The Rise of Women in the Pulpit Shifts Local Church Culture

On the first Sunday morning this May, Pastor Virginia Mattocks wore a modest but vibrant kelly green clergy robe-dress with a crisp white stole. She stood in the pulpit between arrangements of red and white flowers, a bold, engaging and skilled storyteller seamlessly weaving personal anecdotes and African tradition into her sermon. This morning her sermon is about Job and his test of faith, a particularly poignant story for women pastors whose faith helped carry them to their respective positions.

Mattocks is the first woman to hold the lead pastor role at the 160 year-old Broad Creek United Church of Christ in Oriental, which is regarded as one of the oldest African American churches in North Carolina.

The practice of women preaching has historically been limited, based on what some have called a misinterpretation of scripture, but a new, rising generation of women preachers—many becoming the first in their church’s sometimes hundred-year lineage— is helping to erode those limits and stereotypes about the pulpit. It is a change many local pastors believe is indicative of a larger cultural shift around women' s role in society.

Mattocks, who began preaching in 2018, is set to be officially installed as pastor of her church later this year. It is a milestone 160 years in the making, even though women have always been a part of the church.

“God has always had a plan for this world and for each and every last person on this earth from the beginning of time,” she said. “And women have always been a part of that plan.”

Fifteen years before Mattocks’ milestone, a local first forged a turning point in the county, which helped to open the floor for other women pastors. In 2011, Pastor Jerlvine Collins of Araphoe's Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church became the first woman pastor within the New Bern Eastern Missionary Baptist conference in Pamlico, where she still preaches today. Her ordination helped to change local church culture.

Despite being supported and ordained by her predecessor, James Crandol, and always preaching in the pulpit of her own church, she said she was not allowed to preach in the pulpit when she gave sermons at other churches in the early years of her pastoral career. Instead, she preached on the floor.

“It didn’t bother me,” Collins said when asked about not being allowed to preach in the pulpit. “It didn’t stop [me] from doing what the lord called me to do,” she added.  “I never wavered… even though I had some say that women aren’t supposed to be pastors.”

It was only as time passed that she was allowed to preach in the pulpit within other churches as well. Thus, other women too.

Her journey in church leadership began through youth ministry 26 years ago, in 1999, after several school shootings motivated her to guide young people in an effort to prevent another tragedy.

There were about 50 kids in her church when she first started, she said, and her goal was to make an impact early on in their lives.

“If you can reach them when they're young and try to instill in them the ‘good things,’ it’ll make a difference,” she said.

One Sunday in February, about 100 people, some from the county, others from Pitt and Beaufort, packed into Pastor Collins' church to celebrate her pastoral anniversary. Congregants sat closely together as music played and several guest pastors gave sermons and spoke about Collins. It was just one of the celebrations happening locally.

Pastor LeRae Lewis was installed as a preacher at Bayboro’s St. Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in the same month. The week after her installation, she told Down in the County that “there are a lot more open-minded people at the church,” than there are people who believe that women shouldn’t be pastors. Still, she added, there were a few members who stopped attending after she was ordained to become the pastor because they believe the bible preaches against it.

“When we read scripture and learn theology, we always have to remember context because it's easy to misinterpret,” Lewis began.

The question of women in the pulpit, she went on to explain, is one that points to the belief that the pulpit is a symbol of authority reserved for men, and that a woman in the pulpit is seen as overstepping that authority. Women speaking from the pulpit, she said, have historically been seen as “talking over” the male pastor, rather than “respect[ing] his position,” and that has been seen as a “threat.” But this, she added, is a misinterpretation of the scripture that has been believed and, as a result, taught and used to keep women pastors out of the pulpit.

In talking about the doctrine, several pastors also mentioned the word of Paul, who, in 1 Corinthians 14:34 states: “Let your woman keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

But the world in which Paul makes his declaration, and the laws around the position of women take place in a different time and society. This has to be taken into account, the pastors said.

Pastor Anne Sims, of Oriental United Methodist Church, said that while she understands this prevailing perception of  the role of women in the bible, she highlights the importance of other justifiable societal changes in today’s world that have veered from scripture– indicating the possibility for reevaluating the role of women in the church, as well.

“If we’re going to eat shellfish, mix fibers in our clothes, let people with Eczema [and other skin diseases] run around free instead of segregating them, then I think it’s important for us to look at some of those other things,” she said. “Is this about the culture or is this about God?”

Originally from Virginia, Sims said that the preacher of her hometown church passed on mentoring her because he believed women should not be pastors. Instead, he found her a mentor who was more open to the idea of a woman taking on the role.

Sims was first brought into the church by her mother and stayed after college because of its teachings and support of community. She said she felt called to apply to the Duke Divinity School Doctoral program as she began to get more involved into her hometown church’s leadership, and stayed in North Carolina with her husband after graduation because the United Methodist conference accommodated their request to pastor in similar areas and supported  women preachers.

Sims, who never served in church with a woman pastor before becoming one, said she is seeing more and more women in ministry.

“That starts from the top-down. It has started with the support of the denomination,” she added.

Unlike Sims, Mattocks was surrounded by women in church leadership, including her mother Ernestine Mattocks who introduced her to faith and was an assistant pastor of Broad Creek for years.

Even having seen women in leadership roles all of her life, Mattocks said she still frequently experiences “microaggressions,” such as people calling her and other women by just their first name, instead of issuing the identifier of pastor first, as is widely accepted as standard in referring to their male colleagues.

Pastor Marlena Daggs of Holt’s Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church in Oriental, who is also the first female pastor of her church, said she has a simple solution when people treat her as if she is not supposed to be a pastor, or doesn’t fit into the role: “I just put a smile on my face and walk in the boldness of God.”

“You have been ordained by God to preach his word, to make a difference in other people’s lives, no matter what, come hell or high waters,” she said. “We have to be determined, dedicated and committed to carry out the purpose that he has called us for.”

Andrew Smith, a member of Daggs’ congregation who is from Pamlico and spent his entire life in the family church, said that although it was unfamiliar for him to have a woman pastor, he feels that whoever the lord calls on to preach is supposed to follow his word.

“If they are sent by God then who am I to question,” he said.

Wayne Rush, the recently installed pastor of Pilgrim Chapel Baptist Church in Oriental, grew up in Alabama where his father, grandfather, and brothers were all pastors. Rush became a pastor after his career in the military, and lends his support to women in pastorship.

“How can I say that I love God and that I believe in the Lord and yet I fight against women preachers,” he said, adding that he believes stereotypes about women preaching and restrictions on the role are eroding with the incoming crowd of new preachers.

Pastor Hope Bryant of Union Chapel A.M.E Zion Church in Grantsboro is currently on sabbatical, but says her pastoral career has been good thanks to the support of others around her.

Like Mattocks, Bryant was groomed to become a pastor by women leaders in the church. Her pastoral predecessor was Reverend Annette Hoskins Satterfield, who is now a pastor in New Bern and someone who Byrant still goes to for guidance.

“To this day, I call her my spiritual mother because I came under her [as a] very supportive, caring and loving individual,” Bryant said. “It made it easy when you got support from other female ministers,” she added, noting that she also had a lot of support from male ministers as well.

“To get done what needs to be done in the kingdom of God is the main concern,” Bryant said.

“Regardless of where it’s coming from, a man or woman, the word is the word,” Collins agreed.

For some, the gradual acceptance of women pastors is part of a larger shift in women' s role in society– signifying a pivotal moment in our culture.

“The ordination of women represents a larger cultural shift about the role of women in society, at work and leadership,” Sims said. “Culturally, we're still really navigating that. It's all a piece of that larger shift, and I think that we're all the better for it.”

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