Do Baptists Believe that Women Should Not Be Preachers?

Some Baptists believe women can be preachers and some Baptists do not. There are dozens of different Baptist denominations, each taking different stands on women's role in the church. In addition, Baptist doctrine calls for autonomy of the individual church in making decisions, meaning each congregation decides whether to ordain women to preach or to call a woman to the role of pastor.

In 1640, Baptist women were preaching in England, and as early as 1754 a woman was preaching in Baptist churches in America. During and following the First Great Awakening revival in the 1730s and 1740s, the Separate Baptist denomination formed and allowed women to be preachers, deacons and elders. Lura Mains was an ordained minister in two Michigan Free Will Baptist churches in 1877.

According to the Baptist History and Heritage Society many early churches might have allowed women to preach, but often refused to appoint them as elders or pastors. The Particular Baptist denomination formed in the 17th century and limited ministry to men. When the Southern Baptist Convention, with the largest membership of any Baptist denomination, organized in 1845 the only participants were men. By the time of the 1885 meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention changed its constitution to make an explicit rule that only men would be allowed to participate.

Despite the Southern Baptist Convention's refusal to allow women to participate, women were preaching in other Baptist denominations in the 19th century. There were women pastors at six Free Will Baptist churches and one American Baptist church. In 1918, the Southern Baptist Convention allowed women participants for the first time. Even then, a man gave the Women's Missionary Union report to the convention and women were not speakers. That changed in 1929, when a woman gave the Women's Missionary Union report for the first time. In 1965, Addie Davis was the first woman ordained in the Southern Baptist Convention.

As women began to regain some ground as preachers, pastors and leaders in Baptist churches, a formidable opposition arose in the Southern Baptist Convention. The Women's Missionary Union, which has been an independent auxiliary of women in the Southern Baptist Convention since 1888, came under attack from a coalition within the denomination. In 1984 the convention passed a resolution that stated women should not be pastors. In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention changed its statement of faith, limiting the role of pastor to men only.

Most Southern Baptist congregations do not ordain women as pastors today. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, along with other Baptist denominations and individual congregations, generally does allow women to be ordained and to preach, according to the Baptist History and Heritage Society. However, there are few women answering the call. According to the Baptist Standard, as of 2008, there were 600 women who were pastors or co-pastors of Baptist churches.