The New Preachers' Spouses

Ebony, August, 2001 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

Some preach, some are doctors, lawyers and judges

THE traditional preacher's wife--traditionally, the spouse of the pastor was always a she--was the beautiful, ambidextrous, ever-smiling woman in the background, the always willing, eager and unpaid church worker, guiding the choir, playing the organ, deftly arbitrating feuding church factions while raising her own family and facilitating the women's ministry at the church. Working outside the church was not only unthinkable, it was simply not possible in the ministries of the past. "It was the type of role that had a lot of responsibilities and a lot of expectations--with no pay!" says one pastor's wife, and there were only so many hours in the day.

Today the pastor's spouse is likely to be an ordained minister herself and a co-pastor with her husband. The new preacher's wife is likely to be a career woman juggling a career of her own. The spouse of the pastor, in fact, may be male and have his own job, outside his wife's church. New millennium preachers' spouses are judges, book authors, dentists, lawyers, medical doctors, pharmacists, administrators and preachers. They are mothers and fathers, tennis and golf aficionados, and devoted to their spouses and to their faith.

CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR RONALD COOK, husband of the REV. DR. SUZAN JOHNSON COOK pastor of Bronx Christian Fellowship Church in New York, ban untraditional :"first lady" in every sense of that word. His wife has been a Senior pastor since their marriage. The first thing under discussion was what to call him. "The First Gentleman and the First Man were discussed as counterparts to the First Lady title," he says. "The guys understand that it's an interesting situation. They acknowledge me on Father's Day and on my birthday, and I'm involved in the Men's Fellowship," he adds. Cook works as an administrator for Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem, a position he has held for more than 20 years. He and his wife will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in October. They have two young sons. He says they are blazing a trail, and he is happy to support his wife. "I don't feel God has called me to the clergy ministry, but I feel that we are all ministers as part of the body."

PHARMACIST SUSAN D. SMITH, wife of BISHOP SMITH, M.D., and pastor of Apostolic Faith Church in Chicago, says apropos of their different backgrounds and professions: "God has a sense of humor." Her husband is both a pediatrician and an ordained minister, while she is a pharmacist. The couple, who will celebrate 25 years of marriage in September, met while he was in medical school and she was in pharmacy school. "When we got married, in my mind he was only a physician and a very committed Christian." But soon, his commitment increased to include the ministry. The couple have three daughters. She works in the pharmacy at Children's Memorial Hospital, servicing primarily children with the HIV virus and AIDS. She works part-time at the hospital now, and is devoting more time to the church. "Initially I was very resistent to going down to the church," she says. "I felt I wasn't trained as an administrator, and pharmacy is very special to me. But someone really needs to be at the church during the week and it's easier for me than my husband." She is also considering returning to school for a doctorate in pharmacy. She sees the role of the pastor's wife as changing, noting she doesn't sing or carry out any of the other traditional pastor's wife duties. "I think what that says is that the other partner is bringing something not only into the marriage relationship and the church and the shepherding relationship, and I think it's becoming more than just support of the shepherd," she says, adding:

"He's still the shepherd, the leader, but you can see there are some things that need a woman's touch, and you can see that it gets done and facilitate it quickly."

OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST CHERYL G. FRANKLIN, wife of the REV. DR. ROBERT FRANKLIN, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, says the pair made a pact when they married 15 years ago to support each other professionally and personally. "We knew that each other's careers would ebb and flow, and we would make a conscious effort that when one spouse got busier than the other spouse, we would cut back so that we could keep it going and work as a team." She is an obstetrician/gynecologist, but now restricts her practice to gynecology. The couple have two children together, a boy and a girl under age 10, and an 18-year-old stepson. Although she has been a practicing physician since their marriage, she says the role of the traditional pastor's wife has not been an issue. "Because there are so many avenues for ministry, he has not had the traditional church ministry," she says. "His role is in institutional ministry and is heavily involved in preaching and teaching." Her practice now, La Femme Care, is restricted to gynecology only, a concession to all those "endless hours in the hospital delivering babies at all hours of the day and night," she says. She does make time for special projects at ITC, one a campus beautification project called Landscape iTC, and the ITC Association.