Female Pastor

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                           Vol. XI, No. 1, January 1998

A notable example of the drift of some Virginia churches away from scriptural authority and at the same time a rather dramatic example of the differences between the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia appeared in the 13 November Religious Herald. The article, which filled the entire front page and some two-thirds of the second page, recorded installation of Betty Pugh as pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Richmond.

Throughout, the tone was congratulatory. For example, the seventh paragraph begins, "For Virginia Baptists, the event celebrates the calling of the first woman as pastor of a church in the Richmond Baptist Association. Pugh thus joins other pioneering women like ..." (Emphasis added.)

The ceremony was not done under a basket. The ninth paragraph lists several notables present: "Other guests included Reginald McDonough, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia; Robert Perry, executive director of the Richmond Baptist Association; Walter L. Parish, executive director of the American Baptist Churches of the South; ..." Clearly, presence demonstrates approval.

The fourth paragraph from the end explains why Parish attended: "But Grace welcomes this new perspective. Historically, the church has shown a tendency toward the innovative and progressive. Most recently, the congregation voted in 1991 to align itself with the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. ..." Thus Grace is aligned with both the ABC and the SBC.

Remarkably, from the viewpoint of those who believe in the plenary, verbal inspiration of Scripture, nowhere does the article mention what the Bible says about pastors or the role of women in the church. I Timothy 3:2 reads, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" And I Timothy 2:11-12 states: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Those who regard the Bible as inerrant take these (and all other) verses seriously and as precepts to be obeyed.

Those who do not believe in complementary roles for men and women often object that I Timothy 2:11-12 only reflect contemporary society at the time Paul was writing and are not to apply today. But verses 13-15 ("For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.") clearly remove vv 11-12 from the context of contemporary culture and connect the origin of the precept to Adam and Eve in the Garden which logic applies to our day just as completely as to any other period.

On the other hand, those who regard the Bible as the record of various men's search for God and as inspired more or less as Homer or Shakespeare was inspired -- though perhaps to a somewhat higher degree -- are cast adrift upon the uncertain waters of contemporary "culture" even as they charge that the biblical authors were themselves prisoners of their own culture and that such passages no longer bind. Consequently, the individual and the church can take pride in being "innovative and progressive" and in "celebrating" calling the first woman pastor in the local association.

Contrariwise, for historically orthodox Baptists this ceremony is a cause of sorrow, a time of mourning that some Virginia Baptists have fallen so far from their first love, that they are unwilling like the noble Bereans to search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Individual Baptists and individual churches often face great peer pressure to conform to the current cultural shibboleths. One of the most frequent examples of such nonsense today is that there is no difference other than plumbing between men and women, and in the church there should be no difference of roles ... regardless of what God has set down in His Book.

Praise God that in the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia churches who believe in the full authority of the Bible and are trying sincerely to live it find a denominational home.

Addendum: Another short article in the same Religious Herald points out that "At least 85 women are pastors in Baptist churches, while more than 100 serve in an associate pastor role" and "Virginia has 11 women in Baptist pastorates..." [Later addition: A study in 2000 showed these figures to be incorrect. Instead, there were 35 women serving as pastors of SBC churches, out of the total of some 42,000 such churches. TCP]