Alum helps break ‘stained-glass ceiling’ for women in ministry at Black churches
The Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber: “Women have a place, and their place is just as important as a man’s in our convention.”
In January 2025, when the Rev. Boise Kimber ’18 S.T.M. became president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., he listed greater inclusion of women in leadership roles as a top goal. The NBCUSA is one of the nation’s oldest and largest predominantly African American denominations. Just over a year later, Kimber has appointed women to several key positions and released a new book calling on black churches to affirm women in ministry.
“I promised that women would be more included in leadership. We have fulfilled that, and we will continue to fulfill that,” Kimber says.
Kimber is the longtime pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven. He was elected 19th president of the NBCUSA in September 2024 and installed in January 2025. Kimber has been an outspoken advocate on many social justice and civil rights issues over the years, work that he says informs his advocacy for women in ministry.
Women in leadership
Traditionally, the issue of women in ministry has been a difficult one for many African American churches, including those who—like some white evangelicals—believe the Bible forbids women from having spiritual leadership over men. In the NBCUSA, women have been allowed to be pastors since 1965, and women lead many local congregations. However, within the influential convention, local churches and affiliated organizations are autonomous, and some continue the practice of not accepting female pastors. And at the national convention level, few women have served in leadership roles historically.
“In 145 years, we’d never had a woman on the executive committee nor the board of directors,” says Kimber. “Now, for the first time, women are on the executive committee and they’re on the board of directors. I’m excited about what we have done in that area.”
Kimber appointed the Rev. Dr. Valerie Thompson, a Georgia pastor who he calls “Wonder Woman,” as his chief of staff. She is the first woman in this important position overseeing the denomination’s internal operations. He also appointed the Rev. Debbie Strickling-Bullock as the first female chair of the NBCUSA’s Sunday School Publishing Board, one of the oldest and largest black-owned publishing companies in the country. Last fall, Kimber invited the Rev. Tracey L. Brown, a minister from New Jersey, to be the first woman ever to preach at the denomination’s annual meeting.
Although he has received some internal pushback for his efforts, Kimber says he is not deterred.
“Women have a place, and their place is just as important as a man’s in our convention,” he asserts. “We need to liberate people from their indifference when it comes to a woman in ministry.”
In December, Kimber released his first book, Breaking the Stained-glass Ceiling: A Critical Analysis of Women in Ministry in the Black Church, which examines barriers black women have traditionally faced within church leadership. In it, he calls for greater equity.
“It is time for the church to accept women in ministry in all areas and all aspects,” he says. “The majority of our churches are made up of women. Remove women from our churches and it would be an empty church.”
The Rev. Shevalle Kimber with Boise Kimber
Path to Yale
Kimber’s book is based on his thesis at Yale Divinity School, where he earned the S.T.M. in 2018. His wife, the Rev. Shevalle T. Kimber ’21 M.Div., also earned a degree from YDS.
Born in Alabama, Kimber preached his first sermon at the age of 15 and led what he calls “a little country church” when he was 16. He came to New Haven more than 40 years ago at the age of 24 when he was invited to preach at the First Calvary Baptist Church. He stayed on and helped the congregation build a vital presence in the community. He is well known for his promotion of social justice, civil rights, and economic empowerment.
Kimber earned a Master of Religious Education in Religious Life and Education from Hartford Seminary in 1997 and a Doctor of Ministry at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 2000.
“I was sitting in my office one day and thought to myself, Yale is about two blocks up the hill from my church, I probably need to go ahead and get a degree up there too,” he recalls. “I thought it would fit in with what I was doing in the community.”
Kimber says his time at YDS was “both grounding and transformational” for his subsequent ministry. “I’ve always been a community-minded person, but it made my ministry deeper. Even my justice mission and servant leadership became more vigorous.”
Kimber acknowledges that his time at YDS challenged him culturally and theologically as he engaged with the school’s diverse faculty and student body. “It sharpened my ability to listen more, to have better conversations, to share space with people of complex differences, and better understand the equality of persons,” he says, adding, “it cultivated me, made me more collaborative with different ethnic groups.”
Boise Kimber addressing the National Baptist Annual Session
Looking to the future
During his tenure at the NBCUSA, Kimber has also advocated for greater inclusion of younger leaders to help rebuild membership losses and move churches into the future. Emerging church leaders, he says, must prepare themselves for the broad array of issues they will be called to address. “You have to be ready to have conversations about racial justice, gender roles, affordable housing, healthcare, political engagement. You must be technologically savvy, understand AI. You must understand that the gospel is not local anymore,” he says. “You must bring all of this to the table in order for your church to survive.”
Kimber encourages young leaders to seek out mentors, citing two civil rights-era pastors who guided him in his own ministry: the late Edwin R. Edmonds, pastor of Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ in New Haven, and the late C.M. Cofield, pastor of Immanuel Missionary Baptist Church, also in New Haven. “There’s no way in the world you’re going to be successful without a mentor,” Kimber asserts.
And he encourages young leaders to build coalitions and develop new partnerships, as he was encouraged to do at Yale. “They ought to have an impact beyond traditional boundaries,” he says. “Our forefathers and mothers laid a great foundation, but that foundation must be built upon to move forward.”
Kim Lawton is an award-winning reporter, producer, and writer who has worked in broadcast, print and online media. For nearly 20 years, Lawton was Managing Editor and Correspondent for the highly acclaimed national public television program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.”