The Woman Who Saved Capitol Hill Baptist Church
The Woman Who Saved Capitol Hill Baptist Church
In 1944 America was in the throes of an existential crisis. With World War II still raging, the nation’s future felt uncertain. But amid the global turmoil, another crisis—less dramatic but no less significant—was unfolding in a church just a mile from the US Capitol.
After forty-one years as pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church (later renamed Capitol Hill Baptist Church), Dr. John Compton Ball had finally decided to retire. His was a remarkable tenure, long enough to see two world wars, the Great Depression, and the rise and fall of theological battles within American Protestantism. Under his leadership, the church had avoided much of the turbulence that defined earlier decades, particularly the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy that tore through many denominations in the 1920s and 30s. Now, for the first time in decades, the church was faced with a difficult question: Who would lead them next?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from his wartime White House, sent Ball a letter of appreciation:
I cannot restrain the impulse to join the members of the congregation and other friends in a hearty, ‘well done, good and faithful servant.’ I trust all your days may be radiant with the memories of your 41 years spent in our Capital City Community as preacher of the Word of God and a leader in all good works.
The honor was significant, but it did nothing to ease the church’s growing anxiety. The pulpit committee had worked hard to find a suitable successor, and with Ball’s endorsement, they had selected Dr. Ralph Walker, a respected pastor from Portland, Oregon. The deacons unanimously approved the nomination, and all signs pointed to a smooth transition. But then something remarkable happened—something that would change the course of the church’s future.
A Light on the Hill
Caleb Morell
This engaging Capitol Hill Baptist Church biography shares the real-life stories of ordinary people in an extraordinary place, revealing how God works through faithful church bodies.
The Woman Who Spoke Up
At the congregational meeting to vote on Walker’s appointment, a longtime Sunday school teacher named Agnes Shankle stood up. She was not a deacon. She was not a seminary-trained theologian. But she had been at the church for many years, and she knew the stakes of this decision.
She cleared her throat and voiced her concerns about Walker’s theology:
Considerable rumors have been circulating that he is compromising in his dealing with controversial questions between Fundamentalists and Modernists.
In other words, Walker was a man caught in the middle, not the outspoken leader against liberalism that the church needed. In that moment, the air in the room shifted. Another member spoke up, affirming Shankle’s concerns.
A sign of a church’s health is not simply how well the church’s leaders know their Bibles but how well the members do.
The pulpit committee, clearly shaken, realized they had underestimated the concerns of the congregation. They quickly attempted to withdraw their motion and asked for three more months to continue searching for candidates. But the congregation—now alerted—refused to delay.
Instead, a name was nominated from the floor: K. Owen White.
White was a young, promising preacher who had just graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was widely recognized as a theological conservative, committed to biblical authority and clear doctrinal convictions. Later he would go on to lead the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, writing the article “Death in the Pot,” exposing compromising views of seminary professors.
Caught in an embarrassing situation, the pulpit committee withdrew Walker’s nomination entirely. The congregation then unanimously called White to be their next pastor.
Agnes Shankle’s Ask-Seek-Knock Sunday school class, photographed on the occasion of her twenty-fifth year as a teacher in 1944, shortly after K. Owen White was called as pastor. Shankle is seated second from the right, next to John Compton Ball (third from the right). Also seated is K. Owen White (first from the left).
What If Agnes Shankle Had Stayed Silent?
White’s leadership transformed Metropolitan Baptist Church. Under his guidance, the church became a bastion of conservative evangelicalism in Washington, DC, standing firm on the authority of Scripture at a time when many churches in the city were drifting leftward. White reformed Metropolitan through expositional preaching, careful membership practices, discipleship programs, and a focus on evangelism. In just five years, White baptized over 800 new members.
What if Agnes Shankle had stayed silent? What if she had simply gone with the pulpit committee’s judgment? What if she had thought, “Who am I to speak up? I’m just a Sunday school teacher.”
In the entire one-hundred-and-fifty years of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, this might prove to be the most decisive moment. Had the church called Walker rather than White, the church would have likely headed in the direction of theological compromise and liberalism, like so many of the city’s churches.
The Whole Church Protects the Gospel
We do not know all the reasons Metropolitan’s leadership put forward a pulpit candidate who was compromising on the authority of God’s word. But throughout history, God has worked remarkably through women like Shankle who, although they did not have seminary degrees, knew their Bibles and could tell the difference between faith-undermining liberalism and Bible-affirming orthodoxy. She did not need a formal leadership role in the church to know that every member has the responsibility to protect a church’s life and doctrine.
A sign of a church’s health is not simply how well the church’s leaders know their Bibles but how well the members do. It should be every church’s prayer that if its leadership ever attempts to lead in a direction of unfaithfulness to God’s word, there is an Agnes Shankle in their midst who is willing to stand up and say, “Not in my house.”
Caleb Morell is the author of A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism.
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