Celebrating Women Preachers

On Sunday, Providence took part in the Martha Sterns Marshall Day of Preaching sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry. As we noted in our worship guide having a female preach was not an unusual occurrence in our church. In fact, recently having a non-staff-male in our pulpit has been rare. Because of that, we can just forget that a woman preaching, even being a minister, is still too rare.

I was reminded of that Sunday afternoon. I was talking to our daughter, Savannah, who is a sophomore at Furman at a student in their Exploring Vocational Ministry program. As I told her about LeAnn preaching she relayed a conversation she had with Vaughn Crowe-Tipton, Furman’s chaplain and the advisor of EVM. He was talking about how women ministers are still rare, and in some places controversial.

Savannah was astonished. She said, “Really? But not in CBF churches?”

Oh how I wish that were the case! Our daughters have been privileged to grow up in churches where the conversation about women in ministry is as frequent as a conversation about whether a piano should be in the sanctuary. It just has never been a question. They have never been in a church that doesn’t have a female minister. In Greenville, they watched Donna Forrester, Michele McClendon, Janice Johnson who were my colleagues on the ministerial staff; at Providence they have Deanna McBroom—and so many more women ministers in our congregation—Carol Hughes, Rene Sisson, Stacy Painter, Stacy Sergent, Marjorie Avent, LeAnn Gardner. They have always been the beneficiaries of the wisdom and giftedness of female ministers. We are all better for them!

We were happy to be a part of Martha Sterns Marshall Day of Preaching. I will be even happier when every child can ask, “Really? A woman preaching was an issue? You’re joking, right?”