Support for Women Who Pastor

Post Author: Rev. Shayna Jo Wible

Since the highly publicized Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) vote on women being pastors (which wasn’t actually news to many of us female clergy), my social media feed has been flooded with posts from churches, pastors, congregants, etc., condemning the SBC’s decision and proclaiming their support for women in ministry. It never directly says but often could be summarized as: “Look at us! We’re better than them!” Yet, many of those posts are by pastors and congregations who I know to have silenced, minimized, and failed to uplift the female pastors in their midst. I, for one, have had enough of these empty claims. Support for female pastors in word or ruling is not the same as support in action. 

The “shocking” news isn’t that the SBC still won’t ordain women; it’s that the churches who do ordain women aren’t necessarily any better. Here I have attempted to put words to the feelings many of us female clergy hold as we read the self-righteous words of churches and leaders who would rather look at the sexism of others than their own.

Supporting women who pastor doesn’t mean:

Inviting them to the table
just to ignore what they say.

Giving them a chance to preach
just on the weeks the male pastor doesn’t want to anyway. 

Acknowledging they have good ideas
just to pass them off as your own.

Promoting their presence on leadership
just to boost your own image as forward-thinking or inclusive.

Declaring they bring unique gifts
while ensuring those gifts don’t make the male pastors look lacking. 

Saying you value their femininity
to then imply it makes them weak or silly. 

Championing women publicly
but then silencing the women leaders in your own church. 

Calling them equal
to then always defer to men first. 

Overusing them ‘til they burn out
to then say maybe they just didn’t have what it takes. 

Posting about how great women pastors are
instead of checking in on how you treat the ones you actually know. 

Making space for their voice
so long as they’re saying what you already wanted to hear. 

Wanting a woman as a pastor
so long as she kind of acts like a man.

Cheering them on
so long as they fit the mold of what you think women who pastor should be. 

Oh yes, you support women pastors,
so long as you don’t have to change the systems that were made for and by men.

Reverend Shayna Jo Wible