When women’s ministry began dominating her schedule, taking an excessive amount of time from her responsibilities at work and at home, Jacqueline Heider submitted a letter of resignation.
Her pastor responded by offering her a paid position.
That was 18 years ago. Since then, Heider has led women’s ministry at Warren Baptist Church. She serves on the lead team, working alongside fellow ministry heads on the church, which spans 4 locations within the Augusta, Georgia, area.
Heider developed Bible studies and discipleship programs. She launched a special needs ministry, carrying over what she learned from caring for her own daughter with special needs. She became the chief director of the church’s crisis pregnancy center.
There was a time when Heider considered whether the title of “minister to women” can be a greater fit than “director,” but she realized that it wouldn’t really change anything. She was attending to do the work she loved, with the support she needed, and that’s what mattered to her.
“I’m not saying it’s not valid and I don’t think it’s vital. … It’s just not ever been a hill that I need to die on,” said Heider. “If you begin becoming concerned about your title and what you possibly can’t do, it takes away from the work you’re called to do.”
Women’s ministry titles have been probably the most talked-about issue going into next week’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting, when around 11,000 messengers will vote on whether to amend their structure to state that only men can function “any type of pastor.”
Supporters see the change as a vital stance for biblical roles for men and ladies within the church amid society’s confusion around gender. Critics worry it’s redundant or not the very best method to implement a complementarian position—male eldership is already a part of the SBC’s statement of religion and the convention has a mechanism to disfellowship churches led by female pastors.
Just under a 3rd of annual meeting attendees are women, lots of them pastors’ wives or ministry leaders themselves.
In the SBC, some women are glad for the amendment’s clarification. Others agree in regards to the biblical principle but worry that the move could goal women who serve outside of lead or preaching pastor roles. A majority of “female pastors” listed online last yr as evidence of the necessity for such an amendment were leading women’s, children’s, or music ministries.
But many Southern Baptist women are like Heider: too busy with the work before them to pay much attention to the controversy.
“There’s a lot to do here, so many opportunities to be in ministry here, that I don’t concern myself with what I don’t feel is my calling,” she said. She can’t see the vote affecting her work at Warren.
Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, so the 4 million Americans who attend each Sunday are more directly affected by the choices made of their buildings than anything voted on in huge convention halls. Leaders emphasize that local church is “the headquarters of the SBC” and its primary vehicle for evangelism and missions.
For women who already feel empowered and encouraged to guide in various areas of church life, it’s easy to give attention to their very own contexts. But setups vary from congregation to congregation, and there are clear patterns of ministry by and for girls going under-resourced.
A survey conducted last yr by Lifeway Research, a part of the Southern Baptist publishing arm, found that 83 percent of ladies’s ministry leaders are volunteers or unpaid. Only 5 percent plan women’s programming alongside church staff.
“They often serve without recognition, without compensation, and without resources. They achieve this with joy and with little to no expectation of those earthly advantages,” wrote Jen Wilkin—a longtime staff member at The Village Church in Texas and an advocate for training women within the Word—in a column for CT.
Kira Nelson, a master’s student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of a podcast for Christian mothers, is grateful for the investment and encouragement she’s received at Southern Baptist churches.
The instinct to share the gospel got here naturally to Nelson, who remembers putting on a Bible study for youths when she was 12 years old. But it was a pastor at her former church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who trained her and other women to guide small groups. While her husband was in law school, she began a Bible study to minister amongst fellow law school wives.
Pastors at her current church, Del Ray Baptist in Northern Virginia, have continued to acknowledge and help her use her gifts. The church has covered the price of a few of her theological training and solicits her input through a women’s advisory board.
It also offers childcare for the Bible study she teaches on Wednesday mornings, where about 30 to 50 women show up each week. They just finished Behold and Believe, a study on the “I’m” statements within the Gospel of John.
Nelson doesn’t have the SBC annual meeting on her calendar for June. Instead, the mother of 4 is getting plans together to travel to Indianapolis a pair weeks later for The Gospel Coalition’s women’s conference, bringing her newborn son along.
She’s excited to spend time with a handful of other women from her church and to listen to from the lineup of speakers, including the authors of their recent study and a number of other leaders who serve at Southern Baptist churches and entities.
Nelson doesn’t disagree with the proposed amendment on male pastors, but she also doesn’t see the vote affecting the ministry and calling that she has enjoyed at Del Ray. “Right now, I actually have more teaching opportunities than I can handle,” Nelson told CT.
About as many men as women discover as Southern Baptist, but Southern Baptist women—like American women overall—are way more devout. In Pew Research Center surveys, they’re more likely than men to attend church, belong to a small group, pray repeatedly, and consider their faith as a vital a part of their life.
Being involved in church was “never an issue” for Lorin Scott, whose Southern Baptist legacy in Texas goes back generations. Growing up, she attended SBC annual meetings together with her family during summer vacations. For the past nine years, Scott has served in women’s ministry at North Fort Worth Baptist Church, which is pastored by her uncle.
Last yr, Scott launched a support group for girls facing unplanned pregnancies and latest mothers through the ministry Embrace Grace. The church’s chapter has already hosted two baby showers for single mothers, clearing out their registries on Amazon as a method to bless them and reveal God’s love.
Scott has seen women round her step as much as serve and use their giftings at church, just like the Sunday School teacher who went to nearby Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary later in life “just out of a thirst for the Word.”
“For me and for loads of women, this issue isn’t meant to be divisive,” said Scott, who worries that the controversy over women’s titles plays right into a broader skepticism over women’s voices and involvement in church life. “Women need to give you the chance to make use of our skills and use our gifts God’s given us. We don’t want to interchange men. We need to serve beside them.”
A fellow Texan, Robin Marriott serves alongside her husband—not as a copastor but in her role as a proud, extroverted pastor’s wife. Marriott tries to make it to multiple services at First Baptist Burleson each Sunday. The church outside Fort Worth worships with traditional hymns, contemporary praise music, and in Spanish.
First Burleson has been growing fast, and he or she desires to be there to satisfy visitors and greet church members. She believes being a pastor’s wife is a spot for her to make use of her giftings in spiritual discernment and hospitality. Marriott also works as an expert etiquette expert, a skill refined over 37 years of ministry and navigating loads of awkward church drama (she and husband, Ronny, wrote a book about it).
Across several SBC congregations in Texas, Marriott encountered richer, Christ-centered community when churches intentionally welcomed newcomers and encouraged leaders through the inevitable highs and lows of ministry life. “The principal thing is we want to support our staff, female and male, as a church,” she told CT. “Not belittle them, but affirm their calling.”
Nelson from Del Ray Baptist recognizes how frustrating it could actually be for girls in churches that don’t offer a spot for them to make use of their gifts and passions: They could burn out and quit attempting to serve altogether.
Despite their shared theological convictions, women in complementarian churches still risk being viewed as “feminist” or unbiblical for pursuing opportunities to guide. “Sometimes, we feel as if we have now an enormous goal on our backs,” writes creator and speaker Dena Dyer. Plus, they must take care of practical burdens from mental load and other family responsibilities.
Work-life balance is usually a challenge, but anyone serving within the church is susceptible to feeling that tension, said Heider, who recently accomplished a doctoral dissertation on ministry resilience.
Over nearly 20 years at Warren Baptist, Heider has lived her version of 1 Peter 5:10. There were difficult seasons, especially within the wake of her daughter’s special needs diagnosis, but ultimately, she has learned to set boundaries, has stayed rooted in Scripture, and has been made “strong, firm, and steadfast” within the Lord.
Heider, now in her 50s, coaches female colleagues on navigating challenges and latest chapters of life—one is preparing to go on maternity leave to welcome her first child—and he or she helps train the staff as an entire on proactively avoiding burnout.
Summer stays a busy season in lots of SBC churches. Women help placed on vacation Bible schools and backyard Bible clubs. They work on curricula for upcoming studies, Sunday school sessions, and workshops. They reach out to visitors, gather for morning prayer, sing in worship bands, and organize meal trains for brand new babies and hospital recoveries.
After the SBC passed the primary of two votes on the male pastors amendment last yr, Nelson wrote an op-ed for Baptist Press calling on pastors to live as much as their complementarian convictions by investing within the gifted women of their churches.
“In many churches, only men are offered robust theological training. But in Paul’s ministry, women are described as colaborers,” she wrote. “Although women ought not to show men, a lady with sound theological training will profoundly affect her entire congregation as she teaches, trains, and equips other women; as she encourages, exhorts, and spurs on her elders; and as she holds the needs of her church family before God in prayer.”
To neglect this area, she told CT, can be “ministry malpractice.”
Lifeway found that the highest reason women pursue leadership is out of obedience to what they feel God has called them to do. Nearly all of the respondents—over 90 percent—said that they’ve sensed God’s confirmation and guidance of their roles, even in the event that they include sacrifice.
“I’ve never desired to be an expert in ministry,” Nelson said. “I just desired to share the gospel.”
