T.B. Maston offered Wisdom on “Women in Ministry”

The late T.B. Maston, who taught Christian Ethics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary forever, shared the following wisdom in a resource paper on “Women in Ministry” for the Christian Life Commission (SBC). He made the following suggestions, which still sound like good advice.

1. Southern Baptists need to be more concerned and informed about ERA and the women’s liberation movement in general.

2. Churches and church leaders ought to realize that “equal pay for equal work” applies to women employees of local churches and denominational agencies and institutions.

3. Christian men and women are equal before God (Gal. 3:28). They should recognize, however, that generally speaking their abilities differ and hence they have some distinctive functions to perform without feeling superior or inferior to the other.

4. Southern Baptists should study the Scriptures concerning women, giving careful attention not only to the teachings of Jesus and Paul concerning women but also their relations to women.

5. The ordination of women as deacons (or deaconesses) or ministers is a local church decision. A church considering such action should study, among other things, ordination in the Scriptures.

6. Qualified women should be elected to serve on church and denominational staffs without discrimination.

7. More qualified women should be selected to serve on boards of state and Southern Baptist Convention agencies and institutions.

T. B. Maston, “Ethical Issues: 1978 and Beyond” (Nashville: The Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention), p. 3

August 1996