In some historically black denominations, such as Black Baptist, women represent less than 1 percent of pastors. Meanwhile, in African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches, women comprise about one-quarter (26 percent) of congregational pastors.
According to the ATS study of seminary graduates, black and Latina students are more likely than white students to still be searching for a job after graduation. “Students of color are also significantly more likely to be planning on bi-vocational ministry careers than are white students,” the study notes.
Areas to Explore
Campbell-Reed, whose most recent book is Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention, is working on a book based on the new “State of Clergywomen” findings.
She points to several areas that need more exploration: “For example, what are women who earn MDivs from [Evangelical] schools, and are not admitted to traditional clergy roles, doing with their theological education? Where and how are they serving?”
Implications from the study abound for seminaries, churches, students and denominations, says Campbell-Reed. Seminaries must consider what they’re doing “to prepare women and men for settings where gender is still a major factor in who can be called to fill a ministry role,” she notes. It’s also important for schools to “diversify [their] faculty so that sensitivity to women in ministry and role models for women’s leadership are more available.”
Churches, meanwhile, must honestly explore what factors might be preventing them from calling a woman into a pastoral or leadership role, Campbell-Reed says. Questions she encourages congregations to ask include “What are the gifts and graces you have experienced by having women serving on your church staff?” and “How does sexism still play a role as your congregation works to embrace the pastoral leadership of women?”
Campbell-Reed says she hopes her research will encourage people to consider how women clergy are faring and what recent changes in gender-based leadership mean for the church in the years ahead. Some of the questions resulting from her statistical report, she writes, also should spark “thinking about the intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality and power as they impact churches and ministries in the U.S., North America and globally.”
