BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--The daughter of the late Rev. E.K. Bailey of the Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas will follow in her father's footsteps. Cokiesha Bailey is a first year student at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham.

According to a story in Knight Ridder Newspapers, Cokiesha Bailey agreed with her father's position against women in the pulpit, a stand most Southern Baptist churches take based on 1 Timothy 2:12. But her calling forced her father and mother and others in the church community to rethink their stance on women in ministry.

Dr. Bailey's widow, Sheila, said her late husband researched Scripture, prayed and read as much as he could on the subject before announcing Cokiesha's calling to his congregation.

"You may be saying that I changed my position because of my daughter," Sheila recalled her husband saying. "The way I look at it is, God used my daughter to help me re-pray and rethink this matter of women being in full-time ministry."

Sheila often speaks herself, at women's conferences, traveling with Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the Rev. Billy Graham.

The Rev. Denny D. Davis, pastor of the 10,000-member St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, Texas, told Knight Ridder he understands how difficult Bailey's decision was. Davis' wife, Wanda, is a highly sought-after speaker who received a scholarship to Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary in Waco.

"Every time Jesus encountered a woman, he always liberated her, in spite of the past, her pain and problems," Davis said. "I resolved that I wasn't going to make it a tension point, that I was going to embrace it, because women can bring much to the ministerial experience."

Women had preached at his church, but, until recently, only to groups of other women. But in the last month, two women have preached before the full congregation. More than a dozen women are in training now at St. John.

Last summer, just before Cokiesha headed off to seminary, her father asked her to preach from Concord's pulpit. Then just 88 days later, she preached at his funeral. When Bailey died of cancer last fall, more than 5,000 people from across the country attended his funeral.

E.K. Bailey was recognized nationally for his expository preaching conferences and for E.K. Bailey Ministries Inc., which helps black pastors and lay leaders revitalize their churches.

Although Cokiesha won't graduate for three years, she's already receiving invitations to speak throughout the country. She also has a book deal.