Pastors' Wives Move Beyond The Front Pew

The trend seems more present among independent churches -- black as well as white and Hispanic -- but can be found in traditional denominations, too.

Bishop Vinton R. Anderson, a retired African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop, made history in his denomination when he appointed the Rev. Jo Ann Browning, wife of senior pastor Grainger Browning Jr., as co-pastor of Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington in 1998.

Anderson said some of his colleagues mumbled disapprovingly about it, but Jo Ann Browning's position was supported by the officers of the church and her husband.

"I made the decision based on need," said Anderson, who lives in St. Louis after retiring from overseeing AME churches in the Washington area. "As that church grew -- it was like 10,000 members -- they needed somebody to be present who could make a decision when the pastor was not there, was not on the grounds."

Other observers of women in ministry say practicality is a factor in appointments of pastors' wives as co-pastors.

"It's a legal thing," said Sherry DuPree, an author and expert on African American Pentecostal groups. "So the husband will make his wife the co-pastor and put her name on all the documents so if something happens . . . the wife steps in and the church runs fairly smooth, because you already have someone in line to be the successor."

Despite the seemingly limitless possibilities for these women, some in the co-pastor role say they let their husbands take the lead in pastoring the church.

Although she is quite capable of preaching, June Robinson said her husband speaks most of the time.

Likewise, pastor Johnnie Jordan of Deliverance Temple Christian Center in Pinetops, N.C., was once the pastor of her church but became co-pastor after she remarried and her husband became pastor. Her roles include overseeing the youth and outreach ministries.

"You are a very active part of the ministry," she said of the duties of pastors' wives. "You take on very active roles as far as counseling and . . . overseeing certain areas of ministry."

The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a professor of African American studies and sociology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, notes that the title "co-pastor" may be relatively new, but the leadership role of pastors' wives is not.

"Black pastors' wives have always been leaders," Gilkes said.

And even as their titles have evolved, their positions as role models -- even for how to dress -- continue.

"It just grows," Gilkes said of the pastor's wife's role. "They get a robe, too, but they better look good when they take the robe off."