In Baptist Women in Ministry’s latest “State of Women in Baptist Life” report, Executive Director Meredith Stone wrote, “Many reasons for celebration can be found in this report, as well as painful reminders of the disparity that women in ministry face among Baptists.” For those of us on the front lines training women for ministry, this captures our reality well.
More than 60% of Baylor University’s students on ministry scholarship are women. This is cause for celebration! Yet the ceiling of what is possible for those future ministers in Texas is bleak.
Mandy McMichael
According to the 2025 BWIM report, only 0.9% of Baptist General Convention of Texas churches are led by female pastors or co-pastors. This is the lowest percentage of any Baptist group being tracked by Baptist Women in Ministry. The BGCT also is tied for the lowest percentage of women serving as endorsed active chaplains and counselors. This is a painful reminder of the context in which many of our female students were reared and the uphill battle they face in finding employment in ministry.
When they arrive at Baylor, many of our female students never have heard a woman preach. They do not know that Baptist women can pursue ordination. They are also, overall, far more likely than their male colleagues to dismiss or downplay their ministerial gifts and to question their authority to lead.
In general, the churches many choose to attend here in Waco do not disabuse them of this notion that there are limits to how they might be called to serve as women.
Our department seeks to dismantle this myth. As noted on our department welcome page, “We affirm egalitarian leadership in the church and world.” Through our classes, our programming and our mentoring, we ensure our students that God calls both women and men to ministerial leadership. We seek to embody some of the markers of “congregational environments that are empowering for women” described in the BWIM report.
But at the end of the day, we are an academic department, not a congregation. Our female students desperately crave the support and encouragement of the local church. They need the community of believers to come alongside them in affirmation and celebration.
“For me to place female students in a situation where their call to ministry is undermined is irresponsible and unfair.”
Thus, perhaps the most important advocacy work our department undertakes is placing as many student ministry interns as possible in churches that affirm and empower men and women in all levels of leadership.
We have received pushback from some local complementarian churches and pastors because of this decision to place as many students as possible in egalitarian spaces. Considering BWIM’s most recent findings, I am emboldened to do this more, not less. As is so eloquently stated in the report, “Congregational culture is where theology meets practice, and thus is where Baptist women in ministry are either empowered or undermined.”
As I turned that sentence over and over in my head, it settled in my heart. For me to place female students in a situation where their call to ministry is undermined is irresponsible and unfair. Not to give them every opportunity to explore the full range of Christian ministry leadership in a safe, supportive environment is to hinder them from discovering gifts they never have been encouraged to exercise and to rob them of the joy that comes from living into the fullness of one’s calling. I cannot in good conscience do that.
Neither will Baylor’s Religion Department. We will provide resources for call discernment to all ministry students. We will name their gifts. We will nurture their love of Scripture and instill the importance of spiritual formation for ministry. We will place them in churches that affirm them.
And, when the time comes, we will help them apply to seminaries that will connect them to denominations and networks most likely to uplift them, ordain them and employ them. It is our great joy to accompany these incredible students on their vocational journeys.
In its most recent report, BWIM reminded us to celebrate how far we have come while working for what is yet to be. I am proud to be part of a religion department that is seeking to do just that.
Mandy McMichael serves as associate director and J. David Slover Assistant Professor of Ministry Guidance at Baylor University.
Related articles:
Affirming women’s leadership as a pneumatological moment | Opinion by Jessica Lugo-Melendez
Women in ministry need each other | Opinion by Molly Shoulta Tucker
Women’s equality is a gospel issue, veteran pastor says
BWIM research shows 6 markers of congregations that empower women
‘Unlearn the lies about women,’ BWIM preacher urges