On the way back from a Leeds University Christian Union Houseparty I had helped organise as treasurer, I was sat in the car with a former CU exec member as he drove along the M62 and he turned to me in the car and said, “Claire, you’re going to be a minister one day.” I’ve never forgotten that moment. When I tell the story of my call, I begin there.
The call to ministry is a strange, all-encompassing journey
of being convinced and giving in (that’s my experience anyway). It’s a call
that you know will be sacrificial, change your life, and is only determined by
God. The reason why we test a call to ministry so thoroughly is because it’s about
who you are, not what you can do. It’s realising there is nothing else you
should be doing but this. It’s knowing that God made you this way and by
obeying his call you are completely submitting yourself to him.
As I grew up, I rarely met a woman minister, yet I was
raised to believe I could become all God created me to be. I was a high
achiever, always doing my best at school. I was a loner, not following the
crowd, but trying to be my own person, perhaps at the back of my mind knowing
that as someone made in the image of God, I needed to be no one but me. It has
only been on my journey of call that I have discovered that there are people
out there who think me being me is not who God has made me to be because they
believe the Bible tells them so.
Being a woman in Baptist ministry brings with it a tension. A tension that I choose to live with because I love the Baptist family. This tension is created by our commitment to local church autonomy: some churches wholeheartedly affirm women’s leadership; there are a few who do not; and there are others in between.
I am not going argue my position on women in ministry,
because it is clear from my role that I believe it to be right and God
ordained. I believe my call to be true. I believe that God spoke to me clearly
in a tent when he gave me Isaiah 6 and told me I am one he wants to send. On my
year out working with Christian Unions I studied fastidiously the texts that
people continue to use to clobber me now and believed that I still needed to
explore God’s call. I spent ten years exploring that – I did not come into this
lightly. The Baptist Union has had a clear position as a body on women in
ministry for a long time now, and I’ve written a
resource, along with others, that helps churches explore that egalitarian
theology, which is out there. I believe on that I have said enough, and I’m
tired of arguing my very being with people (both men and women) who want to
throw it back in my face. And there are other people who can do that better
than I can.
As a Regional Minister in London, I see both the beauty and the brokenness of Baptist life. I see unexpected growth, baptisms where the baptistry hasn't been opened in years, and churches persevering through hardship. I get to see and work with the amazing diversity of our churches, all trying to follow the way of Jesus as they seek to love and serve him in their communities.
But I also see the darker side: insecurity, control, and the
quiet sidelining of certain voices. And over the past few years, I’ve seen
that very acutely on the call of women into ministry. As I’ve talked about it with
a number of colleagues – it sounds and feels like it's getting harder for women
– and here I’d like to explore the reasons why:
Permission to Speak Out
I began this role in the midst of an incredible difficult
season in our union - in the midst of the marriage consultation where
existing divisions were highlighted. Debates about sexuality mixed with
arguments about authority, and in that climate the question of women’s
leadership became entangled in the conversation. Complementarian voices began
to grow louder.
The women in ministry argument became so entangled that when
the results came out, and it was decided that the rules wouldn’t change, that
it was noted that women were more likely to be voting for change, and
therefore, in some commenters opinions, women were more likely to be
theologically liberal. Assumptions were made online and left to fester and
grow. (As an aside my personal take on this is that women are more used to
living in tension, being that not all churches will accept them, and so living
in tension amongst others whose theology of sexuality they might disagree with
was an easier gap to leap).
Public statements about male headship, in church and home,
gained confidence, particularly as more prominent Baptist voices spoke out.
What had once been spoken cautiously began to be said more openly, published
online, discussed, not fully withdrawn, and instead pushed into the faces of
women who are called to these roles.
The need to be heard in the consultation debate, the
assumptive interpretation of the results and the voices of some leaders within
our union getting louder – it gave permission to speak out.
I remember my first ever ministers conference, where I was
given the task of finding male advocates for women in ministry. I had a list of
men who I needed to speak to, and I approached one, locally recognised
minister, who took great pleasure in telling me, a woman minister in training,
that my call to ministry was against creations order.
I thought that was a one off – but it’s not. Most recently,
an experienced woman minister told me how she got caught up in a conversation
about women in ministry with her male colleagues, which ended for her when one
of those men told her she shouldn’t even be a minister. This confirmed to me what
I had been feeling - that this was becoming more, not less, commonplace.
The Backlash to Project Violet
Project Violet confirmed what many women already knew – that
despite significant progress, structural and cultural barriers remain. While
many welcomed its recommendations, others reacted defensively, suggesting that
encouraging women disadvantages men or that the church has become “too
feminised.”
Project Violet has handed women a voice that has been
muffled for some time and there are those who don’t like this and they talk
back. Subtle, seemingly reasonable questions, often with a misogynistic twinge.
This backlash to women speaking out is not new or confined
to the church, but we need to be aware of the effect it is having. There are
some people who will not engage with the research, who will stay away from
events, because they already fear what it means for them and believe it closes
opportunities that were open before.
Yet the Project has never been simply about privileging women; it is about the flourishing of the whole church—creating space for all whom God calls, especially those historically marginalised.
There is a rise in Non-Accredited ministers
There is a crisis of ministry in the Baptist Union - people
are not coming forward for training. Why is this? There are probably a number
of reasons that I won't go into here... but it's led to a change in our
churches.
That broader ministry shortage has led churches to look
beyond accredited Baptist ministry, often calling leaders shaped in
complementarian contexts. The worry for me is that this may gradually reshape
our common life and theology. We face real questions about identity,
accountability, and what we expect of those who serve among us. Will we need to
begin to create a set of expectations and guidelines that is firmer on how
churches and ministers might covenant with and respect those who hold a
different view of women in ministry? Will we need to move towards being
affirming (or at least accepting) of women in ministry being a requirement
rather than a choice?
The Bigger Picture
Overlaying this is the so-called “Quiet Revival.” I love
what we are hearing about the number of younger people arriving in our churches
and how they are coming to faith and growing in Christ - particularly evident
in the rise of numbers of young men. While any movement towards faith is good
news, there are uneasy intersections with wider cultural currents, including
forms of Christian nationalism and hyper-masculine Christianity. If some young
men arrive formed by those narratives, how will that shape our churches? And
what will it mean for women’s leadership?
There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that young men are
more likely to vote reform and turn up at church and young women are more
likely to vote Green and leave. We need to be aware of this and its effect on
our churches. In her book “The Struggle to Stay”, author Katie Gaddini writes
about how single evangelical women are leaving the church because they are not
being enabled to be all they are called to be – because as men step up, they
are being sidelined, seemingly only there to fill a gap, rather than be valued
as who they are.
This is echoed in one of the recent comments I have heard
from a Baptist minister about women in ministry, stating that we are only there
because men are not stepping up.
What happens when these young men step up? Will women be
expected to step down by those who hold these views, however quiet and under
the radar those views are?
We need to hold these questions that hang in the air, and be
mindful as we disciple those who arrive at our doors, that they are taught to
embrace Jesus who loves them just as they are, but not to the detriment of
others.
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I do not pretend to have clear solutions, but I believe we
must name what is happening. I ask for others - my brothers in ministry in particular, to pay attention, to
listen carefully, and to walk with us towards a more level place—where women
are not merely tolerated, but truly able to thrive in God’s call.
Because, in this moment, many of us are exhausted with it
all.
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