Today, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) took a definitive step in a direction that feels increasingly out of touch with the lived experience of believers. By voting in favor of a constitutional amendment to further tighten and codify a ban on women pastors, the denomination has made its stance clear: there is no room for women at the helm of their pulpits.
As someone who has walked the path of faith, heard the call, and experienced the profound mystery of the divine, I find this decision not just disappointing, but fundamentally misaligned with the reality of how God moves in our lives.
My own journey to faith is inextricably linked to the ministry of a woman. It wasn’t a man who stood at the pulpit when I finally surrendered my heart; it was a woman whose voice carried the weight of the Gospel.
I remember the moment like it was yesterday—a moment of radical transformation that defied biological or theological categorization. I was at the altar, feeling the weight of my humanity, when suddenly, everything changed. One moment I was kneeling on the floor, and the next, I was enveloped in a brilliant, consuming white light.
It was an out-of-body experience that shattered my skepticism. I found myself hovering above, looking down, watching my own body roll across the church floor while the congregation—led by a woman who had faithfully answered a call God placed on her life—encircled me in prayer.
In that space between heaven and earth, there was no “male” or “female.” There was only the power of the Holy Spirit, channeled through a woman who had been gifted by God to shepherd her flock.
When I hear the SBC argue that women are biblically barred from pastoral leadership, I don’t just see a difference in hermeneutics. I see a denial of fruit. I see a refusal to acknowledge that the Spirit moves where it wills, and that God has never hesitated to use women to carry the heavy lifting of the Gospel. If the fruit of that woman’s ministry was the radical, life-altering salvation of a soul—if that ministry produced the light—then who are we to tell God that the vessel was unacceptable?
To exclude women from the pastorate is to ignore the witnesses who have been touched, healed, and saved by women’s hands. It is to prioritize tradition over the living, breathing move of the Spirit.
My salvation didn’t come with a disclaimer regarding the gender of the person standing at the altar. It came with the undeniable presence of God. If you have ever been held by the grace of God, if you have ever felt that same overwhelming light, then you know that the Gospel is far bigger than our man-made boundaries.
So, let the real Christians say Amen. Let us continue to recognize that when God calls someone to the pulpit, no constitutional amendment can revoke the divine appointment. The light doesn’t discriminate, and it’s high time the church stopped trying to do it for Him.