Baptist Church Embraces Its First Female Minister

Her tuition was paid for by Centreville Baptist Church, in Virginia, which she had joined and become active in as an adult. In December 2003, Seeley graduated with a master's degree in divinity.

Although she had only positive experiences while studying to be a minister, Seeley said, she was mindful of the stories she had heard about women being discouraged from becoming ministers. For Seeley, the stories were not surprising.

Only four years ago, she noted, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Nashville-based umbrella organization of churches, issued a statement on the role of women in the church. The statement read, in part:

"While Scripture teaches that a woman's role is not identical to that of men in every respect, and that pastoral leadership is assigned to men, it also teaches that women are equal in value to men."

In short, the convention said women should not be ministers.

Seeley did not let that statement discourage her. Nor have dozens of other women.

Stan Hastey, executive director of the D.C.-based Alliance of Baptists, said about 20 of the senior pastors in its 150 churches around the country are women.

Twenty years ago, Hastey said, there were few women working in churches in the South. Organizations such as the Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a more liberal offshoot of the Southern Baptist Convention, have helped put women in leadership positions.

It was the Baptist Fellowship that sent Seeley's résumé to Heritage Baptist Church.

"One of the things that we do is take a view of the scripture and a view of the church that says, 'be supportive of whoever God calls to ministry,' " said Terry Hamrick, coordinator of leadership development for the Baptist Fellowship.

The fellowship does that by collecting résumés from applicants for ministerial and other positions in Baptist churches.

Hamrick said he often asks churches if they will accept résumés from women. Some won't, he said. Only in the past few years have a growing number of Baptist churches started to think about putting women in the pulpit, he said.

"We are trying to be more proactive and encouraging," Hamrick said. "I don't want to give the impression that everything is great, because it's not. The number of highly gifted female preachers who are being trained in our seminaries has gone up. But we've got a long way to go. This kind of thing takes time."

At Heritage Baptist, at least, the time has come.