A Note of Thanks

Reflection by Bridget Kokolis

In late January of 2007, I was ordained. It’s hard to believe that twelve years has passed since that day. I can remember being nervous, excited, and proud all at once. If I’m honest, I’d say that I also felt uncomfortable and even guilty. That’s a really strange bag of emotions, but it was real. I didn’t know many ordained females at that time, and had heard more than once that it was wrong for a female to be a minister. Suddenly, I had a Reverend in front of my name. Some people questioned why I felt I needed that title, why couldn’t I just continue to be the Minister to Children and Youth without being ordained? Overwhelmingly though, I felt the support of a congregation that acknowledged my call to ministry, despite my gender.

Things have changed a lot in the past twelve years for women in ministry. Twelve years ago, this very month, the Baptist Women in Ministry of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship invited Baptist churches to participate in the Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching by having a woman preach during the month of February. CBF churches all over began highlighting women in the pulpit and thus showing a congregation’s support of the calling of women to ministry. This tradition has continued to this day.

So, who was Martha Stearns Marshall? Martha Stearns Marshall along with her husband, David Marshall, and her brother Shubal Stearns preached a series of revivals known as the Great Awakening. Martha was a Baptist woman who was known for preaching in the 1700s.

Historically, the road for women in Baptist ministry has not always been easy. In fact, the type of Baptist with which our church identifies, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, began in 1991 partly due to this issue.  Many Baptists were concerned about the turn towards fundamentalism that they were seeing in the theological stances of the Southern Baptist Convention, particularly those involving women in leadership and ministerial roles.

I’m so grateful to be a part of this church. To be affirmed once again in my calling by a congregation that fully lives out Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

I cannot begin to tell you how crucial it is for a female in my vocation to be a part of a church that has a long and beautiful history of supporting women in ministerial roles. Churches like ours are more prevalent than they were twelve years ago, but they’re still somewhat hard to find. Thank you for being you.

I thank you not only for myself, but more importantly, I thank you for any young girl who is sitting in a pew Sunday after Sunday, seeing a woman on the platform. Perhaps she will grow and be called to the ministry. Because of you, she will be given the rare gift to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what she feels called to is indeed blessed by God. She will have less reason to have doubts, and instead will be given the chance to live into her calling with the knowledge that her church will be cheering her on all the way.

I also thank you for the young boys, like my own son, who will grow up knowing that it is okay, normal, and accepted for a female to preach and will not question the validity of one’s calling based on gender.

Thank you, Augusta Road Baptist Church, for your affirmation of women in ministry and for helping to positively shape the mindsets and experience of Baptists of all ages throughout the years.

Grace and Peace,

Bridget