To Women in Ministry

I had the privilege of speaking at the missions class at the Latin American Bible Institute this past August. One of my favorite things to do in any group is open up the floor for questions. I was looking forward to the questions I would receive from these students, and wasn't surprised when one of the girls asked me, "Is it hard to be a woman in ministry?"I could feel the girls shift forward. The eyes that had been fixed on cell phones or doodle-filled notebook paper slowly shifted upward. They were mostly young, 18-23.They needed what I needed at their age. Permission. Permission to move forward into what God was calling them to do. They needed someone to tell them it was okay and that they were needed in Kingdom work, that everyone wanted them there.I answered her as honestly as I could, and I share my answer to that question with you here today.Not everyone believes women should be in ministry. There are people with solid arguments, much better debaters than I, who can tell me all the reasons that women shouldn't be in leadership in the church. This is a fact that has been true for generations and is true today.There are men and women who have looked me in the eye and told me that God didn't create women to be leaders, He doesn't call women into leadership, so I must have been mistaken thinking I had a place in this Kingdom work. There are strong, bright young women who have told me they don't want to be like me. They believe, truly and deeply, that the ministry to their future husband and children is the only calling a woman is allowed to have. That they can't imagine why a woman would desire to have any responsibility to make decisions or lead people.There are entire organizations who won't support women as leaders. The organization I work with absolutely supports women in leadership but their French counterparts won't credential female ministers and in fact blatantly exclude women from their pastoral get-togethers.I looked at this room full of Latino students and told them that there was a time they would have been excluded from ministry because of the color of their skin. I told them there was a time that it was understood that ministry was a place for white males."Do ministry anyway," I told them.We get caught up in the need for approval, the need for everyone to like us or be on our side. We get caught up in social justice and gender inequality and fight! fight! fight!Do ministry anyway.And people will argue with you, confrontationally or passive-aggressively. And it will hurt your feelings. And people will use gender-exclusive language and they will refer to pastors as "men" and you will be invited to pastor's wives events even if you are single, but not to the pastor's events. And you may not see yourself represented on the platform or around the conference table.Do ministry anyway.And not everyone will understand and some will exclude you for being female. It comes with the territory. It is not a burden to bear or a wall to be knocked down. It is, for some, an unchangeable reality.Do ministry anyway.We are not accountable to the attitudes of others and our calling is not to change the tides of gender equality or to make everyone a feminist. Our mission is to share the message of Christ with the hopeless and the lost. We find a place to make that happen, and we make it happen. And we come alongside the women younger than us to be a cheerleader in their lives and to let them know that yes, there is a place for you.We encourage one another and we cheer for one another's successes and we show up and are faithful to that which we are called to. And we do ministry anyway.