Julie Pennington-Russell

Pennington-Russell's ministerial appointments have highlighted the ongoing dispute among Christians regarding women in leadership roles. While the Baptist tradition emphasizes the autonomy of individual churches, many Baptists in the U. S. are opposed to female pastors.^[5]

Her first position at Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco prompted repeated attempts to have the church removed from the state Baptist Convention.^[1]

In 1998, her second pastorate at Calvary Baptist Church (Waco, Texas) made her the first woman to serve as senior pastor of a Southern Baptist congregation in Texas.^[6] This was widely reported in the press, and members of an unrelated Independent Fundamental Baptist church picketed the church in protest.^[7] Two years later, the Southern Baptist Convention revised its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, to explicitly state that women are not permitted to be pastors.

Her move to First Baptist Church of Decatur in 2007 provoked further controversy and media coverage.^[8] It resulted in the church's being expelled from the Georgia Baptist Convention, the state branch of the Southern Baptist Convention.^[9] The issues leading up to the expulsion were strongly criticized by Southern Baptist pastor Wade Burleson.^[10] The church remained affiliated to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a smaller grouping which affirms women in ministry.^[11]

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote that First Baptist Church of Decatur is "the largest church associated with the Southern Baptist Convention or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to call a woman as senior minister" and "For a church of this stature to call a woman as senior minister is undeniably historic."^[12]

• Ramsour, Marly (2008), Jezebel or Servant of God?: How Julie Pennington-Russell Became the First Female Pastor in Texas (PDF), Waco: Baylor University, retrieved 2012-11-15