In 2011, the year of my fiftieth birthday, I realized that I wanted to mark that significant milestone. I wanted a memorial experience to look back on, so I threw myself a wonderful dinner party. I planned for months and reserved the back room of Violette, one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta. I sent out invitations to my most loved friends from various seasons and places of my life. I gave great thought to how the party would unfold, and then I waited for the day to arrive.
To my great surprise, friends from far and wide came! My friend, Julie, and my sister, Kenda, both flew in from Texas just for the party. My friend, Suzanah drove from Florida, and several friends came from south Georgia. What began as a party for me became a celebration of friendship—of deep and lasting connections and of newly formed relationships. For in addition to the amazing food, we shared a time of prayer, words of blessings, and reflections on the love that binds us together. That night lives in my memory as a reminder of the powerful gift that is friendship. So at fifty, I finally gave importance to the celebrating of a major milestone birthday.
This year, in 2013, Baptist Women in Ministry has a milestone anniversary. The organization, which was founded in 1983, is about to be thirty years old, and we need to celebrate. We have made substantial progress in the last thirty years. The numbers of women pastors has grown from 14 in the early 1980s to 150 in 2013. Some 2,250 ordinations of Baptist women have taken place since 1964, when Addie Davis became the first Southern Baptist woman to be ordained. Women make up nearly half of the student population at moderate Baptist seminaries. We have much to celebrate, and yes, much more work still to do.
As an organization, BWIM has endured despite almost total dependence for most its years on volunteer leadership, despite cutbacks to already small budgets, and despite two major office moves. In 2013, BWIM has a stable budget, a full-time, fully funded executive director (and I thank God every day for my fully funded job), and comfortable office space on the Atlanta campus of Mercer University.
Over those thirty years, BWIM has been blessed with strong leaders—women and men who invested themselves in the work. Nancy Sehested was the dreamer, the one who saw the need and articulated the vision for an organization that would advocate for women ministers. Her persuasive leadership, contagious enthusiasm, and prophetic preaching paved the way for a new vision for Baptists, whom she called to be more inclusive in their leadership and language and to give attention to all who suffered injustice and lived with oppression. Every time I read or hear Nancy’s name I have a strong sense of gratitude for her strength, courage, and wisdom, and I am so thankful that she will be our preacher in June at our thirtieth anniversary worship service.
I look forward to June 26, when we can gather at First Baptist Church, Greensboro, North Carolina, and share a time of prayer, speak words of blessings, and remember that it is the love of Christ that binds us all together. I hope you will be there to be memorable time of worship and celebration.
Pam Durso is executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, Atlanta, Georgia.