Narrative Summary
Interview with Janet Given by Shawnna Williams
As I headed into the office of South Street Christian Church, I began to get a little
nervous. I had never conducted an interview before, let alone a recorded interview. What if I
forget to turn the recorder on? What if I ask a question that would make her uncomfortable? I
did not know what to expect as we sat down in the parlor of the church, other than the fact that I
was going to learn a great deal from a very creative and intelligent woman. I would soon find out
that I did not need to worry or be nervous.
Janet Given was born in the 1950s to R. and E. Griffin in West Virginia. Although her
childhood was not heavily influenced by her parent’s religious life, Janet and her family attended
an Independent Baptist church, though not every Sunday. Music was, and still is, an important
aspect in her family life. She travelled around with her family’s bluegrass band as a child. This is
where her love of music came from. Her grandfather, who was a strongly committed Christian,
influenced Janet’s religious life. As a child, she remembers that when her family would go to
visit Grandpa, he would often give a sermon from John 14.
As a teenager, Janet was very involved in her youth group, even serving as the group’s
president. She also sang in the youth choir, served as the editor of the youth group’s newsletter,
and helped with Bible school. In college, Janet did not participate in a campus ministry because
she stayed involved in her home church, which was only a 30 minute drive away. She directed a
church choir in the town where she went to college, and she earned a bachelor’s degree in music
education, not thinking that she would one day be a minister.
After she and her husband were married, the couple went on a short-term missionary trip
to the main island of Japan. During their time there, they performed concerts in church-related
schools, in churches, and in some youth camps. At that time, Janet was working as a music
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teacher in a middle school setting, a job she had for eight years. She was also directing the choir
at their home church, and was involved in the music program. Janet began seriously thinking
about pursuing a career in church music two or three years after coming back from Japan.
The Givens attended seminary at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in West
Virginia. Southeastern is a Southern Baptist seminary, but they both grew up in the American
Baptist church. They had the option to go to an American Baptist seminary, but that seminary did
not have a self-contained church music program that she was interested in, which was Janet’s
eventual emphasis in her Master of Divinity.
The first two years of Janet’s seminary experience were great, but after that, “things
deteriorated rapidly.” She and her husband did not know at the time they were enrolling in
classes, the fundamentalist wing of the Southern Baptist Convention was moving to take over the
seminaries. A college president and a judge from Texas went around to small churches across the
South and convinced people that, “seminaries were full of liberals and they needed to get rid of
them.” Their plan to get as many people as possible to vote for fundamentalist candidates for
president at the Southern Baptist Convention worked. At the beginning of the Givens’s third
year, the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary—along with half of the
faculty—left because they did not want to submit to fundamentalist demands, such as being
required to sign an inerrancy statement. The fundamentalist student group began to be more
active on the campus, telling female students that they did not belong there—they even pushed
female students off sidewalks. Once, at a coffee shop, a fundamentalist student got in front of
Janet. She and her husband were always on campus together, so she was never pushed. Because
they had too many credits to transfer, they decided to stay, “get finished, and get out of there.”
They stayed and finished their degrees in the late 1980s. Having a degree from the once-
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respected Southeastern Baptist Seminary made it hard for Janet when she later transferred her
credentials over to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination because of the
negative things that happened while she was in seminary.
Janet did not immediately become an ordained minister after she graduated. Instead, she
took a couple of years to think about ordination. At that time, she was becoming more involved
in the pastoral ministry that she was working in and decided that she was going to pursue
ordination. She was spending more time doing work for the church than at her real job. She saw
this as her calling.
Janet’s parents were very supportive of her decision to enter the ministry. They always
taught her and her siblings that they could be anything they wanted to be and do anything they
wanted to do; they did not see gender as an issue. One of her brothers who was an Independent
Baptist minister was the only person who did not think that Janet should become a minister. He
believed that women in general should not be ministers. Therefore, whenever they were together,
the family did not talk about religion. Her husband has always been 100% supportive in her
career, her struggles, and in her religious journey. Because he is a New Testament professor, she
says he is a great resource to go to for a sermon, and they have many religious conversations.
She was ordained in the Southern Baptist denomination, and worked in a moderate
Southern Baptist church in West Virginia. When she first began working at that Southern Baptist
church, the congregation was looking for a senior minister. A woman was up for consideration
for the job, but did not receive it because of her gender. This troubled Janet because the Southern
Baptist denomination ordained her, yet would not allow a woman to be the senior minister. As
time went on, the Southern Baptist Convention began to kick churches out of the convention who
ordained women, saying that women should submit to the patriarchal tradition. Janet had enough,
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and she took the job as minister of music at the Methodist church next door. Her husband was
their organist.
In the late 1990s, the Givens moved to Missouri because her husband accepted a position
as associate professor in religious studies at (Southwest) Missouri State University. At this time,
they both connected with the Disciples of Christ denomination, even though at first, they only
knew that the Disciples were somewhat close to the American Baptist denomination. They soon
felt that they were at home in the Disciples of Christ. Janet began filling in at a Disciples of
Christ church. Her husband began to play the organ at South Street Christian Church. At the
same time, Janet was hired part-time to lead the contemporary worship service; she did this for
about a year and a half. In 2000, Janet was hired full-time as the associate minister at South
Street Christian Church. The congregation embraced Janet. They had never had a female
minister before; however, she did experience a person telling her they were not sure about having
her as their minister, but over time, they grew to accept it. South Street Christian Church has had
other female associate ministers, so when they hired Janet, she did not experience much
resistance.
At South Street Christian Church, Janet does many things. When she was hired on as the
associate minister, she was the resource person for women’s ministries and was responsible for
evangelism and worship. She and the now-retired senior minister worked as a team. They
preached, did hospital visitations, weddings, and funerals, and were available to support the
congregation. Janet did the communion meditation most of the time, as well as the pastoral
prayer. As a part of her volunteer time, Janet has directed the choir for the past eight or nine
years due to her musical background. She still does everything she was hired to do, plus many
other things.
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Janet thinks that she is probably no more religious than anyone else is. She tries to think
and act in ways that are moral and ethical. She tries to be compassionate and concerned for
people and their needs. She also thinks that she is no more religious than any other person is
concerning daily devotions; in fact, she thinks that there are people out there who read
devotionals more faithfully than she does. The way she thinks and acts is what makes her a
religious person.
To Janet, music “speaks [. . .] in ways words can’t alone.” Because she is the choir
director, and because of the diversity in the congregation as far as taste in music is concerned, it
has always been in her philosophy to play and sing something that everyone will like. Sometimes
they will do a piece by Bach, Mozart, or sometimes a contemporary anthem.
To future female ministers, Janet wants them to know that they need to go into ministry
with their “eyes open, but don’t be afraid to go into it.” She does not want them to be afraid to be
ministers, but they need to expect that it will be hard at times. The ministry is hard for anyone,
both spiritually and physically. They will need to expect to sometimes work long hours. Women,
according to Janet, have the added factor of feeling that they have to justify their position at the
seminary. She never did that. She has always done her job in a way that she thought was best for
her. Janet admits that there are tough days but overall, she loves her job. However, if Janet were
not a minister, she either would still be a music teacher or would be pursuing some type of music
career. Janet wishes that gender were not an issue. She also wishes that people were accepted for
who they are as people and for their abilities, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation,
or “any of the other ways that we have separated people and excluded people.”
I have known Janet for about four years, but I learned things about her during the
interview that I did not know. I knew nothing about her childhood, college life, or family. I did
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know that she is a very strong person in her faith, her music, her marriage, her family, and her
church. She makes no apologies for who she is or what she does. Janet does her job with dignity
and grace and commits her full time to it. She is a good example for women because she believes
that, although the job might be hard, women should still do what they want to do and do it the
way that they find is best for them.
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