RE: Voices: My position on Law’s list of SBC churches
Thank you for publishing the thoughtful and well-referenced article on Rev. Law’s list of churches with women in roles as pastors.
Many years ago, I wrote another letter to the Baptist Standard in regard to this same issue of women in ministry. It matters not what title or job you assign them; women are vital, yea essential, to ministry in our churches.
As I said many years ago, I knew the names and impact of Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong and Mary Hill Davis long before I ever heard the names B.H. Carroll, George Truett or Billy Graham. And the most formative years of Sunday school in my life were overseen by godly women who literally loved me into the kingdom.
It is beyond presumptuous to believe anyone can understand better a calling from God than the person who heard the call. Who am I, or any man, to say to a woman: “You are mistaken; God does not call women to be pastors!”
I thank God for the teachers, choir directors, youth leaders, deacons and pastors—both women and men—who have blessed my life in the name and cause of Jesus.
Barry L. Moak
Abilene, Texas
The original article published April 3, 2023, was revised by the author to provide additional references and clarifications. Additionally, Editor Eric Black transposed the Greek terms diakonon (referring to Phoebe) and apostolois (referring to Junia) in the original published article. That error has been corrected (April 13, 2023).
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