Wrote about four area clergy women who are breaking stereotypes about church leadership.

1. 106 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
As senior pastor at Greenwood Forest
Baptist Church in Cary, Lauren Efird has
this advice for young clergywomen: “It
might not be easy; it might not happen
when you think it should happen,” she
says. “It might not be what you thought
it would be, or it might not look like what
you thought it would look like. But if God
is calling you, stay the course.”
“It’s not easy. People
still have lots to say
about how women do
this job that has been
traditionally held by
men.”
— Lauren Efird

2. CARY MAGAZINE 107
FINDING THEIR OWN
VOICES
WRITTEN BY AMBER KEISTER
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN
Growing up as a Southern Baptist
in tiny Camden, S.C., Lauren
Efird always knew she wanted to
be a preacher.
“I used to sit and teach my baby dolls,
but one day my mom heard me preaching to
my baby dolls. I had them all in a circle, and
I was preaching to them,” said Efird, senior
pastor at Greenwood Forest Baptist Church
in Cary.
“I really feel that I was strongly called
from an early age. Being a pastor and a min-
ister was just who I was.”
Efird has been interim pastor since
January, and was confirmed as senior pastor
on Aug. 21. She is the first female to lead
Greenwood Forest.
Although more women than ever are
pursuing religious education and entering
ministry, there are still few in senior leader-
ship positions. Only 11 percent of churches
nationwide were led by women in 2012, ac-
cording to a National Congregations Study
published in 2015. This figure is unchanged
from 1998.
For women who lead churches in Cary,
others have been the first female to hold that
job, and have had challenges along the way.
But each agrees with Efird: Being a minister
is more than a career choice, it’s who they are.
Finding acceptance
Despite her early leanings, Efird’s path
to the pulpit meandered a bit. At Duke Di-
vinity School, she focused on chaplaincy,
even doing a residency at UNC Hospitals.
But as she sat with people on their death-
beds, she realized she wanted to be present
in people’s lives for the whole journey, not
just the end. She wanted to be a pastor.
But as a Baptist woman, she knew it
women who lead Cary churches
are helping break stained-glass ceiling
continued on page 108

3. 108 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
WHERE WOMEN PREACH
The primary religious groups that
allow women to pastor churches and
synagogues
• American Baptist Church
• Episcopal Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America
• Reform and Conservative Judaism
• Presbyterian Church USA
• Unitarian Universalist
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church
Source: Pew Research Center, 2014
was going to be difficult to find a church that
would accept her as a minister. One memora-
ble rejection sums up the challenges she faced.
“I interviewed for an associate pastor
position for six months,” Efird said. “At the
end of the process I was told that one of the
reasons I wasn’t hired was because they didn’t
want two women of childbearing age on staff.”
Soon after that incident she was hired
at Greenwood Forest, where she has been for
five years. The congregation, which has about
350 active members, has embraced her. She
gives much of the credit to the former senior
pastor, Benjamin Boswell, who now leads
Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte.
“I’ve been able to live out worship lead-
ership here in a way that many women my
age and my experience level wouldn’t get to
do,” Efird said.
Her own voice
Carla Gregg-Kearns was always in-
volved in religious life, first at her childhood
Presbyterian church, then at Salem College
in Winston-Salem. But ministry wasn’t even
on her radar until her campus minister sug-
gested it.
“She was the one who said, ‘Maybe you
could make this a career?’” recalled Gregg-
Kearns. “It’s funny to look back on it. How
could I not have thought about it before? But
I can still remember that moment — feeling
like everything suddenly clicked.”
In July 2013, Gregg-Kearns became the
first woman to lead Good Shepherd United
Church of Christ, when she was named se-
nior pastor.
She calls the 150-member church a
wonderful congregation that is open to
change, and speaks of finding her own voice
as a leader.
“For years there’s been one model of
what it is to preach, and because of size
and voice, women just didn’t fit into that,”
Gregg-Kearns said. “We’ve had to find our
own way, which has maybe spurred some
creativity in preaching for everybody.”
She leads worship not from a stage, but
from a raised dais, about six inches above the
floor. Sometimes she preaches at the pulpit.
Other times she assumes the role of a Biblical
character, telling a story in the middle of the
congregation.
Gregg-Kearns says her leadership also
looks different, because she doesn’t “come
in and run anything.” She organizes meet-
ings, gathers ideas and encourages people to
participate.
“I often find when you’re able to bring
different experiences and knowledge togeth-
er, it’s just so much more powerful,” she said.
“There’s so many more possibilities than if
we’re all the same.”
Be who you are
Classy Preston, who became the first fe-
male senior pastor at Pleasant Grove Church
nearly 18 years ago, did not grow up around
women in church leadership.
“Growing up in the Baptist church,
women were sometimes ordained,” she said.
“They had seats, but they didn’t really do
anything. That always bothered me.”
After she received her divinity degree,
Preston set her sights on becoming a mis-
sionary. But while attending church in To-
ledo, Ohio, her minister suggested she re-
consider because she “had a pastor’s heart.”
“I didn’t know anything about being a
pastor,” said Preston. “What did that mean?
What did that look like?”
For Preston that means leading a his-
torically African-American, currently multi-
ethnic congregation in Cary, growing the
church from 12 members in 1997 to its cur-
rent 250-plus.
“As women, we sometimes do not realize
that God uses us in the same magnitude as God
uses men,” she said. “I also realize that some-
times you won’t know what that looks like.
That’s the advice my pastor gave me: ‘Don’t try
to be anybody else. Be who you are.’”
Preston works hard to make the church a
welcoming place for those of various cultures.
She invites Asian and Hispanic ministers to
preach; the praise band is a mix of African-
American, Caucasian and Latino musicians.
“I’m very intentional about diversity
continued from page 107
continued on page 111
“I often find when
you’re able to bring
different experiences
and knowledge
together, it’s just so
much more powerful.
There’s so many more
possibilities than if
we’re all the same.”
— Carla Gregg-Kearns

4. CARY MAGAZINE 109
Carla Gregg-Kearns is one of the founders of the annual N.C.
Women’s Preaching Festival, set for Oct. 13-14 in Durham. The fes-
tival began as a way to thank women who have worked in ministry
for decades, she says. “Without them and the paths they paved, I
wouldn’t be able to be here pastoring in the way that I have been.
Those clergywomen are the shoulders I stand on.”

5. 110 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
Classy Preston has been senior pastor at Pleasant
Grove Church in Cary for nearly 18 years. “I have
no desire to be a mediocre pastor. I want to serve
God with excellence, and that’s my heart’s desire.
This is the best season of my life,” she says.
“As women, we sometimes do
not realize that God uses
us in the same magnitude
as God uses men.”
— Classy Preston

6. CARY MAGAZINE 111
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and understanding other cultures,” she said.
“People want to see themselves in worship.
When you come to church and you only
see African-American women, then you say
‘Well, there’s no place for me here.’”
Progress to be made
Jeanette Stokes, executive director at
the Resource Center for Women and Min-
istry in the South in Durham, and a Pres-
byterian minister, agrees that pastors are
valuable role models.
“For young people, both boys and
girls, it’s important to see women leading
in the church and synagogues, because oth-
erwise children get the idea that only men
can do that,” she said.
The pastors are encouraged by the in-
creasing number of clergywomen, but say
there is still progress to be made.
Donna Banks, lead pastor at St. Francis
United Methodist Church in Cary, cites a sur-
vey from a class she recently taught at Duke
Divinity School. Of the 25 largest United
Methodist congregations nationwide from
2011 to 2016, none were led by women.
“There’s still that bit of glass ceiling
around larger congregations, feeling like
they still need a man,” said Banks, whose
church has about 1,400 members.
“At some point women will have those
roles, but women can’t lead like men,” she
said. “It can’t be that hierarchical kind of
leading. Women lead in participatory ways,
which is the way leading should occur any-
way. That’s one thing we do well; we lead by
inviting people in.”
continued from page 108
“For young people,
both boys and girls, it’s
important to see women
leading in the church
and synagogues, because
otherwise children get
the idea that only men
can do that.”
— Jeanette Stokes
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