Baptist Women Deacons and Deaconesses: Key Developments and Trends, 1609-2005: "Baptist Women Deacons and Deaconesses: Key Developments and Trends, 1609-2005" is a Big Topic. It Covers Four Centuries. It Spans International Boundaries. It Exhibits Considerable Conflict‪.‬

It relates to the Bible, theology, church history, and ethics. Therefore, I have chosen a special way to present this paper: I will ask and answer key questions that I believe will help get to the heart of the story. First, does this topic have enough importance to justify an article? That sounds like an odd way to begin, but answers vary. Baptists have disagreed over whether Phoebe in Romans 16:1 was a deacon or simply a servant and whether the women in 1 Timothy 3:11 were deacons or the wives of deacons. Baptist history is filled with arguments for and against women deacons and deaconesses and their ordination. Further, noted Baptists have interpreted in radically different ways the potential contributions of women in diaconal roles. To illustrate, in 2000 Mike Clingenpeel, editor of the Virginia Religious Herald, wrote: "Excluding women as deacons seems a terrible squandering of human giftedness." (1) In sharp contrast, upon learning of my interest in writing a book on women deacons, the editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger described the issue as a "can of worms," (2) and the editor of the Georgia Christian Index questioned the study by stating that "surely there is some more compelling work in which to invest your research and writing skills." (3)