Over 200 women from all over the country gathered in Waco to celebrate their voices in the pulpit on September 11th and 12th. During the event, preachers gave lectures and taught about the importance of doing homiletics from the perspective of women in the congregation. The event, called “Unauthorized: Nevertheless, She Preached,” was organized in a period of six weeks by Kyndall Rothaus, senior pastor at Lakeshore Baptist Church in Waco, and Natalie Webb, pastor at Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio.
“We kept waiting around for equal representation of women in churches and seminaries,” Rotahus said. “So we decided to do this, and now we are kind of blown away to see it has been as successful as it has been.”

Some people saw this event as a push back to Truett Seminary’s “Preaching Symposium,” which is the seminary from which both Webb and Rothaus graduated from, but Rothaus says that is far from the truth. “Our event was actually after the ‘Preaching Symposium,’ said Rothaus. “The idea was that we could provide a supplementary to those attending the Symposium and to others here in town.”

Both Webb and Rothaus graduated from Truett Seminary and they had conversations with organizers of the “Preaching Symposium.” Rothaus said that although the goal was to have the two events be complimentary of each other, there was also a desire to challenge the symposium to include more women in the pulpit. “There was no ill will,” Rotahus said. “There is a sense of gratitude for the place that shaped us, and a hope that they will let our voices continue to shape them.”

One of the lecturers and organizers of the event, Emma Wood, said a couple of years ago they had noticed the numbers of women receiving their master of divinity degree and going on to have careers outside of the church. “When Kyndall and Natalie came up with the idea for this event, I jumped in to organize and sponsor it as well,” said Wood, a clinical licensed psychologist. Wood’s lecture was titled “Gender-Based Micro-Aggressions,” which is a problem Wood sees in the church and which goes against her hope to see “equality for women who feel called to pastor.”

The support of this grass-roots event was not only seen before the event happened, but at the end many left the event feeling re-energized and empowered. Two of those women were Belinda Rives and Christy Noren-Hentz, Methodist pastors in North Alabama. “It was the shot in the arm that I needed to continue ministry,” said Noren-Hentz. Even in the Methodist Church, where more women are ordained to be ministers, the number of women pastors is still small. “Life can be a desert for clergy women,” Rives said. “But to be around so many like-minded people is pretty powerful.”

For Rothaus, “there was a real hunger and thirst for this kind of event.” And the turnout was so big that the plans for next year’s conference are already moving. “Unauthorized: Nevertheless, She Preached,” will happen again in Waco on September 24th-25th of 2018. Some of the speakers already scheduled to be there are, Julie Pennington-Russell, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Washington D.C., Wil Gafney, Associate Professor at Brite Divinity School, and Jory Micah, advocate and author of “Breaking the Glass Steeple.”