Southern Baptist women ministering in Metro New York, 1970-1995: the story of Southern Baptist women ministering in Metro New York from 1970 to the mid-1990s is remarkable

Baptist History and Heritage, Spring, 2004 by DeLane M. Ryals

As a pastor in Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (MNYBA) in 1970-73 and as a staff minister of MNYBA in 1974-95, I had opportunity to observe the work of numerous women in churches related to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The MNYBA serves churches in the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, with much of the association's work being centered in New York City. The percentage of Southern Baptists living in this area is minuscule, and the number of Southern Baptist churches is small. At its founding in 1962, the association had 8 churches and 12 missions and a total of 1,285 members. By 1970, these numbers had grown to 81 congregations (44 churches and 37 missions) and 6,548 members. (1) By 1995, the MNYBA had 201 congregations (140 constituted churches and 61 mission chapels) (2) with a combined membership of about 20,000 persons. The 1996 Census Bureau estimate of the area's population was 19,938,492. (3) Thus, the Southern Baptist-related church-to-population ratio in 1995 was 1:100,000. By comparison, nationally one SBC church existed for every 6,500 people.

These statistics describe the missions challenge faced by the MNYBA, a challenge shared by other evangelical churches in the area. Believers and followers of Jesus Christ have been and continue to be in the minority, and Southern Baptists are a tiny, but growing, segment of the population.

Seeking to meet this missions challenge are Christian men and women who come from all over the United States and from around the world, as well as those New Yorkers who have found a vital faith in Christ. Some of these people come on their vacation time to volunteer in outreach and education projects. Others come in response to God's call to plant their lives and ministries in the New York area. Still others are students in area universities and seminaries, preparing themselves for further ministry. Some of the volunteers end up staying and living in the area in order to spread the gospel. Others have taken jobs locally in order to support themselves or their families in their mission. Women and men have involved themselves in an incredible variety of ministries, traditional as well as experimental, even risky, ministries.

Ordained Women in MNYBA

Beginning in 1970, an unusual phenomenon emerged in the MNYBA. From that year until 1995, forty-eight ordained Baptist women ministers and lay leaders served in churches of the MNYBA. (4) Another nineteen women, while not ordained, filled ministry roles in their churches. This significant number of active women in ministry in Metro New York may possibly be unparalleled within any other association in the SBC. Following is a breakout of the positions held by women and the numbers of churches in which the women served. (5)

In addition to these women, a large number of women, some ordained, were appointed or assigned to the MNYBA as Southern Baptist home missionaries.

The Ordination of Women

The ordination of women is and has been a controversial issue among Southern Baptists. Much insight about ordination may be gained by reviewing what the women ministers of the MNYBA have to say about their experiences with and their views of this practice. One ordained female campus minister wished that she had not been ordained. She had agreed to ordination in order to be eligible to perform the ministry to which she felt God had called her. One unordained woman minister expressed gratitude that she had never been ordained. She believed that ordination would have made her contacts with churches and pastors more difficult. Another woman, who moved to the Northeast in "retirement" to do campus ministry, was invited by her home church to be ordained. She declined ordination and was "commissioned" instead.

Association leaders have struggled with the issue of ordination. David Dean, executive director of MNYBA from 1990 to 2002, commented: "Though I myself am a bit uncomfortable with a woman senior pastor, there is no doubt that in New York City and in our association, women have served valiantly. Ordination is the big issue for most SBC folk. Women's ordination is not the issue, but rather ordination itself. [It's] hard to build a biblical prerequisite for ordination of pastors at all." (6) Dean's call for a reevaluation of ordination practices among Southern Baptists echoes the words of T. B. Maston, who taught Christian ethics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Maston wrote: "If we would return to the New Testament conception of ordination, we would see that a church could properly ordain or set apart men who felt called to an educational or music ministry, to teaching or missionary service, or to any other type of special ministry within and to the Christian fellowship.... Likewise our churches could properly ordain or set apart women as well as men." (7)

Church Planting

Planting new churches in the tri-state area has been a successful venture, and many of these church planters have been husband-wife teams. Doris Knight and her husband Edwin moved from Arkansas to New Jersey to help begin four new churches in Monmouth County. Like Aquila and Priscilla, the Knights were "tentmakers," supporting themselves by teaching in local schools. Now retired, they are volunteer international missionaries.