I told someone that I was going to be spending the weekend at a Baptist Women’s event.
They smiled, and said “Surrounded by tight perms and blue rinses? Doesn’t sound like your crowd.”
And it probably wouldn’t be. But my friend’s mental image of Baptist women doesn’t quite fit with what I see from the back of the auditorium.
We’ve been taught by a woman with a PhD: a university professor in history and a bestselling author.
We’ve sung together. Songs about Life, Love, Forgiveness, Hope, Joy, Healing. Songs written in the last few years by people in the US, the UK, and Africa. Being led in song by a duo of young women, both proper musicians who know their craft.
Now we’re walking forward in a stream of gratitude to receive communion from the hands of women with university degrees, with real world skills and lives and careers. We’re taking in our hands, receiving into our bodies the elements of bread and grape that speak of Christ’s sacrifice, his gift of life.
At the back of the line, I see the backs of heads.
Red and yellow, black and white. Steel grey with silver streaks. Natural brown with blondish streaks.
Polished and professional collar length, nearly waist-length with waves and weaves.
Cornrows, french braids, and ponytails.
Turbans, scarves, clips, headbands, and barrettes.
Crew cuts, pixie cuts, bold, practical, creative.
Hair that has more important things to do, and hair that says, “Wow!”
Sleek swoops, afro-curls, frizz.
And, yes, even a couple of tight perms.
Under all that hair, inside all of those heads… are brains. In each of those brains life is happening. For some, their thoughts circle around to the little ones waiting for them at home. For some the meds they forgot to pack before they came. For some the sermon they’re preaching tomorrow. For some the meeting they need to have, the question they need to ask. For some the job they’ve just applied for.
In every one of those brains, Holy Spirit is at work. Speaking of work that needs to be done. Pastoring. Parenting. Planning. Closing doors, or opening. Managing. Steering. Beginning. Ending. Speaking Holy Spirit power and humility into parenting, pastoring, thinking, working, trusting, creating.
Definitely sounds like my crowd. Because despite the efforts of some to squeeze women in the Church, to squeeze Baptist women, into a mold, we are not “women.”
We are women. Unique in a million ways, but with one thing in common. A common knowledge that moves us to reach out to take from the silver tray a shard of flat dry bread, then dip it into the dark of the goblet of juice; to taste the salt and the sweet; to partake in the earth and air that grew this food, now become spirit-food: the knowledge of whose we are, and what he offers to each unique one of us.
Each stay at home mom, each financial planner, each professor, each preacher, each prayer warrior, each influencer. Called by God to be his daughters and servants. Loved. Empowered. Held and sent.
Red and yellow, black and white. Ginger and blonde, jet and silver.
We are Baptist Women. And we are. Together.