Leach Emboldened

A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8308-8758-3
Verlag: IVP
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Throughout Scripture and church history, women have been central to the mission of God. But all too often women have lacked opportunities to minister fully. Many churches lack visible examples of women in ministry and leadership.Pastor Tara Beth Leach issues a stirring call for a new generation of women in ministry: to teach, to preach, to shepherd, and to lead. God not only permits women to minister-he emboldens, empowers, and unleashes women to lead out of the fullness of who they are. The church cannot reach its full potential without women using their God-given gifts. Leach provides practical expertise for how women can find their place at the table, escape impostor syndrome, face opposition, mentor others, and much more.When women teach, preach, lead, evangelize, pastor, and disciple, and when men partner to embolden the women in their lives, the church's imagination expands to better reflect God's story and hope for the world.

Tara Beth Leach is senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena in Southern California. She is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University (BA, youth ministry) and Northern Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is a regular writer for Missio Alliance and has contributed to other publications such as Christianity Today, Christian Week, and Jesus Creed. She is the author of Kingdom Culture and a contributor to The Apostle Paul and the Christian Life. She has two beautiful and rambunctious sons, and has been married to the love of her life, Jeff, since 2006.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Leach, Tara Beth

Leseproben

Introduction

A Burden for the Church

Pastors surrounded her as she knelt with her head bowed. It was another ordination ceremony for a handful of pastors in our denomination’s district, but this one hit me differently. With my hands on her shoulders, dozens of pastors prayed for her, and one pastor prayed a prayer of blessing, commissioning, and anointing. I wept.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful; no, not that. No one was arguing over the biblical and theological grounds for her ordination; no, it was a celebration. No one was resisting or protesting; no, it was an affirmation. I was grateful she was being ordained—after all, many denominations don’t ordain women! But as we gathered around this soon-to-be-commissioned ordained pastor, I was overcome with emotion for the seemingly invisible resistance she might one day encounter. Would she find a pulpit to preach in? Would she find a place to serve? Would she be given a platform to lead from? Would she be welcomed to the table with her male counterparts? Will her voice be heard in meetings? Will she have to defend her calling? As we commissioned her I wondered what she might encounter.

So in that moment, I prayed through my tears. I prayed that she would be a woman emboldened by the Spirit of the living God to proclaim the good news in all things, and I prayed that her brothers in Christ would empower her to be a colaborer, and I prayed that the bride of Christ would boldly name and resist the systems and barriers that keep women sidelined.

I write this book as a grateful woman, but also as a burdened woman. Although many women enroll in seminaries and reach ordination, many still find themselves pushed to the side with no place to serve. I have sat and prayed with countless women who have been pushed aside or have been silenced or feel invisible within their own congregations and Christian organizations. For some, it’s too late—they’ve already walked away. Others are hanging on by a thread, and some have pushed through. There are success stories, no doubt, but still not enough. The church can do better.

Over the years I have noticed something in many well-meaning, Spirit-filled churches. To put it bluntly, women are marginalized and are left without opportunities to harness and use their God-given gifts to the fullest simply because of their gender. Although many churches affirm women in ministry, these same communities sometimes have no idea how to embolden women in their midst as men continue to saturate the leadership structures. Women who are gifted to teach, preach, lead, evangelize, and shepherd are all too often sidelined. The body of Christ is disjointed—privileged men are soaring in their gifts, and women are still silenced. This status quo will continue indefinitely until men and women partner together in this great mission we have been called to.

On Sunday mornings, I often look around the congregation and wonder how many women sitting in the pews have lost the kingdom imagination for their role in the body of Christ. I sometimes wonder how different the worldwide church would be if all the women in the pews lived into their full potential of using their gifts to edify the body of Christ. How many women have extraordinary gifts of leadership but are held back because only the men in their congregations are given opportunities to lead? How many women have supernatural gifts of preaching and teaching but don’t know it because they have bought into the narrative that men alone preach and teach? How many women have unusual gifts of shepherding but are blind to it because they’ve never observed a woman shepherd?

Not too long ago I came across some statistics for the Church of the Nazarene—a denomination that has affirmed women in ministry since its inception.1 These statistics exposed a troublesome phenomenon. When the report was released, women made up nearly 20 percent of active clergy. However, only 14 percent of clergy women were senior pastors—less than 3 percent of all senior pastorates. Additionally, a higher percentage of women (19.3 percent) were not assigned at all.2 Sadly, these statistics reflect the landscape for many women in ministry. In another study through Barna, it was found that women are frustrated by the lack of opportunities in their local church and even believe they are undervalued by their church leaders. As many as 20 percent feel underutilized, and 16 percent feel they are limited by their gender.3 The study notes that although these seem like small percentages, this actually amounts to millions of women in the United States who feel sidelined in their churches.

After reading these statistics, I wanted to commiserate with some of my sisters in Christ. As I sat at my computer, I could see all of the faces of women who have left the ministry because it was just too hard. I could see the faces of women in ministry who have been deeply wounded by the church, those who have given up altogether, or those who, although they have a gift to preach, have no pulpit to preach from, or the ones who no longer see the stress as something worth pressing through.

Since 2004, I have served in both parachurch ministry and pastoral ministry in local churches as a youth pastor, women’s pastor, a teaching pastor, and now a senior pastor. Every Sunday I stand before a congregation that affirms all of me and also emboldens me. They’ve given me a place to lead, teach, preach, and shepherd. I am grateful for every opportunity, review all of my years with great fondness, and look ahead to the future with much excitement. I rejoice when I have the opportunity to share the story of God—the life, teachings, fulfillment, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, my King. I can do nothing but shed tears of joy when someone first decides to turn their heart and life to Jesus. I delight when I watch the people within the body of Christ discover the gifts and talents God has given them through the Spirit. I become weak in the knees when someone in our midst begins to read the Bible, saturate in its words, and become a student of the Word.

I desperately love the church. Sometimes I stand in utter disbelief that not only did God call me to teach and preach, but I actually get to do it. I am grateful for the men and women who have emboldened me to stand behind the pulpit and teach in a way that only Tara Beth in the Spirit could. I am grateful for congregations who have believed in me and loved me, and I am grateful for a congregation that loves me now.

But also, as a woman who has been in full-time ministry for over a decade, I understand wounds—I know them intimately. There have been days that I too have wanted to give up. There have been moments when the pressure of ministry and the obstacles as a woman are so challenging that I think, why bother? With two little boys at home, I often think it would be easier to walk away from the ministry. But I haven’t, and I won’t. I’m in for the long haul, and I want other women to join me. I want to pull all of the wounded women into one big room and tell them to keep on preaching on. I want to tell them to not give up, to come back to the church, to persevere together, and to hold fast to the One who calls us.

And I can see the faces of every little girl, every young seminarian, and every young and aspiring minister. I want to write them a love letter and show them the kingdom vision for women in the body of Christ. I want to offer them words of hope, inspiration, and encouragement, so that when they reach bumps in the road, they would know Whose they are and by Whom they’ve been called.

But I also want to pull into a room all of the male pastors and church leaders who are professing egalitarians. I want to hold a town hall meeting of sorts and give them a pep talk, and plainly teach them how to embolden women in ministry and give them a platform to flourish. Far too many women have been left without wings to soar, pulpits to preach, and churches to serve.

It is my prayer that women will read this book and be inspired to use their gifts for the edification of the kingdom and the glory of God, and men will walk away with practical steps on how to embolden women in their midst. This book is for men and women who already understand the biblical and theological account for the full inclusion of women in church leadership.

If you’re looking for an extensive theological and hermeneutical exposé on why women of the Bible were emboldened and why women today are called to serve alongside their brothers, you won’t find that here. This is not that book. Many wonderful books have made important biblical and theological arguments for women in ministry.4 Instead, women will be able to read this book and be inspired to use their gifts for the edification of the kingdom and the glory of God, and men will walk away with practical steps on how to embolden women in their church. It is also my hope that women who don’t necessarily want to be in full-time ministry but want to use their gifts faithfully within the body of Christ (including but not limited to Bible study leaders, small group leaders, board members, campus ministers, evangelists, writers, professors, worship leaders, and Sunday school teachers) will also find encouragement in this book and then reclaim the kingdom vision for women in the church.

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