For the past couple of months I’ve been in a blog series advocating for women in church leadership. We’ve covered biblical interpretation, we’ve talked about Deborah, I wrote on I
Timothy 2:8-15, which is a very complicated passage of scripture, and I’ve shared personal stories.
This week, I’d like us to consider not just the why, but the how. How do we open the doors of church leadership to women?
When I talk about being an egalitarian I’m after something more comprehensive than pulpit time. Moving toward equality in the church encompasses the pulpit but is much more than a simple invitation to preach once in a while.
Churches need to change their leadership structures and invite women into the decision making places. Men and women must share leadership responsibility if the Church is going to move into the 21st century with any kind of real influence. The world actually needs to see this in real-time. The archaic, outdated, and unbiblical notion that elder boards and leadership teams are reserved for men alone is just that, archaic. Not only is it archaic, it is unhealthy and irresponsible. One long look at the sex abuse scandals and the #churchtoo realities, and most of us recognize that co-ed is not only wiser, it is also safer.
We need men and women advocating for these changes. False teaching regarding women being more easily deceived than men, false ideas about God being male, and systemic, entrenched patriarchy will not change or shift if we sit by and do nothing. We have to ask our churches to shift and make way. We have to ask our churches to change.
Here are three ways to move into shared leadership:
First, women should consistently be on the preaching rotation. Not just once a year for Mother’s Day, or even two or three times a year as a token offering. Women have teaching gifts. Women have preaching gifts. The pulpit still represents power and influence in the church today. If women rarely preach in your church, your church is intentionally or unintentionally perpetuating the issue. Ask God to help you find ways to empower women, and invite them to preach. Four more is a movement helping churches do this very thing. This is a great start. This year, make it your goal and your great honor to ask different women to preach from the pulpit four more times than last year.
Secondly, women need to baptize, officiate weddings, and they need to officiate funerals. These ministerial responsibilities speak to church congregations. If the church only sees men perform these duties in the church, we subconsciously attribute these jobs to men. We have thousands of years of male leadership to contend with. The church won’t change if we don’t see change with our own eyes. The first time I witnessed a woman baptizing someone I cried. It gave me courage and vision. I love to see women officiate weddings, but I have yet to ever see a woman officiate a funeral. Pastors, I encourage you to make this a priority of prayer. Ask God to help you recognize and seize opportunities to offer these responsibilities to some of the women on your staff. Ask and you will receive. God will show you how to do this, but not if you don’t make it a priority.
Third, women must be part of church elder boards. All my life, I have listened to men explain why it feels uncomfortable to even think of opening elder board positions to women. In the church across the world, the elder board is the place where budget and structural decisions are made. Many elder boards hire and fire. As hard as it is for the male elders to imagine what it would feel like to have women elders, it’s time. A church cannot be a real reflection of the Body of Christ if only men hold these positions of leadership.
Let me tell you what will happen if you invite women to be part of your church elder board: your church will become a more healthy, balanced church. You will gain a more holistic approach to making decisions and the church will become a deeper and more vibrant reflection of the Body of Christ. Will your church all of a sudden become a perfect place? No. The church will still be filled with broken, imperfect people. But the leadership mistakes will not attributed to one gender alone. The men will be able to take a deep breath and recognize that it doesn’t all depend on them. With shared power comes shared responsibility, and shared responsibility brings relief. When you share responsibility, you also share the weight.
I’ve been a member of one church or another my entire life. I cannot tell you what it did to my soul the first time I saw a church with a co-gender elder board. It changed everything. The first place I saw this was in Chile in a very normal, imperfect church. The women help make the leadership decisions and it makes the church all the more whole.
I recognize that not everyone reading this is called to leave their conservative church for one that invites women into shared leadership. I want to honor your decision to stay in your local church. However, that does not give you a free-pass. To whom much has been given, much is required. You can work toward systemic change from the inside. Especially if you are a man. You CAN advocate for women from your particular place of influence. You can and you must raise your voice on behalf of the women in your church.
We must do this for our daughters and our sons, for our neighbors and our loved-ones.
Asking a woman to be part of the leadership, and to help makes decisions for her own church, the church where she gives her money, her time, and her love, is not too much. It is not over-the-top. It is an acceptable thing for women to want a voice, a vote, and a share in the decision making responsibilities.
We know and have been taught that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to ALL God’s children without discrimination. It is time we took a lesson from our good God and did likewise.
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