Pastors' Wives Move Beyond The Front Pew
'First Ladies' of Black Churches Take On More Leadership Roles

By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
Saturday, February 10, 2007

PIKESVILLE, Md. -- At Restoring Life International Church, pastor June Robinson wears several hats -- and not the big fancy ones you might expect for a pastor's wife.

Standing in the pulpit with her husband, senior pastor Kenneth Robinson, she encourages the congregation to join them on a mission trip to her native Guyana to help them see "how blessed you are in America."

Later, she sits with an open Bible on her lap while her husband takes the pulpit. After the service, she meets with female members in the 600-seat sanctuary to discuss a church retreat and a women's health conference she'll be hosting. She's also the church's financial director.

In black churches across the country, the pastor's wife has often been recognized as significant. In the past decade or so, these wives have taken on new congregational roles, including that of co-pastor. No longer confined to the front pew, they have a range of leadership roles inside and outside their churches. Some, such as Robinson, have taken on the ordained post, sitting even farther up front in the sanctuary.

"The role is changing -- no longer sitting in the front row with a big hat, but getting involved," Robinson, a "30-something," said in an interview after a recent service. "We do have a position of influence and a voice, and I believe God expects us to use our position and our voice to influence the next generation."

Robinson shared that sentiment with other pastors' wives this year at an annual First Ladies Summit in Washington. The term "first ladies" historically has referred to their positions as the prominent wives of church pastors. Now, some who use that title -- including more than half those attending the summit -- also are called co-pastor.

Experts point to social, cultural and theological reasons for the evolving roles and title changes of black pastors' wives.

Some relate the changes to the professionalization of the black middle class, which is seen in some African American megachurches. Wives of pastors in those churches often hold top administrative jobs, write their own books and keep their own calendars of speaking engagements.

The Rev. Shelley Henderson, organizer of the First Ladies Summit, points to the overall empowerment of women, as reflected by the election of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for the White House.

"I think it has more to do with limits . . . being taken off women in general," Henderson said.

Robinson's husband points to the theological emphasis in some charismatic circles, where the focus is more on the Bible and Jesus and less on males and females, rich and poor.

"That message liberated women and liberated couples," Kenneth Robinson said of the Word of Faith movement, to which he and his wife belong. They are affiliated with movement leader Creflo A. Dollar.

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."