Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said the term “pastor” carries great weight. By comparison, only 2.4% of conservative, evangelical or fundamentalist congregations are led by women. About 30% of White liberal or moderate churches have a woman leader, as do about 16.2% of Black Protestant churches. The gap between belief and practice is considerable - there are still very few congregations with a female lead pastor.Īccording to the 2019 National Congregations study, 13.5% of congregations in the United States are led by a woman pastor or other clergy. Only about one in five (18.4) of Catholic congregations allows women to preach.īut allowing women to preach and actually putting a woman in charge are different things.
Others have had to leave their home churches when the limits placed on women leaders became too much to bear.ĭata from the Association of Religion Data Archives shows many congregations say they allow women to preach, including most Black Protestant (90.3%) and White liberal or moderate churches (95.1%) and just over half (56.9%) of conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist congregations.
Some have been able to stay in evangelical churches - where women are often not allowed the role of pastor - by avoiding the title “pastor” and going by “Bible teacher” instead. Armstrong took that advice, later graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary and becoming a Bible teacher and writer like her mentor and friend.Īrmstrong is one of a number of women preachers and teachers whose call to ministry was inspired in part by Moore’s example. The class changed Armstrong’s life. Moore, not only Armstrong’s hometown Sunday school teacher but also a best-selling author and celebrity Bible teacher, eventually encouraged Armstrong to go to seminary and make studying the Bible her life’s work. “All I knew is there was a really Southern lady who had really Southern hair that was teaching the Bible line by line,” she said. Kat Armstrong poses for a portrait with Beth Moore.
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