In Black Churches, Pastors’ Wives Take on New Roles

c. 2007 Religion News Service PIKESVILLE, Md. _ At Restoring Life International Church, Pastor June Robinson wears several hats _ and not the big fancy ones you might expect for a pastor’s wife. Standing in the pulpit with her husband, Senior Pastor Kenneth Robinson, she encourages the congregation to join them on a mission trip […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

PIKESVILLE, Md. _ At Restoring Life International Church, Pastor June Robinson wears several hats _ and not the big fancy ones you might expect for a pastor’s wife.

Standing in the pulpit with her husband, Senior Pastor Kenneth Robinson, she encourages the congregation to join them on a mission trip to her native Guyana to help them see “how blessed you are in America.”


Later, she sits with an open Bible on her lap while her husband takes the pulpit. After the service, she meets with women members in the 600-seat sanctuary to discuss an upcoming church retreat and a women’s health conference she’ll be hosting.

In black churches across the country, the pastor’s wife has often been recognized as significant. In the last decade or so, these wives have taken on new congregational roles, including that of co-pastor. No longer confined to the front pew, they have a range of leadership inside and outside their churches. Some, like Robinson, have taken on the ordained post, sitting even farther up front in the sanctuary.

“The role is changing _ no longer sitting in the front row with a big hat, but getting involved,” Robinson, a “30-something” woman who also serves as the church’s financial director, said in an interview after a recent service. “We do have a position of influence and a voice and I believe God expects us to use our position and our voice to influence the next generation.”

Earlier this year, Robinson shared that sentiment with other pastors’ wives at an annual First Ladies Summit in Washington. The term “first ladies” historically has referred to their positions as the prominent wives of church pastors. Now, some who use that title _ including more than half those attending the summit _ also are called co-pastor.

Experts point to social, cultural and theological reasons for the evolving roles and title changes of black pastors’ wives.

Some relate the changes to the professionalization of the black middle class, which is seen in some African-American megachurches. Wives of pastors in those churches often hold top administrative jobs, write their own books and keep their own calendars of speaking engagements.

The Rev. Shelley Henderson, organizer of the First Ladies Summit, points to the overall empowerment of women, as reflected by the election of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House.


“I think it has more to do with limits … being taken off women in general,” Henderson said.

Robinson’s husband, Kenneth Robinson, points to the theological emphasis in some charismatic circles, where the focus is more on the Bible and Jesus and less on males and females, rich and poor.

“That message liberated women and liberated couples,” he said of the Word of Faith movement, to which he and his wife belong. They are affiliated with movement leader Creflo Dollar.

The trend seems more present among independent churches _ black as well as white and Hispanic _ but can be found in traditional denominations, too.

Bishop Vinton Anderson, a retired African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop, made history in his denomination when he appointed the Rev. Jo Ann Browning, wife of Senior Pastor Grainger Browning Jr., as co-pastor of Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Md., in 1998.

Anderson said some of his colleagues disapprovingly mumbled about it, but Jo Ann Browning’s position was supported by the officers of the church and her husband.


“I made the decision based on need,” said Anderson, who now lives in St. Louis after retiring from overseeing AME churches in the Washington area. “As that church grew _ it was like 10,000 members _ they needed somebody to be present who could make a decision when the pastor was not there, was not on the grounds.”

Other observers of women in ministry say practicality is a factor in appointments of pastors’ wives as co-pastors.

“It’s a legal thing,” said Sherry DuPree, an author and expert on African-American Pentecostal groups. “So the husband will make his wife the co-pastor and put her name on all the documents so if something happens … the wife steps in and the church runs fairly smooth because you already have someone in line to be the successor.”

That’s basically what occurred with the Rev. Judy Brown, pastor of New Genesis Christian Center, a nondenominational church that meets in Brooklyn, N.Y., and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Her husband, the late Rev. Richard Brown, died of prostate cancer seven years ago. Judy Brown stepped in to take his place.

“At any given time, either one of us was there alone, so I think they also saw me as a separate individual … and that kind of helped,” she said.


Despite the seemingly limitless possibilities for these women, some in the co-pastor role say they let their husbands take the lead in pastoring the church. Although quite capable of preaching, June Robinson said her husband speaks most of the time.

Likewise, Pastor Johnnie Jordan, of Deliverance Temple Christian Center in Pinetops, N.C., was once the pastor of her church but became co-pastor after she remarried and her husband became pastor. Her roles include overseeing the youth and outreach ministries.

“You are a very active part of the ministry,” she said of the duties of pastors’ wives. “You take on very active roles as far as counseling and … overseeing certain areas of ministry.”

The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a professor of African-American studies and sociology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, notes that the title “co-pastor” may be relatively new, but the leadership role of pastors’ wives is not.

“Black pastors’ wives have always been leaders,” Gilkes said.

And even as their titles have evolved, their positions as role models _ even for how to dress _ continue.

“It just grows,” Gilkes said of the pastor’s wife’s role. “They get a robe, too, but they better look good when they take the robe off.”


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Both women and men at the Robinsons’ church said they appreciate the co-pastor role of “Pastor June.”

“I love being around strong, powerful women,” said Annamay Henry, a member for five years and a student at Morgan State University in nearby Baltimore.“I just admire her strength.”

Pastor Kenneth Robinson acknowledges that everyone may not feel that way about pastors’ wives who take the pulpit.

“There are some men that just don’t even want to see women preaching at all,” he said. “Basically, they don’t stay around here too long.”

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Editors: To obtain photos of Pastors June and Kenneth Robinson, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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