Quentin Lockwood, Bill Tanner, and Women Pastors

A Real Story from 40 Years Ago Within the Life of Southern Baptists

Quentin Lockwood, Bill Tanner, and Women Pastors

For the last 60 years the role of women in ministry has been a hot topic among Southern Baptists. It even impacted the ministry of its missions agency – the Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board).  One of those times was in the early to mid 1980’s.

Quentin Lockwood was director of the Rural-Urban Missions Department in the Associational Missions Division during HMB days in the 1980s. His daughter – Susan Lockwood Wright – responded to the spiritual call of God on her life. She was ordained by an SBC church as a minister and became the pastor of Cornell Baptist Church in Chicago.

At some point the connection between Susan and her father became known.

People for whom women becoming ordained and serving as a pastor was anathema, chattered about this issue. Contacts were made with Bill Tanner, the HMB president. He received multiple telephone calls, letters, and had conversations with various people – including HMB board members to whom he was accountable and ultimately to whom Quentin was accountable.

A typical conversation went something like this: “How can the Home Mission Board have on its staff someone who would so misguide his daughter to believe she could be ordained as a minister and serve as the pastor of a church?”

The chatter included calls for Quentin to be fired.

I was part of the staff of the Associational Missions Division at the time this was happening. It was our perception that Bill Tanner was not in favor of women being ordained and especially not to serve as a pastor. But his role as president of HMB did not call for him to act on his personal convictions.

No direct conversation took place with Quentin. Occasionally we would hear second-hand about the chatter. One day we heard that Tanner said if he got another letter or call about Susan that Quentin was gone!

At the same time, we held out hope. We also believed that Tanner understood how to be president of an organization with diverse people with diverse viewpoints serving it. He had been the president of two colleges before coming to HMB. Think about the diversity he experienced among faculty!

We also knew Tanner understood the HMB did not ordain anyone nor require anyone who served with HMB as a staff person or missionary to be ordained. Ordination was and is a local church issue for Southern Baptists. The local context where missionaries and endorsed people were called to serve might require ordination. HMB did not but would check to see if a person was properly ordained if the place of service required ordination.

The Elevator Conversation

One day Bill Tanner and Quentin ended up on an HMB building elevator together. No one else was on the elevator. Tanner turned to Quentin and said, “Quentin, I heard about your daughter!”

Quentin verbally stumbled for a few seconds – which was typical of him – and started to respond.

Tanner interrupted him and said, “Shut up Quentin. Let me tell you something. When all else fails you’ve got to support your kids.”

The elevator door opened. Tanner stepped off. That is all he ever said to Quentin about the issue. Quentin was never disciplined or fired.