Posted on 05/19/2024 11:23:24 AM PDT by Morgana
Almost five years after hiring The Rev. Tony Lowden as its first black lead pastor, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where former President Jimmy Carter is a member, has hired The Rev. Ashley Guthas as its first woman pastor.
The 2023 McAfee School of Theology graduate, whose hiring was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, previously served as associate minister to families with children and youth at Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta. She is a divorcee who says she still feels "uneasy labeling myself as a pastor."
Northside Drive Baptist Church announced her hiring last August, highlighting her significant experience working with youth ministries in Methodist and Baptist churches and marketing at Chick-fil-A.
An official at Maranatha Baptist Church told The Christian Post Thursday that the church deacons authorized to speak on Guthas' hiring were not immediately available for comment.
In a note to Northside Drive Baptist on April 12, Guthas, a mother of two daughters, said she decided to resign from that congregation after being relentlessly pursued by Maranatha Baptist Church. She thanked the congregation for its encouragement, saying it took her years to "let go of the theological views that insisted women could not lead."
"Just months before I became a part of the family here, I was enduring the most difficult transition of my life. As I weighed the pros and cons of each job offer, I narrowed it down to two. One was to be the associate minister here and the other was to be the senior pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, GA," Guthas wrote. "Through prayer and seeking the advice of many trusted voices in my life, I believed that the best decision at that tumultuous time was to choose to be here with you."
But when she informed Maranatha of her decision, she said they asked her to "consider coming the following year."
"I did not ask them to put their search on hold. I told them I didn't even know what the next day held, much less the next year. However, Maranatha did not relent," she explained.
Guthas, who detailed her struggle with the idea of women pastors to Northside congregants only a month earlier, said she couldn't shake the feeling that she was called to lead as a pastor.
"As much as I do not wish for yet another year of major transition for me and my daughters, I cannot shake the stirring I sense in my soul that I am called to pastor," she said. "It has taken many years for me to let go of the theological views that insisted women could not lead. Many of you have offered words that have encouraged me in this calling, and you had no idea of the wrestling taking place inside of me."
Guthas officially resigned from Northside Drive Baptist Church on April 28.
"I ask for your prayers. Candidly, I seem to carry so many emotions within me regarding this calling. It is no small thing that a Baptist church, only recently separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, is calling a woman to be their pastor," she added in her note to Northside Drive Baptist.
"Thank you for allowing me to serve alongside of you. I know I have grown in my time here and though my time was much shorter than I would have ever imagined, I earnestly hope that I have helped some of you grow as well."
Carter, 99, is the oldest living U.S. president and has been in hospice care for over a year. His wife, Rosalynn, died last November at age 96.
In 2000, Carter cut ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, citing the adoption of increasingly "rigid" views. He continued to teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church and encouraged the church to send half its mission contribution to another Baptist church network, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The SBC's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement states that "the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." Carter stated that he agreed with the adherence to the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message.
"I personally feel the Bible says all people are equal in the eyes of God," Carter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. "I personally feel that women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Christ in the church."
I know, and I have sympathy for those who hold that view because of that. And personally wouldn’t want to be involved in the selection process because of my beliefs on the issue being at odds with Paul.
But when I read about Jesus’s life, he is constantly pushing the bounds in regards to women and offending the men of the day in the process again and again. It is always dangerous to go down the path of questioning what is plainly stated in the bible, but I see some space between what Paul said and how Jesus acted towards women.
But did Jesus grant any authority to women?
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”
(Saul Alinsky or Satan...cannot remember which)
All good points, and like I said before I do “prefer” a man as a pastor, but I am not sure “why” I feel that way.
What other parts of scripture do you feel are no longer relevant?
All have sinned men have harmed their wives with infidelity and women have retaliated but as a man I put my repentance ahead of any demand for sex.
Love is giving its forgiving wanting what is best for others.
When it comes to the use of sexual powers any man or woman who can get to the truth about Love and apply that to their sexual conduct inside their marriages God Bless Them.
Women also harm men with infidelity. And then deny their husbands sex while letting Chad bang them six ways to Sunday. They even cuckold them and have them raise kids that arent theirs. Which is why so many women do not wnat mandatory paternity testing and why they are screaming at the few state that now do this at birth.
“ I have no issue with women preachers, and have always found it ironic that Catholics who have the biggest hangup about this, have no issue praying to Mary.”
When I ask myself what does your comment have to do with Jimmy Carter or the decisions his church makes the answer is this is an anticatholic website. Any remote opportunity to bash Catholicism will be utilized
That’s all.
The question I suggest you ask yourself is what difference does it make in your life. Very often it is a Catholic who believes he can effectively renounce Catholicism after receiving th
E sacraments who throws insults hoping to feel better about his choice
so here is a question...
If Mary herself descended from Heaven and wanted to preach at your local church? would you refuse to attend?
“ I grew up Baptist and they had a hang up about it. Some of them still do. The IFB’s and others like them.”
You’re speaking on Catholic matters with no knowledge?
This is dictionary definition ignorance
You know nothing about it
Be gone from this tangent that has nothing to do with this article
The anticatholicism here is worse than ever
Couldn’t they have had at least the decency to wait until President Carter dies before defiling his church?
“Btw, I agree with the “putting Mary on a seperate pedestal” stuff…“
Now there will s some serious theology refuting the entirety of Catholicism going back 2000 years
Please let us know how to follow Jesus in the faith
Read any encyclical and see how it holds up
Read any or all of these and see how yours holds up:
https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/m/magisterial-documents-on-mary-from-1854-2003.php
I believe the proper historical title is Priestess.
I have no problem with this.
Wow, are you lost in time. This isn't 1955. LOL.
And maybe next year a lesbian “pastor”?
She is probably an insufferable b-—h. Perfect to tell people how to do their lives.
“”””Couldn’t they have had at least the decency to wait until President Carter dies before defiling his church?””””
This is the church Carter wanted and chose, he left the Southern Baptists because they were clinging to their Christian Bible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.