This week I had a conversation with a student at McAfee School of Theology and mentioned that Baptist Women in Ministry had been around since 1983, which was my final year of college. His reply was, “Cool, that is the same year I was born.” Okay, my first response was “I am so old.” But then other images popped in my head. I thought of those young women who were in seminary back in the 1980s or who were just getting started in ministry. Those women were passionate and committed to participating in this new organization for Baptist women ministers, and today, some of those women are mothers of seminary students. Some of them have daughters who are now serving in ministry too. BWIM is twenty-seven years old. We are old enough to have produced daughters—daughters in ministry.
My other thought was that while our message is the same as it was in 1983, our communication of that message needs to be new and fresh. We need to find ways to connect with our daughters in ministry and keep our sisters in touch as well. So BWIM has a fan page on Facebook. We have this new and updated website. And now we have this blog.
My hopes and dreams for this blog is that it will be a fun and practical means for talking about the day-to-day realities of life for Baptist women ministers. We have other venues in which we tell the stories of Baptist women, discuss the biblical and theological foundations for women in ministry, and share news about events and celebrations. I am hopeful that this blog will fill a gap in our communication—and that here we can talk about real life challenges. I hope we can address such questions as: What should a woman minister wear to officiate a wedding or a funeral? What should she say to a church search committee about benefits and maternity leave? What does dating look like women serving on a church staff? What shoes look good with the chaplain uniform? How can women ministers find and keep good friends? What does life look like for two people both called to ministry? How can we as women find our own leadership styles and be authentic as leaders?
So keep checking back here—and if you have ideas, suggestions, questions, thoughts, recommendations, let us know!