No Woman Left Behind
Recently, a friend in ministry who spends much of his time mentoring others shared that in his experience, men, in general, seem more eager to be mentored than women. As I found this really puzzling, considering how many women are involved in Bible studies and women’s groups, I began pondering this and discussing it with friends. Several of them shrugged their shoulders saying, “In church, there are not many opportunities to use leadership or teaching gifts in a serious way. There is really nowhere to go.” And statistics confirm this. Only 13 percent of lead pastors are female. We tend to become what we see. Since most pastors are male, it is easy for women to exclude themselves from leading positions in church. Additionally, male pastors tend to encourage and mentor other men. Women are often overlooked as mentees, despite obvious giftings and because they lack role models that inspire them to reach for God’s highest.
Traditionally, women have been discouraged from leading and having pulpit ministries. In some Christian denominations, there is simply no option due to male control and misapplication of Bible passages that, on the surface, seem to restrict women’s involvement in leadership. Typically, churches that hold women back from eldership or other leadership roles cite two hard-to-interpret passages to support their view: 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:11–12. They take a narrow view on those verses and don’t give adequate weight to the great number of other scriptures that do support female leadership in the church. Christian women and girls often have limited visions of themselves and their God-ordained purpose. When a church doesn’t encourage qualified women to pursue leadership roles, it’s damaging to the identity and dignity of women and girls. This, in turn, affects how they are treated by men and boys. To sum it up: When a large part of the female half of the body of Christ is held back, everyone loses.
Here are a few factors to consider to keep women from being left behind:
1. Pastors and leaders must become intentional about mentoring and encouraging women with teaching and leadership gifts. Recently, I visited Norway and spoke in a church where a couple served together as lead pastors. While some pastor’s wives don’t feel a call to ministry, many more hold back because they are seldom encouraged and given adequate opportunities to develop their gifts. The truth is that if male pastors would take the callings and giftings of women seriously, the stage would be set for tremendous growth and creativity in their congregations.
2. We need to include female examples from Scripture and history. For example, few believers are aware of the eleven esteemed women mentioned in Romans 16 or the significance of female leaders, such as Priscilla, Junia, Phoebe, and Lydia, who functioned as apostles, teachers, and pastors. We need to shed more light on the significant contribution of women leaders throughout history. Please check out the tremendous resources for this on our website. Women in History — Women in Community (wicglobal.net)
3. Many church-attending women find themselves trapped in domestically violent relationships. Statistics show that one-third of women, both in the church and in general, have suffered abuse in their lifetimes. A large majority of pastors admit that they don’t know how to deal adequately with this epidemic. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ignorance around how to handle such situations properly. Pastors are often unaware of these situations and rarely, if ever, speak on the subject. Sometimes pastors themselves are abusive in their homes. As a therapist, I have met with several pastor’s wives who were victims of domestic violence. For more resources, please visit Abuse — Women in Community (wicglobal.net)
4. We must expand our perspective beyond our own borders and become more aware of the global picture. Today, “more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century. Research indicates that worldwide, around three million women and girls have been kidnapped or sold into the sex trade. Far more women and girls are shipped into brothels each year in the early twenty-first century than African slaves were shipped into slave plantations each year in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.” Generally speaking, the church in the West is ignoring the horrendous plight of millions of women and girls in the developing world, which one author designates as “the paramount moral challenge of the twenty-first century.” I believe Jesus Himself would agree, in view of the solemn calling of helping those in need. (See Matthew 25:31–46.) One way you can do this is by supporting our overseas trip to Barrenquilla, Colombia, this fall to establish a counseling center for women.
No woman should be left behind because of her gender. As the expression of Jesus in the earth, the church is called to demonstrate the dignity and equality of all human beings. (See John 17:20–23 and Galatians 3:28.) As those who are called by His name, let us make every effort to love each other as Jesus loves us. Let us run our earthly race as those who help each other cross the finish line.
1.The Christian Century, November 7, 2018, “Report Details Trends for U.S. Women Clergy,” accessed July 6, 2024, Report details trends for U.S. women clergy | The Christian Century
2.Carolyn Custis James, Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011) 39.
3.Ibid. 26.