“Oh, that Southern Baptists would wake up to their responsibilities!” –Lottie Moon
As the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) doubles down on restricting women preachers, teachers, and leaders, one wonders if we’re reading the same Bible. How can a Bible-centric organization like the SBC reconcile silencing and sidelining women, given the many examples of Bible women who preach, teach, and lead from Genesis to Revelation? Women including Rahab (Josh. 2), Jael (Judg. 4:21–22), Esther, Deborah (Judg. 4–5), Huldah (2 Kgs. 22:14, 2 Chr. 34:22), the Samaritan woman—known as the first evangelist (John 4:1–42), Priscilla (Acts 18:24–26, Rom. 16:3–5), Phoebe (Rom. 16:1–3), Junia (Rom. 16:7), the anointed women prophesying at Pentecost (Acts 2)—and many more are inspiring models to Christian women today. These passages represent the main teachings of Scripture against which three poorly translated texts (1 Tim. 2:11–15, 1 Cor. 14:32–34, Eph. 5:22) are evaluated. Even more, if all of Scripture points to Christ, then supremely the words and deeds of Jesus ought to compel all Christians—women and men—to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). This is precisely what Southern Baptist women have been doing for decades—advancing the great commission! Women like Lottie Moon (1840–1912), one of the most prominent women leaders in Southern Baptist history, left a legacy for women to follow to this day!
Moon not only planted churches in the Shandong Province, China, but she also preached and taught in those churches and trained upcoming pastors to lead and preach after she left. Throughout her career, Lottie sent countless letters documenting her work within the Southern Baptists’ missionary arm, known today as the International Mission Board (IMB). These letters provide abundant witness not only to Moon’s remarkable leadership, but also to the consistent support she received from SBC churches and the IMB. Both affirmed and supported her bold initiatives as a single woman who courageously went into all the world. To this day, the IMB website hosts every letter Lottie Moon sent as a missionary in China—an enduring witness to her extraordinary vision and initiative as a gospel evangelist.[1] More women would follow.
In following examples like Lottie Moon, the holy boldness of women leaders among the Southern Baptists ignites courage and vision in women evangelists worldwide, especially those facing pressure to mute and subdue their God-given gifts and callings by complementarians. Yet, these are the very women we should all follow rather than the false teachers within the SBC who dare to silence women’s gospel voices! The Bible has much to say about false teachers and the consequences of distorting Scripture, especially Christ’s call to go into all the world.[2]
Thankfully, women in the SBC have and continue to invest their lives preaching the gospel and leading missionary projects in regions worldwide. Faithfully, God gave these women extraordinary favor in growing strong relationships over decades and in gaining an openness to hearing more about Christ’s love and the gospel. While the SBC removed many Southern Baptist (SB) women from their crucial gospel work because they were preaching and teaching, CBE honored these women, their male allies, and two supporting organizations—the Baptist World Alliance and the Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia at CBE’s 2003–2005 international conferences. Although women preach, teach, and lead in Southern Baptist (SB) churches, these churches are rarely a part of the SBC given the SBC is a loose confederation of churches, unlike a denomination. Thus, the SBC has less control over SB churches than outsiders might imagine.
While SBC delegates continue to regrind the same sausage—attempting to limit and restrict the Holy Spirit’s gifts and calling in the lives of women—the account of Pentecost provides a strikingly different account. Despite human prejudice, the Spirit was poured out on all flesh, on women and men of many tribes, ages, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds, preaching the wonders of God (Acts 2:17). These events demonstrate that at the birth of the church, God shows no partiality. Thus, CBE exists to advance this ethos cited also in Galatians 3:28—“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” All who walk with Christ share the same privilege regardless of race, class, or gender. In fact, Galatians 3:28 was an ancient baptismal formula, showing that despite the profound cultural biases, the early Christians embraced a higher ethic and purpose.[3] For this reason, early Christians rescued those deemed useless to Rome (women, slaves, the disabled, etc.).[4] As such, you can imagine the significance and empowerment baptism offered early church believers regardless of race, gender, or social class.
Just as Christ rose victorious on Easter morning, Christians rehearse Christ’s victory over sin and death during their baptism. By entering the waters as sinners, new Christians unite to Christ’s sacrificial death on Calvary. By rising from under the water, they rise up redeemed from sin, just as Christ rose from the grave. The ancient ritual of Christian Baptism celebrates Christ’s costly death, one that transformed converts by forgiving their enemies, enabling them to do good to those who had harmed them. In this way, Christians throughout history also showed the world that God will not be mocked (Gal. 6:7). Misguided, harmful, and unbiblical efforts to stymie or restrict God’s gifts in women will never hold back the power of Christ in women. Instead, these strategies often backfire; the SBC is pressing out the life of God in their midst, and the fruit is a denomination in decline.
According to LifeWay research, in conjunction with Baptist state conventions, SBC membership has been in a steady state of decline since 2006. According to Mark Wingfield with ANALYSIS, between 2006–2025, the SBC lost nearly 4 million members (3,974,292).
As the influence and impact of the SBC declines, the gospel leadership of women grows. According to CNN, women are “sensing a need for change.” They’re tired of the patriarchy with its deception, abuse, and suffering. In response, women are pursuing theological studies in record numbers.[5] It is stunning that, as the SBC is rife with abuse allegations of women,[6] its leaders respond by doubling down to silence women, specifically women teachers, preachers, and leaders. It is precisely women in leadership that abused women turn to for help.[7] A ban on women leaders in the SBC will also minimize avenues to disclose the abuse of women!
For thirty years, CBE has and continues to advance egalitarian resources worldwide through local chapters, conferences, translation and book projects, partner events, and activism. Normalizing women’s leadership in what were previously male-led organizations like the Evangelical Theological Society, evangelical seminaries, denominations, and churches are now places where women lead at the highest levels, as editors of journals, and as presidents of organizations and denominations. Young women called and gifted as leaders are less likely to look over their shoulders but have the biblical assurance to walk bravely into vocations confident that God’s gifts, calling, and faithful power can sustain their ministry and leadership.
How thankful we are as women leaders to honor those who have gone before us; the Lottie Moons in our lives, modeling courage, initiative, and faith in God’s providence to accomplish more than we can ask, dream, or imagine possible (Eph. 3:20). As male-leadership denominations are declining compared to previous years, their leaders may be open to discussing women teachers, preachers, and leaders. Research shows that increasing women by 30 percent in all male-leadership teams increases impact, ethics, and teamwork. It’s crucial to remember the rapid growth of Christian faith during the early church period, before church polity and structures were established to exclude women leaders (Rom. 16:1–9). As the church is in decline, it is time to support women called and gifted to lead.
In celebrating SB women like Lottie Moon, who faithfully answered the Great Commission Call, her wisdom is not only a prayer for the church today, but it also constitutes both wisdom and a warning to the SBC. Lottie wrote, “If the Great Commission is for all believers, then we must personally answer the question, ‘Am I going or sending?’”[8] Let’s celebrate the women like Lottie who went to the ends of the earth, as preachers, teachers, and leaders. May their company increase!
Photo by Baptist Women in Ministry.
Notes
[1] Lottie Moon is celebrated on the SBC’s missionary agency—The International Mission Board (IMB) that exists “to serve Southern Baptist churches in carrying out the ‘Great Commission’ (the biblical mandate to make disciples of all nations). Lottie Moon’s letters are housed on the IMB website. See https://www.imb.org/about/lottie-moon/letters/.
[2] Matthew 23:13, 24:24; Luke 6:26; Jeremiah 14:14, 23:16; Ezekiel 13:9; Deuteronomy 18:20; 2 Timothy 4:3–4.
[3] See https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESdgHuR6pNv5JhCnx81IauX4F4ku_C1NI0E4pjRF8qdmfYHDOchucyfh6IGiw4xqaZG-GqC00i7E8zs2fE924PWF7mLiiR_cAYPifT62xbRMRnW0KAJeAow1Jha4gbwXUpJIH_xE6dHYTZjbDE470L_Ap6ZW29_gg=. See also https://corechristianity.com/resources/articles/a-time-when-christian-baptism-undermined-racism.
[4] Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Basic Books, US, UK, 2019).
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/30/us/women-church-leadership-united-states-cec.
[6] https://cbn.com/news/us/sbc-moves-closer-formal-ban-female-pastors-beth-moore-asks-what-about-abuse. See also https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2026/jun/14/southern-baptists-new-leader-denies-systematic/ and https://kevinyoung.substack.com/p/women-its-time-to-run-from-the-sbc.
[7] https://womensaid.org.uk/what-we-do/research/domestic-abuse-the-facts/.
[8] https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/lottie-moon-the-rebel-i-want-to-be/.
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