Florida church ordains four women for ministry on same day

While some Baptist churches are actively running away from any hint of supporting women in leadership, a Florida Baptist church recently ordained four women as ministers on the same day.

In a Sept. 21 service filled with pageantry, liturgical readings and the laying on of hands, Hendricks Avenue Baptist in Jacksonville, Fla., ordained Heather Carlton, Janie Church, Mary Nell McCoy and Chelsea Weise. Nikki Hardeman, director of advocating for women in ministry for Baptist Women in Ministry, brought the ordination sermon, and Tammy Snyder, coordinator for CBF Florida and the Caribbean Islands, was lector.

“Hendricks Avenue, if it were not for your belief in God’s affirmation of women in ministry, these four women today may not have known that there are those who would support and celebrate the call God has placed on their lives,” Hardeman said in her sermon. “You are a witness to the truth that nothing in this world can separate us from the call on our lives or from the love of God in our lives.”

Using as her text the story of Moses found in Exodus 2:1-10, Hardeman recognized the five women in these passages — Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam and Sheshan — as the “midwives in the birthing of the Hebrew people out of a life of slavery and into a life of freedom.”

“Each one of these women, in their actions, give us a powerful testimony to an unseen yet unshakeable force at work in their lives,” she said. “The love that moved them was a force no power could conquer, a love no threat could undo. It was a love that was with them, in them, and for them.

“Without these fearless and determined women who stood strong and resilient when everything around them was telling them no, Moses would not have lived,” Hardeman said. “If it were not for their courage, their faithfulness and their insistent belief in God’s call, the Exodus would not have happened.

After the sermon, Senior Pastor B.J. Hutto led the ordinands and the congregation in a litany of responsive readings that outlined the purpose of ordination, the charge to the candidates and to the church.

“My friends, ordination is a public act of the church which indicates acceptance by an individual of God’s call to the upbuilding of the church through the ministries of word, service and table. … Ordination is that act by which the church symbolizes a shared relationship between those who are ordained for leadership and the one, universal church community from which — and to which — the person being ordained comes.”

“Look mercifully on these daughters of yours whom you have called to your service.”

And in his final prayer, Hutto said, “In every generation, by your Holy Spirit, you have appointed ministers to lead and serve your church. Therefore, we ask, look mercifully on these daughters of yours whom you have called to your service. Replenish them with the truth of your word, and adorn them with innocence of life so that, both by teaching and good example, they may faithfully serve you in this office.”

Heather Carlton is a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and has served as a missionary in West Africa and South Korea and on staff at Baptist churches across this country. She currently serves on staff at the Alpha Omega Miracle House and is headed toward chaplaincy in the United States Navy.

Janie Church is a graduate of McAfee School of Theology. She is currently retired but has served as a chaplain in hospitals and care facilities across Florida and Georgia.

Mary Nell McCoy is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and with her late husband, Gary McCoy, served for decades as a missionary in South Korea, in churches in this country and on staff at seminaries. She currently leads Red Cross spiritual care relief in Florida and the Virgin Islands.

Chelsea Weise is currently enrolled in Western Theological Seminary where she is dually enrolled in the master of divinity and master of social work programs. She serves as children’s minister at Hendricks Avenue and as area director for YoungLives Jacksonville.

“These ordinations are powerful testimonies that our calls from God are not perishable; they may be delayed, but they cannot be revoked,” Hardeman said. “We honor the resilience these four women have shown. By fully recognizing their ministry today, Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church is not just righting profound wrongs; it is sending a clear message to women in ministry everywhere: Your gifts are valid, your calls are sacred, and the arc of justice in the church bends toward you. The courage to act is just as necessary as the call itself, and that courage lights a path for the entire church.”