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Can A Sistah Get A Little Help?: Encouragement for Black Women in Ministry
Brown shares many of her rich life experiences as a black clergywoman and seminary professor. She preaches and teaches to all women so they can begin to brek through the very real brick ceiling that thretens to hold them in and keep them from their cll to ministry.
176 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2008
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May 28, 2024
A SYMPATHETIC EAR AND SOUND ADVICE FOR BLACK WOMEN IN MINISTRY
Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown is Professor of Preaching in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University; in 2010, she became the first African American woman to attain the rank of full professor. She also served as the Director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program until 2015.ody, and Animation in Proclamation]], etc.
She wrote in the Preface of this 2008 book, “As I travel around the world and across the United States… Women confide in me that they discern little or no support from men (or often from women) of their God-called ministries, leaving them feeling alienated, abandoned, and sometimes perplexed. Support systems are few and far between. Role models for many are nothing more than a figment of their imagination. Most women would welcome having someone with whom to talk, to consider options, to commiserate, or just to share their joy uninhibited… I do not have all the answers, but I am able to draw on my personal journey to share successes and failures, joys and sorrows, disappointments and surprises, apprehensions and assurance of women in ministry. And sometimes that’s enough. Contemporary women are not the first to encounter resistance or even acceptance in their journey in ministry. Knowing how far we have come and how far we have to go is foundational to getting help.” (Pg. ix-x)
She continues, “My focus is how Black women may faithfully continue to navigate the internal and external challenges of ministry. The bulk of this book is based on my twenty-two years in ordained ministry and as a seminary professor, during which I have learned that, with a set of cultural coping mechanisms and values, African American women can not only survive but thrive as leaders and mentors in spite of the brick ceiling… These are transmitted by Black families through direct teaching examples, assigned tasks, and negative examples and life stories of what happens when one ignores their relevance… Alongside these, I engage personal experience, conversations with women in ministry over the past thirty or so years… As preparation for this book, I have conversed with approximately two hundred ordained and 450 lay women in ministry about the issues most relevant to them.” (Pg. xxvii-xxviii)
She recalls, “Until my early thirties, I worked in Black Baptist churches as a choir member and director, Sunday school superintendent, Bible study teacher, missionary, director of women’s ministry, youth director, secretary, cook, counselor, and community activist… Called into ordained ministry at age thirty-two, I was told to wait until the senior pastor figured out what to do with me… At that time there were few female role models, no female mentors, and only distant sister with whom to share this strange world… My social life dried up. Men thought that I was no longer feminine… Women saw me as a threat to their positions in the church, their relationships with the senior pastor, their role definition for women, and their own sense of success or failure… In the course of twenty-five years I have learned that the ministry in which I was engaged for most of my life is the same ministry I am doing now. The difference is the title that accompanies my work.” (Pg xxiv-xxv)
She explains, “Women did not welcome me with open arms either. Some told me that I really just wanted to get close to the pastor so I could be the so-called first lady---meaning a woman raised to access church leadership through sexual relationships with or marriage to the pastor or a minister on his way up… There were younger women and even some of my peers who said that I could never be their pastor because I was not a man… I have since come to term this ‘sexual surrogacy’ in the church. There are women who construct a pseudo family with the (male) pastor as the head of their church and filler of voids in their household. Ironically, these were women who worked with me before I entered ministry.” (Pg. 12)
Later, she adds, “I rarely heard anything positive about women in ministry, even from women, although these were some of the same people who voted to issue me a license to preach. I was angry with God and disgusted with people. All I wanted to do was teach. I did not want to be the pastor… I tried to go on autopilot at church and invest my energy in school… Even at my seminary, I was confronted with finding where I fit…. Whenever I pushed the envelope and asked about Black women I was met with conciliatory conversations driven by the need to placate me… I felt as if I had no choice but to do what God said, and yet I felt abandoned. I was desperate for someone who looked, sounded, and acted like me and who had experienced what I had lived. It was my history of religion professor … who opened the door to my future by introducing me to Annna Julia Cooper… a nineteenth century educator…” (Pg. 25-26)
She notes, “I believe that God is both male and female…. There are times I say Father God, other times Mother God, sometimes God who helps me write this book or God who is preaching this sermon. I use inclusive language in all my publications and sermons…. That way, I hope those I teach understand that I am not someone who hates the God of my ancestors but rather one who tries to be ‘no respecter of persons.’ … I try not to rip the spiritual foundation out of the household of faith without telling the occupants why they need a linguistic renovation.” (Pg. 30)
She suggests, “assess the church culture and locate your allies… Do not declare war unless there are really ‘weapons formed against you,’ then pray for guidance before you contribute to the destruction of the faith community. If, for example, you believe God created ALL persons equal regardless of their gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, physical ability, health, or marital status and the church leadership does not, then it’s time to consider your options…. You can quit, fight, teach, or assimilate. No need to blow up, cuss, scream, fall out, or revert to some preconversion language or action.” (Pg. 55)
She counsels, “There is no monolithic ‘woman in ministry.’ What works for one may not work for another. The absence of a clique or cohorts does not equal an insignificant ministry. When we least expect it, no matter how adept we are at navigating the process, we will need someone to help us make sense of it all.” (Pg. 101)
She points out, “Over the centuries women called by God have established ministries in places often overlooked… They have survived … and thrived … through pastoring small mission and ‘dying’ churches, feeding homeless folk and taking in orphans, preaching in supermarkets and on street corners, visiting hospitals and houses of prostitution, traveling in groups and going solo… and walking other women through the pains of childbirth and child loss. Regardless of their titles, they were living out their calls. There are countless other traditional and nontraditional avenues for ministry.” (Pg. 120)
She concludes, “My life is not perfect… I have tried to share little bits of information that I have gathered over the past twenty-five or so years specifically and over my fifty-six years in general. The sum of the matter is that there is help for those who feel like they have lost their very mind and cannot find the word to say what is going on in inside… Yes, there will be obstacles. But if we keep focused on the goal we will make it---perhaps bloodied, but alive and ready to do God’s work.” (Pg. 174)
This heartfelt and sympathetic book will be of most value to other women entering or already in an area of ministry---but also to persons (including men) concerned with the contemporary Christian church.
Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown is Professor of Preaching in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University; in 2010, she became the first African American woman to attain the rank of full professor. She also served as the Director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program until 2015.ody, and Animation in Proclamation]], etc.
She wrote in the Preface of this 2008 book, “As I travel around the world and across the United States… Women confide in me that they discern little or no support from men (or often from women) of their God-called ministries, leaving them feeling alienated, abandoned, and sometimes perplexed. Support systems are few and far between. Role models for many are nothing more than a figment of their imagination. Most women would welcome having someone with whom to talk, to consider options, to commiserate, or just to share their joy uninhibited… I do not have all the answers, but I am able to draw on my personal journey to share successes and failures, joys and sorrows, disappointments and surprises, apprehensions and assurance of women in ministry. And sometimes that’s enough. Contemporary women are not the first to encounter resistance or even acceptance in their journey in ministry. Knowing how far we have come and how far we have to go is foundational to getting help.” (Pg. ix-x)
She continues, “My focus is how Black women may faithfully continue to navigate the internal and external challenges of ministry. The bulk of this book is based on my twenty-two years in ordained ministry and as a seminary professor, during which I have learned that, with a set of cultural coping mechanisms and values, African American women can not only survive but thrive as leaders and mentors in spite of the brick ceiling… These are transmitted by Black families through direct teaching examples, assigned tasks, and negative examples and life stories of what happens when one ignores their relevance… Alongside these, I engage personal experience, conversations with women in ministry over the past thirty or so years… As preparation for this book, I have conversed with approximately two hundred ordained and 450 lay women in ministry about the issues most relevant to them.” (Pg. xxvii-xxviii)
She recalls, “Until my early thirties, I worked in Black Baptist churches as a choir member and director, Sunday school superintendent, Bible study teacher, missionary, director of women’s ministry, youth director, secretary, cook, counselor, and community activist… Called into ordained ministry at age thirty-two, I was told to wait until the senior pastor figured out what to do with me… At that time there were few female role models, no female mentors, and only distant sister with whom to share this strange world… My social life dried up. Men thought that I was no longer feminine… Women saw me as a threat to their positions in the church, their relationships with the senior pastor, their role definition for women, and their own sense of success or failure… In the course of twenty-five years I have learned that the ministry in which I was engaged for most of my life is the same ministry I am doing now. The difference is the title that accompanies my work.” (Pg xxiv-xxv)
She explains, “Women did not welcome me with open arms either. Some told me that I really just wanted to get close to the pastor so I could be the so-called first lady---meaning a woman raised to access church leadership through sexual relationships with or marriage to the pastor or a minister on his way up… There were younger women and even some of my peers who said that I could never be their pastor because I was not a man… I have since come to term this ‘sexual surrogacy’ in the church. There are women who construct a pseudo family with the (male) pastor as the head of their church and filler of voids in their household. Ironically, these were women who worked with me before I entered ministry.” (Pg. 12)
Later, she adds, “I rarely heard anything positive about women in ministry, even from women, although these were some of the same people who voted to issue me a license to preach. I was angry with God and disgusted with people. All I wanted to do was teach. I did not want to be the pastor… I tried to go on autopilot at church and invest my energy in school… Even at my seminary, I was confronted with finding where I fit…. Whenever I pushed the envelope and asked about Black women I was met with conciliatory conversations driven by the need to placate me… I felt as if I had no choice but to do what God said, and yet I felt abandoned. I was desperate for someone who looked, sounded, and acted like me and who had experienced what I had lived. It was my history of religion professor … who opened the door to my future by introducing me to Annna Julia Cooper… a nineteenth century educator…” (Pg. 25-26)
She notes, “I believe that God is both male and female…. There are times I say Father God, other times Mother God, sometimes God who helps me write this book or God who is preaching this sermon. I use inclusive language in all my publications and sermons…. That way, I hope those I teach understand that I am not someone who hates the God of my ancestors but rather one who tries to be ‘no respecter of persons.’ … I try not to rip the spiritual foundation out of the household of faith without telling the occupants why they need a linguistic renovation.” (Pg. 30)
She suggests, “assess the church culture and locate your allies… Do not declare war unless there are really ‘weapons formed against you,’ then pray for guidance before you contribute to the destruction of the faith community. If, for example, you believe God created ALL persons equal regardless of their gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, physical ability, health, or marital status and the church leadership does not, then it’s time to consider your options…. You can quit, fight, teach, or assimilate. No need to blow up, cuss, scream, fall out, or revert to some preconversion language or action.” (Pg. 55)
She counsels, “There is no monolithic ‘woman in ministry.’ What works for one may not work for another. The absence of a clique or cohorts does not equal an insignificant ministry. When we least expect it, no matter how adept we are at navigating the process, we will need someone to help us make sense of it all.” (Pg. 101)
She points out, “Over the centuries women called by God have established ministries in places often overlooked… They have survived … and thrived … through pastoring small mission and ‘dying’ churches, feeding homeless folk and taking in orphans, preaching in supermarkets and on street corners, visiting hospitals and houses of prostitution, traveling in groups and going solo… and walking other women through the pains of childbirth and child loss. Regardless of their titles, they were living out their calls. There are countless other traditional and nontraditional avenues for ministry.” (Pg. 120)
She concludes, “My life is not perfect… I have tried to share little bits of information that I have gathered over the past twenty-five or so years specifically and over my fifty-six years in general. The sum of the matter is that there is help for those who feel like they have lost their very mind and cannot find the word to say what is going on in inside… Yes, there will be obstacles. But if we keep focused on the goal we will make it---perhaps bloodied, but alive and ready to do God’s work.” (Pg. 174)
This heartfelt and sympathetic book will be of most value to other women entering or already in an area of ministry---but also to persons (including men) concerned with the contemporary Christian church.
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