I was just at a meeting with denominational leaders from the Wesleyan church. Long story short, they were touting the fact that 46% of their ordinands this year were women. I said, Its all well and good to be ordaining a lot of women, but Im more concerned about whether not were placing them in ministry. (Id be interested to know, for instance, what percentage of leaders at the level of senior pastor or higher are women; and what percentage of ordained women are assigned vs unassigned.) Then one of them said something that I thought was very interesting… maybe not what some of us want to hear, but I suspect it is true and one possible way forward. He said that what they have found is that women who rise to higher levels of leadership (like senior pastors and beyond) almost always have in common a male leader who has been an advocate and mentor to them and supported them in their pursuit of ministry. Im not high on any totem poles, but I am an ordained elder, so I left thinking about who I could be such an advocate to / for, and how to do it in such a way that avoids being condescending or like Im the shining white knight that some poor women need to help them along... Thoughts about this, or about what other things we male leaders who are pro-women can do to advance the cause? (Besides, at times, shutting up and getting out of the way!)
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 14:35:00 +0000
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