The adjacent possible

Friday Roundup for November 7, 2025

Long, long ago in my first book, I wrote about the importance of something called the “adjacent possible.” I’ve been preaching this doctrine ever since, and its applications are endless.

While attending this week’s annual gathering of Baptist Women in Ministry, I thought of this again. Acceptance of women in ministry has everything to do with the adjacent possible.

I first encountered this concept in Where Good Ideas Come From, a business book by Steven Johnson that also provides salient advice for church innovators.

The “adjacent possible” is a term applied to the limits of innovation. Consider, for example, if someone attempted to start YouTube in 1995 rather than 2005. It would have been a complete flop, Johnson explains, because the infrastructure did not yet exist to support either the transport or viewing of video over the Internet. Only with a more intelligent backbone to the internet and the advance of home computers could YouTube work. The parts had to be available before the machine could be built. That’s the adjacent possible.

Johnson shows us yet another way to see this principle. Consider the problem faced by NASA mission control during the Apollo 13 flight. Sitting around a conference table in Houston, engineers had to figure out a way to keep the space-borne astronauts from dying for lack of a carbon dioxide filter. Having moved from the damaged spacecraft to the lunar module as an improvised escape pod, the astronauts had parts available but not the right parts.

“In the movie, Deke Slayton, head of Flight Crew Operations, tosses a jumbled pile of gear on a conference table: suit hoses, canisters, stowage bags, duct tape, and other assorted gadgets. He holds up the carbon scrubbers. ‘We gotta find a way to make this fit into a hole for this,’ he says, and then points to the spare parts on the table, ‘using nothing but that.’”

Mission control had to create a survival plan using only the available parts — the adjacent possible.

Let’s be clear: Way too many churches today are seeking to salvage their endangered missions by ignoring some of the available resources — namely, all the women who are potential leaders and even pastors. Sadly, more than a few churches have turned to female pastors as a last resort when the church was on its last breath. That, in turn, makes female pastors the scapegoats when churches close. “Well, the church died because it called a woman as pastor,” the critics say.

Churches need to understand the adjacent possible before they’re in crisis. And that starts in places other than the pulpit.

New research unveiled today by BWIM in its annual “State of Women in Baptist Life” report identifies six markers of congregations that create empowering environments for women. First among those markers is affirmation of women in various leadership roles.

“Many congregations in the study described a gradual, decades-long journey toward fully affirming women in pastoral, ministerial and congregational leadership roles,” the report states. “Progress often began with allowing women to serve as deacons, then moved to calling women as associate pastors or staff ministers and, eventually, sometimes after many years, calling women to serve in the senior pastor role.”

“No church goes from hierarchical patriarchy to calling a female pastor overnight. It takes some steps of the adjacent possible to get there.”

No church goes from hierarchical patriarchy to calling a female pastor overnight. It takes some steps of the adjacent possible to get there.

So perhaps you’re a lay leader in a church that’s not yet ready to consider a woman as senior pastor. For now, ask instead how you might elevate women into other leadership roles — as adult Bible study teachers, as committee chairs, as worship leaders, as deacons. These are steps in the journey of the adjacent possible.

Helping women live out their God-given calling also requires allies among those of us who are not female clergy. That’s why as executive director of Baptist News Global, I gladly continued our editorial policy of not debating the merits of women being called by God as pastors. We’re just not going to litigate that over and over. From our editorial perspective, God calls women and men alike. End of debate.

We’re just one cog in a much larger machine of American Christianity. But so are you. Your attitudes, your decisions, your influence matter. Your words and your actions can be part of the adjacent possible that opens pulpits to women as messengers of the good news.

And as you do, heed the words of Barbara Lavarin, who was the opening night preacher at the BWIM annual gathering: We must help others unlearn the lies about women being subservient to men as God’s will.

It’s possible. What’s your role in making it so?

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Much attention this week has been focused on Tuesday’s off-cycle election results. While the results clearly were a thumping for President Donald Trump and his MAGA party, just what positive trends should be drawn is debated.

Wesley King has an interesting perspective in analyzing the religious themes in the voting. Tuesday was a night for the “nones,” he says.

Edmond Davis says the lesson is this: “If the church is truly rooted in truth, then it cannot cling to lies — not 30,000 of them, not one more.”

Jeff Brumley writes that Christian nationalists are losing their minds over the election of Zohran Kwame Mamdani as the first Muslim mayor of New York City.

We’ll be talking about all this for months to come. So stay tuned.

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Do not miss another major storyline playing out right now: The fracturing of the political and evangelical Right over the issue of antisemitism.

The story begins with a landmine conversation between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, which our Rick Pidcockexplains in detail. Reaction has been sharp and vocal. Carlson, of course, has been the standard-bearer for MAGA conservatives. Fuentes is a documented antisemite and white Christian nationalist. For Carlson to platform Fuentes — and agree with him on critical issues — was a shot heard around the world.

David Bumgardner picks up this thread in a place explaining the influence of a doctrine called “No Enemies on the Right,” which explains why Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation looked the other way as Tucker lifted up Fuentes.

At the same time, Ross Douthat of The New York Times interviewed Doug Wilson, the far-right pastor advocating for an American theocracy. That got the attention of our Rodney Kennedy.

Then David Bumgardner advanced our understanding again with another piece explaining how Christian Zionists are outraged by Carlson and Fuentes.

And just for some icing on the cake, Russell Moore spoke up to condemn Christians who suddenly are embracing Nazis.

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Another big religion story is the continuing scandal and schism in the Anglican communion.

Here’s a step-by-step way to get up to speed:

Two weeks ago, we reported on the Anglican communion’s great reset with formation of the new Global Anglican Communion.

And in the latest update today, the Vatican has signaled it may be open to ecumenical dialogue with the Global Anglican Communion.

We reported earlier on the Anglican Church of North America archbishop facing allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying. That story got a major update this week with a series of he said/he said allegations that are mind boggling and then got even more bizarre as the week went on.

This truly is a developing story, so keep watching.

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We’ve had some stellar analysis pieces this week, including the ones mentioned above. Others not to miss include:

Rick Pidcock links together sex, porn, bikinis, health care, hunger and Great Gatsby depravity for an analysis of our times.

Tyler Hummel gives a young man’s perspective on the religious divide now showing in America between genders. Women are both leading and leaving the church, he says.

The “Trump Plan” for Gaza already is facing challenges.

Alan Bean says the American church faces a major failure of catechesis.

David Bumgardner shows us how to understand the complex violence in Nigeria and Trump’s threat of intervention.

Kristen Thomason explains Russell Vought’s war on birth control.

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The morality of withholding federal food aid also is a theme of the week due to the government shutdown.

A coalition of small businesses, faith-based nonprofits and small governments returned to court Nov. 4 after the Trump administration gave mixed signals about its compliance with a judge’s order to resume food stamp payments during the government shutdown. This followed an earlier court action on the matter.

Even as the Trump administration announced it would restore federal food benefits at half their usual levels, United Methodists across the United States rallied to feed hungry people while the U.S. government shutdown continues.

But Focus on the Family came out in opposition to free school lunches for kids.

Jonathan David Faulkner tells the story of why he, a pastor, needs government food assistance to feed his family.

I wrote about the hypocrisy of Christian nationalists not feeding the hungry.

Alan Delery ponders how far our care should extend.

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In other news this week:

The White House and Pentagon are limiting press access by veteran reporters, favoring small right-wing media outlets over the Associated Press and legacy outlets that serve much larger audiences, and dishing out insults instead of answering questions.

Scores of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in 20 countries have urged the Trump administration to bolster the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid flows to civilians still suffering from two years of war.

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In other opinion this week:

Michael Chancellor explains how fear is being harnessed toward evil ends in America today.

Rodney Kennedy says we need to pay more attention to what “Mama says” and what Jesus says.

Dwight Moody says the crusade to Make America Great Again is now dominated by the spirit of revenge.

Lindsay Bergstrom has a response to Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson.

Alexiana Fry remembers theological trailblazer Phyllis Trible.

Brad Bull says Vice President JD Vance has an odd way with words.

Britt Luby notices something different about the pledges her kids say at school each morning and what she grew up saying.

A final word

If you don’t read anything else I’ve highlighted here, please take a moment to read this fabulous opinion piece by Braxton Wade. He tells the beautiful story of a conversation in a coffee shop that showed him how to find hope in these perilous times. This is truly beautiful writing.

We’ll have more coverage of the BWIM meeting next week, so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, it is ordination season, it seems. Last Saturday, I attended the ordination service for our Mara Richards Bim at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas. Next week I will attend the ordination of our Mallory Challis at First on Fifth Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.

It is a thrill to see our regular writers fulfilling their callings and living into all God made them to — women and men alike.

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global