Sep 17, 2019 | +Clergy Sexual Misconduct Task Force, Weekly Words
I’m struck by the frequency that some Christians label any sexual activity between a married pastor and an adult congregant who is not their spouse: an affair. It is no accident that people easily go there. The fact that it is so easy to go there has deep roots in the...
Sep 11, 2019 | Weekly Words
There are few things that congregations love more than a Family Dedication, the time in a worship service when a family presents their children to the church. Congregants smile and murmur oohs and ahhs as the minister carries the child around the sanctuary, sharing...
Sep 5, 2019 | Weekly Words
Sara Ann Hobbs came a long way from the days of hoeing cotton in Alabama, watching an occasional airplane fly overhead, and wondering where it might be going. She described her life as “the miracle of God impacting a life.” Her pilgrimage began years ago when, as Sara...
Aug 30, 2019 | I Give, Weekly Words
I grew up in a ministry family. I have always been a minister but was not called that for a long time. When I was young the church told women we were called to be some things, but not ministers. I “ministered” in my school classroom and in children’s choirs and...
Aug 30, 2019 | I Give, Weekly Words
I was ordained to the gospel ministry in 1981. I knew of three other Baptist women who were ordained at that time. None were nearby, and there were no cell phones or email. In 1982, I accepted my first permanent position as a federal...
Aug 29, 2019 | I Give, Weekly Words
Though I grew up attending a Baptist church, my parents came to the Baptist tradition from a different background. We did not know certain things that others seemed to know. We did not know, or perhaps more accurately, I did not know, that in my Baptist church women...
