Pastor Jennifer Scott is the New Senior Minister of the Keene (Texas) Adventist Church
by AT News Team
A woman has been appointed senior pastor at the Keene Church by the Texas Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a more conservative segment of the denomination. Pastor Jennifer Scott has accepted appointment as leader of the 3,000-member congregation on the campus of Southwestern Adventist University, according to an announcement by Steve Stafford, chairman of the search committee, in the Keene Star.
Scott was offered the position earlier this week by Pastor Carlos Craig, president of the conference, after a vote by the conference personnel committee supported the recommendation of the 25-member search committee. She is currently pastor of the Shelton (Washington) Adventist Church in the suburbs of Seattle.
A search for a new senior pastor has been underway since Pastor Mic Thurber left earlier this year after 10 years to become ministerial director for the denomination's Mid America Union Conference. The search committee looked at 50 candidates, according to Stafford, and Scott was their top choice.
Scott is a 1991 graduate of Washington Adventist University and earned a master's degree in theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in 1997. She has served as an associate pastor at Loma Linda University Church in California and the Green Lake Church in Seattle. With her husband, Robert, she has two children: Camryn, 13, who will be in the eighth grade, and Caeden, 10, a sixth grader.
Scott is not the first woman to lead one of the largest congregations in the Adventist Church. Pastor Chris Oberg is senior minister at the 2,750-member La Sierra University Church in Riverside, California. Before Oberg began her tenure at La Sierra, Dr. Hyveth Williams, now a seminary homiletics professor at Andrews University, was senior pastor at the 1,400-member Campus Hill Church in Loma Linda.
"Not only is this good for the Keene Church, because Scott is a very gifted spiritual leader," a retired pastor told Adventist Today, "this is further evidence that the Adventist Church is coming to the end of an era of gender discrimination in the ministry that began in the 1920s." Neither the North Pacific Union Conference where Scott is now employed nor the Southwestern Union Conference where she will be employed have voted to issue ordained minister credentials to women serving as pastors. The Theology of Ordination Study Committee appointed by the General Conference meets again later this month.
Keene Church has had a female pastor for years, namely Pastor Heather Crews who serves in the position of Pastor for Church Life. It isn't surprising that the people of the Keene Church are unafraid of female pastors.
This illustrates the insignificance of formal ordination. When some of the church's largest NAD congregations choose women for pastors, it rejects the notion that ordination has special meaning for ministry. Recognition of gifts is most assuredly not limited to public bestowal of ordination. As this becomes more common, the title given by ordination will become less and less important.
Female discrimination, really! The Bible clearly sets out how we are suppose to structure our Churches and having a woman as the head was not included in the plan. Everything from creation to now including nature shows that man should be the head, sad that many men don't even know this or care to be, but that's God's design. Put feelings aside the evidence is clear. When he created Adam and Eve he explained the roles, when he made the family he explained the role of the man and the woman. When he established His church he explained the roles and when people try to explain it away as faulty intepreation of scripture that is also wrong. Even in our very society you see the evidence of women taking the role of father in the home sometimes it works but most times it doesn't and not because the kids don't die means that she was able to manage it rightly, having a father figure is crucial and phychological it makes a Big difference. When you try to explain this people label you as a sexist but that's not the case, the genders have roles and following the worlds ways is not right for the God's Church. The mere fact the world has a feminist agenda should be a sign for the Church not to follow. Just saying this people will interpret it as that I think women should just be second class citizen and have no rights, far from that, I believe women should be equal with men but roles in soceity and Church should be different. These are not my words these are the words of the Bible and nature. There is a reason God made it that way, I might not understand it fully but i'm willing to listen and follow. I notice too that the more women take over the less men start attending Church, the weaker the soceity becomes, i'm not blaming women not at all, i'm blaming men for not standing strong and uplifting values where women and their children can look to them as the leaders they were designed to be.
God bless
DJ-
I agree essentially with you about the role of women in the hierarchy. Too many men have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by the powerful feminist movement. It does not bode well for the church.
Maranatha
Considering how slowly the church is growing in North America, it appears the male leadership you defend so vigorously has failed to achieve God's purposes. So maybe God is raising up gifted leaders who will actually do what God wants done.
It is a bit of a stretch to call Shelton, WA a suburb of Seattle. It is far enough away from Seattle that it stands on its own. It is in more of a rural setting than any Seattle suburb.
Shelton is more than 80 highway miles from Seattle. Hagerstown is closer to Washington, D.C., and Loma Linda is closer to Los Angeles than Shelton is to Seattle. Shelton is in Mason County, which is not part of the Seattle MSA.
DJ said, "I believe women should be equal with men but roles in soceity(sic) and Church should be different." Pretty challenging for women to be equal when you put them in subservient roles in society and church. How does that work, that kind of equality?
Congratulations on your appointment Jennifer and Bob. May God abundantly bless you both as you minister in Keene.
Keene is to be congratulated for wanting the best for their students. Happy day for Adventism as the walls come tumbling down.
I am sure Pastor Scott will do a fine job administering to her church members. I enjoyed DJ's oxymornic comments how women should be treated as "equals" yet discriminated against when it comes to societal roles. Sorry DJ, you can't have it both ways. The bible is written from a patriarchal view point. This is the 21st century not ancient biblical times.
"The Bible clearly sets out how we are suppose to structure our Churches and having a woman as the head was not included in the plan." – DJ
Importantly, the consensus statement voted just today by the TOSC does not agree with you, DJ. It has rejected the notion that ordination to ministry elevates the ordinand to a position within a heirarchy. Rather, ordination is a call to serve, without respect to heirarchy.
As ANN reports:
"Unlike the beliefs of some other Christian faiths, however, Seventh-day Adventist ordination 'neither conveys special qualities to the persons ordained nor introduces a kingly hierarchy within the faith community.'
"The statement concludes by noting 'the ultimate model of Christian ministry is the life and work of our Lord, who came not to be served but to serve.'”
You may still believe in your rights of male headship in the home, but apparently a consensus is growing that this has no place within the church or within our conception of ordination.
I AM A 3RD GENERATION SDA AND FIRMLY BELIEVE, WITH BIBLICAL EVIDENCE IN WHAT DJ SO CLEARLY EXPRESSED. WE CANNOT ALLOW SOCIETY TO CHANGE THE GENDER ROLES THAT WERE CLEARLY GIVEN TO US BY GOD HIMSELF. OUR SDA CHURCH, PARTICULARLY IN LOMA LINDA HAS FALLEN TO WORLDLY ACCEPTANCE OF POPULAR BELIEF AND SO CALLED EQUALITY. WE ARE ALL EQUAL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, BUT HE HAS GIVEN US ROLES TO FULFILL. WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE ORDAINED AS MINISTERS OR RULE/DIRECT THE CHURCH.
WHICH IS MUCH THE SAME AS SINGLE MOTHERS TRYING TO RAISE HER CHILDREN, VERBALIZING EVER SO GRACIOUSLY THAT THEY DONT NEED A MAN TO HELP RAISE THEIR CHILDREN…BUT IF THE HOME, COMPOSSED OF A HUSBAND AND WIFE IS NOT INCLUDING A MAN…HOW WILL THAT CHILD LEARN VALUES AND GENDER ROLES. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS PROPOSITION AND WILL SET A PRECEDENT IF WE ALLOW GENDER ROLES TO BE CHANGED. WE ALREADY SEE HOMESEXUALISM BEING ACCEPTED IN THE SDA CHURCH (READ AUGUST NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT 2 SOUTHERN COLLEGE PROFESSORS VOTING IN FAVOR OF HOMOSEXUAL EQUAL BENEFITS RIGHTS ) SADLY, THE WORLD , KNOWN AS SODOM AND GOMORRAH IS ENTERING OUR CHURCH, INSTEAD OF THE CHURCH KAMING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. TRUE ADVENTISTS MUST STAND FIRM ON OUR BIBLE TEACHINGS AND NOT ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE MANIPULATED BY SOCIETY, BUT INSTEAD EAGERLY AND FIRMLY STAND ON THE SIDE OF THE TRUTH…NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.
All this smells like the counsin of "Affirmitive Action." I see it in government, and now it looks and sounds like it in our church. Why study, vote, or spend thousands of dollars to congregate leaders to deal with an apparent non-issue? It seems at this point that it's all a waste of time and energy. The tail has been allowed to wag the dog.