have been at the meeting where this vote occurred and I would have felt the heartache and oppression that I did for the three years that I worked for the Woman’s Missionary Union and attended the SBC Convention.

 

While I wasn’t prepared to leave my work with WMU when I did, and while I am grateful for the years I had with them, I am thankful that I no longer work for an organization that continues to partner with a convention that does not support the very essence of who I am: a woman. That continued sole partnership when there is so much possibility is one that I do not, and cannot, fully understand. My only consolation is that they provide a somewhat safe space for women in an otherwise damning denomination. To be a safe space is why I stayed for so long.

 

I am coming to believe that we do not have a singular vocational call on our lives, but that we, instead, have been called to walk on a journey that leads us from darkness into light. God calls each one of us to do the work that helps us along this journey, and I, for one, am thankful for the many people, including women, who have followed God’s voice in their lives, and thus influenced mine for the better.

 

Folks. Let’s let God do God’s work and let’s do ours. Let’s live into the possibilities of faith, hope, and love. The greatest of which is love. Amen.