Deborah M. Gill is professor of New Testament exposition at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Mo. She served as commissioner of discipleship and national director of Christian education for the Assemblies of God and was senior pastor of Living Hope Church in North Oaks, Minn. She has written articles about women clergy in the […]

The Rev. Sharon Watkins is general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a mainline Protestant denomination.

The Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. A megachurch, it is the largest woman-led church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, whose Faith and Message statement states, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by […]

The majority of senior megachurch pastors are male, according to research from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Read the research report.

The Roman Catholic Church says its doctrine that only men can be priests is infallible, which in Catholic teaching means that it is irreversible and without error. See a Nov. 19, 1995, New York Times story about the statement, issued with then-Pope John Paul II’s approval by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed […]

Read an undated explanation of why the Southern Baptist Convention’s Faith and Message was revised in 2000 to say, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” The explanation was written by the executive committee of the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in […]

Daniel B. McGee is a professor of ethics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He wrote the article “A Consistent Center for Bioethics” for the Theological Educator: A Journal of Theology and Ministry.

Read a Jan. 8, 2009, essay that attempts to find the line between teaching church doctrine and preparing ministers to help their congregations.

Read a Jan. 9, 2009, article about the 2009 study and the author’s personal experience at a seminary.