By Chris Hughes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Baptist Women in Ministry celebrated their 40th anniversary of supporting and advocating for women in ministry in Baptist life at their annual gathering Oct. 2-4 in Louisville, Ky. The three-day celebration was hosted by Broadway Baptist Church, just two miles from where the idea for the organization was first birthed in 1983. 

To mark the historic 40-year legacy, organizers honored the “founding mothers,” the 33 pioneering women who, “boldly birthed a movement to seek greater visibility and opportunities for women in the Southern Baptist Convention.” 

One of the capstones of the celebration was the premier of “Midwives of a Movement” a documentary created in partnership with Good Faith Media. The documentary tells the history of how the women’s movement came to the Southern Baptist Convention and chronicles the stories of those first organizers. 

“The women who started our movement were bold and tenacious visionaries,” said Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry.

Rev. Val Fisk, associate minister for students at University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., noted how the documentary showcased the ongoing legacy of those forebears. “It’s not just the history of the organization but also telling the story of each of the individual women who were a part of creating this organization,” she said. “And so I think for their families and for those of us who are part of their family of ministry, it’s a tribute to who they have been, and it’s also a tribute to who they are right now.”

BWIM hosted a banquet program that included the presentation of two annual awards for pioneering mentors and churches who support women in ministry. The 2023 BWIM Church of Excellence Award was presented to Calvary Baptist Church in Denver. Breaking barriers when it called its first female pastor in 1993, the church now boasts an all-female ministerial staff. The 2023 Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award was presented to Rev. Dr. Andrea Dellinger Jones for her work mentoring divinity students with her church, Millbrook Baptist Church in Raleigh. 

“The vision that BWIM has to be more expansive in their networks is important, because the seeds that are planted in one place may take root somewhere else,” said Rev. Anne Jernberg Scalfano, accepting the award on behalf of Calvary Baptist. 

“Thank you for thinking that I have shone some light on the path,” Dellinger Jones said as she accepted her award.

Rev. Dr. Pam Durso, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and former executive director of BWIM, delivered the keynote address for the banquet. Turning on its head an oft-asked question of women —  “What is it that you women want?” — Durso answered with a insight to the roomful of Baptists. 

“In a world where women preach, we want pockets on clergy robes,” Durso said. “And in churches where women preach, we want the after-sermon comments to focus on the content, not on our hair, our clothes or our curves.”

Her message focused on the ways that double standards, whether intentional or not, are placed on women. That includes everything from hiring policies to equal pay to parental leave. 

“It will take all of us to achieve the world that we women want to have and need to have to be the people God has called us to be,” Durso concluded.

At the end of the dinner, BWIM organizers presented a hymn commissioned in honor of the foremothers titled, “Come, Celebrate Foremothers’ Gifts.”

The annual gathering included plenary sessions, opportunities for coaching and self-care, as well as a chance to meet the Baptist foremothers. It was also bookended with worship, with Durso serving as proclaimer for the opening and Rev. Zina Jacque, associate to the pastor of small groups at the H\historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., preaching the closing service. 

For ministers like Fisk, the 2023 BWIM Gathering served as an important communal experience for female ministers and a challenge for what’s to come. “Experiences like this allow us to have commiseration. They allow us to share ideas. They allow us to challenge one another, and it allows us to network,” she explained. “I also think it’s important for us to have gatherings exactly like this one because it gives us an opportunity to notice whose voices are not represented and who is not in the room.”

Learn more about and how you can support Baptist Women in Ministry here.

All photos courtesy of Baptist Women in Ministry.