September 16, 2002
Couple reportedly rejected by IMB because their pastor is a woman
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)--A couple from Birmingham, Ala., say they were rejected as Southern Baptist missionaries because their church recently hired a woman as pastor.
___Don Gardner, a former pastor and chaplain, has worked as a volunteer missionary in Africa since retiring a couple of years ago. He just got back in July after three months of video work overseas.
___Gardner, 67, said field directors in Kenya "were very interested" in him and his wife, Esther, returning, and even mentioned them by name in a request to offices of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board in Richmond, Va.
___But after an IMB trustee called Richmond and informed officials that the Gardners' church, Baptist Church of the Covenant, had called a woman pastor, they were told "there might be a problem" with their application, Gardner said.
___Gardner received word Sept. 10 that a decision had been made "at the top level" of administration that the IMB would not appoint anyone from a church with a woman pastor.
___Baptist Church of the Covenant voted Aug. 11 to elect Sarah Jackson Shelton as pastor by a count of 131-2. She is the first female to lead the Birmingham congregation and thought to be the second woman pastor ever affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention.
___While females are rare in Southern Baptist pulpits, the issue has drawn greater attention since the SBC changed its Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement in 2000 to say the Bible forbids women pastors. Early this year, IMB President Jerry Rankin wrote missionaries asking them to affirm the faith statement, even though trustees a year before had voted not to require them to do so.
___In an e-mail to friends, Gardner said he and his wife were disappointed but not surprised at their rejection. "The lack of inclusiveness in the SBC will surely hurt their mission ministry," he wrote.
___Gardner said he would continue to seek ways to serve as a volunteer. Two seminaries have expressed interest in him coming to teach, he said, but he doesn't know if that will work out since he can't be appointed.
___An IMB spokesman said Sept. 12 he was unaware of the Gardners' application but would ask the agency's personnel department about it.
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