Commission on Biblical Gender Equality

Nilwona Nowlin currently serves as the Administrative Specialist for Governance for the ECC and is an active member of the Christian Community Development Association. In her “spare time,” Nilwona teaches workshops about living successfully as an introvert. She also randomly blogs about random things at thedreamerspeaks.

During my time in the dual degree program at North Park Theological Seminary, I also pursued a Certificate in Justice Ministry. At the same time, I was serving as an intern with North Park University’s Urban Outreach program (facilitated by University Ministries) and participating in the CCDA Leadership Cohort program. All of these experiences allowed me many opportunities to engage in conversations about power and privilege. They also helped me to understand  that power has to be shared/redistributed in order for us to get close to seeing anything that even looks like justice. However, people who possess power are not always quick to share it or give it up. I have had many unfortunate encounters with people who have found my presence to be a threat to their power and privilege simply because of the color of my skin or my gender. Yet, I am also blessed to have experienced a great example of what it looks like for someone with power to share it in a way that was not paternalistic or patronizing.

At Midwinter 2014, I co-facilitated a roundtable discussion about engaging churches in ministries of compassion, mercy and justice – specifically how to move from compassion and mercy to justice. The truth of the matter is that my internship supervisor, the Urban Outreach director, was the actual facilitator. Rich was the one who had been asked to facilitate the discussion, and he was the one listed in the program book as the facilitator. However, he was willing to share this space and opportunity with me because he was familiar with my gifts, talents and skills – particularly in relation to the discussion topic. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Catherine Gilliard is co-senior pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Atlanta, Georgia and president of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW).

I love the season of Advent because I love to prepare for things. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming” and paints for us images of how for God’s people are to watch for and wait on the fulfillment of all that is promised. In the first Advent, God chose to send Jesus as a baby into a chaotic world. By Christ’s earthly incarnation God demonstrates a total commitment to our humanity. Christ comes to us, and is in us, and works through us, redeeming and restoring our past, our present and our future.

This is the message of Advent … our history once filled with an expectant hope, our present consumed with an unshakeable belief in God’s power, our future filled with anticipation and expectation of the day when justice and reconciliation are reigning companions in redeeming and restoring all that is broken in our world. God’s reign has already broken into our world through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ. God’s Kingdom is near, God’s Kingdom is here, and God’s Kingdom is coming. It has already arrived but it is not fully realized.

Advent fills me with great hope for women pastors and leaders in the church. I listen to many stories, and add my own, of all that is broken in relationships in the church. Women who are obediently following God’s call, tirelessly seeking a place to call home. Like Mary and Joseph, they are being told again and again that the inn is full. It is in this journey of going from place to place and being rejected and turned away, that we find true connection with our Lord. Jesus knows what it feels like to be on mission for God and to be rejected and told over and over again that we don’t want you because you are not what we had in mind. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Karen Hinz is an ordained Covenant pastor who is serving as solo pastor of Mission Covenant Church in Ishpeming, Michigan, a position she has held for four years. Before that, she was pastor at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for 13 years. She has served on the ACCW board and BGE commission. Her personal life right now is filled with being a wife and mother of two teenagers and still trying to do some reading, scrapbooking, and genealogy.

What are the strengths of the Evangelical Covenant Church? Devotion to Jesus. A straightforward, biblical theology. A generous attitude that trusts people’s faith experiences. An acceptance of mystery and no need to claim to have all the answers. And certainly, an emphasis on being relational.

The relational aspect of the denomination is what replaces edicts with conversations. It is what makes shared ministry a joy rather than an annoyance. And this fits a faith based on a relationship with Jesus. We ought to be people who value relationships and who invest in them. It is out of this desire for relationships that we place emphasis on being together.

The ECC has lots of gatherings: district pastors meet, conferences meet, various churches develop relationships with each other. Our denomination-wide meetings of Midwinter, The Gathering, CHIC, the Feast, and Triennial are key to preserving identity and experiencing diversity. Many would say the “hallway conversations” at our gatherings are at least as important as the sessions with the big-name speakers. And despite the wonders of technology that allow remote-access to gatherings, they can’t get us into the same hallway for relationship-building.

This emphasis on relationships is what keeps us returning to Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In faith, relationships take on a different quality than they do in the world. Paul points to race, economics, and gender as three areas that can be transformed. Areas where inequality has been more the rule than the exception. And the Covenant has grown in the areas of race and gender. There is more work to do, but there have been serious, intentional efforts and much progress made. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Mary Peterson is the ACCW liaison for the Pacific Northwest Conference and serves as the Pastor of Children and Family Ministries at Highland Covenant Church in Bellevue, Washington. Mary and her husband, Eric, have two kids- a six year old named Luke and a four year old named Kate. 

I recently came across a homily on the calming of the sea (Matthew 8:23-37) by Peter Chrysologus, the Bishop of Ravenna from about 430-450 AD. I’ve heard this story a million, zillion times, but never have I heard it from this perspective. Here’s a quote:

“When Christ embarked, in the boat of His Church, to cross the sea of the world…the tempests of persecutors, the storm clouds of the mob, and the foggy mists of the devils all descended in fury to make one storm over all the world. The waves of kings were foaming, the billows of the mighty seethed, the rage of subjects resounded, nations swirled like whirlpools, sharp rocks of infidelity came into view, groans resounded from Christian shores, the shipwrecks of the fallen-aways were drifting about, and there was one crisis, one shipwreck of all the world. So the disciples came to the Lord and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing.”

As I have been reflecting on what to write this blog about-what to share about how God has called me to serve him, God has reminded me of the storms I have been through. Storms inside my heart and mind, but also storms that blew in from elsewhere. I started seminary right out of college. I chose the only seminary I knew much about. It was the place my grandfather had studied when he was starting out in ministry. I was sure it was the best seminary I could choose. I was eager to dive into theology, Greek and Hebrew. There was only one glaring problem- my gender. I had no voice. Even after being accepted to the seminary and paying my tuition, there was no room for me at this table. Well, maybe there was room if I was looking to be a pastor’s wife, but I wasn’t. I felt like all of a sudden I was caught in a storm much like the disciples found themselves in. I doubted God. I doubted myself. I doubted the church I was raised in and loved deeply. I doubted denominations. The waves of doubt were crashing in, and I was truly perishing. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Dru McLeland navigating the unexpected call of God on her life to the world of “pastordom” which continually surprises her with its supercalifragilisticexpialidociousness.

The call process, a nice way of saying “trying to get a job in ministry,” is an interesting journey. I am currently in “the call process.”  Recently, I was happily surprised that a church actually called me for an interview because they saw my profile on Covconnect.  After the interview they even asked me to come preach!  I began to be cautiously excited about the possibilities.  Of course the time I had for sermon preparation was interrupted by life.  I heard through the grapevine that the church was most likely going to hire someone else.  Saturday I came down with the flu.  Sunday morning thirty minutes before the service started I was told “Oh by the way there’s a youth sermon you’re responsible for and you’re leading the service.”  Of course as a pastor I should know the order of service since the Church has been using the same one for over half a century.  Thanks to God and Dayquil I made it through.  Several people, including members of the search team, said how much they enjoyed the sermon and that I did a great job.  “That was just what we needed to hear!”   After church my husband showed me the grading sheet that was enclosed in each of the bulletins except my copy.  I would give myself a C+.

I am coming to believe that it is a miracle that any church actually hires a pastor and that any pastor actually agrees to be hired.  I say this a little bit tongue in cheek.   Churches seem to be looking for Mary Poppins who is “practically perfect in every way.”  She comes with all the right accoutrements in her bag.  The pastor will come to save the day!  The magic bullet!  If they can just get the right pastor all will be well.  The church will grow.  Young people will come in droves.  The finances will be flush.  You name it. The right pastor will make it happen.

But of course pastors are looking for the perfect church.  People who are “sold out” for God, 100% and 100% of the time.  People who will embrace the glorious vision of the future and readily accept the changes and new trajectories necessary for a healthy missional church.  A church that will invite and welcome the visitor and show the seeker the way, care for the poor and the powerless…  The list is long.

Guess what?  There are no perfect churches.  There are no perfect pastors.  We are all dependent on God’s grace, mercy, love and faithfulness.  After all, this about God, not us.  There’s only one Mary Poppins and she’s fictional.  However, it never hurts to tuck a bottle of Dayquil in your bag just in case…

Report This Post

Rev. Mary Putera is an Ordained ECC pastor currently serving as the interim pastor for Sunset Covenant Church in Beaverton Oregon. Mary has served in the ECC for many years as a facilitator of the I2RR and Sankofa journey, as a board member of ACCW and Women’s Ministries and in various pastoral positions in four conferences. She is currently working to complete her PhD in the Theology of Beauty and Community Art practice for social transformation.

As a Maltese-Italian American woman, I am called and gifted by God to serve God’s “kingdom coming” in the vocational role of pastor. I cannot deny it, avoid it, walk away from it or even dislike that which God has brought forth in me, no matter the pain of the struggle. And amidst the joy filled days and holy moments of pastoring, there is pain involved, simply because I am a woman, increased because I am a light brown woman, because I am from the poor, the economically disadvantaged. There is no economic change in my circumstances that can wring out of me the times when electricity, phone, food and heat were scarce or non-existent. There is no economic gain that can erase my experiences as a teen who couch surfed for two years, living on the dangerous margins. There is no avoiding the fact that to be called to pastor by God as a woman in the ECC has its difficulties. And it is good, because I experience deeply, God’s presence and care for me in these places. There is no place I can go where I can leave behind me the 50 years of being, living with, working amongst, standing with and advocating amidst humanity living in the pain of an unjust world. Jesus is the Messiah! Where else is there to go?

As this same woman, I am called to bring forth fearlessly, even if quite imperfectly, the fearfully, wonderfully, uniquely beautiful woman God formed me to be. This for me has been, not a call to subversive ways, but bold, prophetic words, actions, and embodied activities that invite God to form me as God’s living artistry, with all my cracks and scars and hard spots; publicly, for the sake of Christ. If I refuse, then however will God work through weaknesses to bring forth strength in me and in the church and communities I am called to live in? If I give up the truth that I am messy, if I behave in public differently, adopting a cultural polish of adaptation to a mask of privilege, what heart and activity of Jesus forming me, Jesus being seen in me, can ever be witnessed? Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Jo Ann Deasy is a Covenant pastor who has served in a variety of ministerial roles including Youth Intern, Minister of Christian Education, Dean of Students, and Solo Pastor.  She is currently serving as Director, Institutional Initiatives and Student Research at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.

How do I begin to write this blog post?  I’m afraid that after the first few words you’ll stop reading, deem me a heretic, assume that I am just not biblically literate enough.  But here goes…  I don’t feel the need to prove that women can be pastors to anyone who asks.  I probably could prove biblically that I believe women can be pastors, but it would take some work.  To be honest, my head isn’t filled with those few passages that appear to deny women the right to preach and bear rule in the church.  I know roughly where they are.  I know their content.  I know the basic arguments located in each of them.  But I am not an expert on those passages.  I can’t quote all the latest scholarship.  I don’t spend hours studying them.  I don’t have debates and positions memorized and ready to whip out on a moments notice to any stranger or student who challenges my role.  To be honest, I just don’t have time for it.  There are so many other things to think about, to argue about, to be concerned about.

Please don’t take this to mean that I don’t care what the Bible says.  I care deeply about the scripture.  It is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.  It is the authority that guides my life and my work.  I wouldn’t be a woman pastor if I didn’t feel it was biblical.  I struggled for many years with my call to ministry.  I came to faith in a fairly conservative church and went to a seminary that was deeply divided over the issue.  I spent the early years of my faith in communities that endlessly debated the role of women in the family, in society, in the church.  I spent my early years being presented with amazingly brilliant biblical scholars proving points that were in exact opposition to one another, not just about women, but about a myriad of topics.  How could I, as a relatively new Christian, ever hope to prove my own position when those I respected could not agree on anything? Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Evelmyn Ivens was born in Mexico and moved to the United States during her teenage years. She graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in 2013 with a MA in Theological Studies and is currently a Curriculum & Resource Development intern at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) in Chicago. Evelmyn has lived in Los Angeles, CA, Washington, DC, and Chicago, IL, enjoys traveling and learning about other cultures. She is passionate about issues of immigration, hunger, poverty, and human trafficking.

Early this month I went to Mexico to attend the wedding of my cousin Cynthia. She and I grew up together, we are like sisters, and it was an event that I couldn’t miss! The last time I was in Mexico prior to this, was in December 2012, so as you can imagine I was very excited to not only attend the wedding, see family, but most of all being able to give my mother a hug. Being back in Mexico means going back to my mexicanidad and everything that it entails (loosely translated as the meaning of being Mexican: culture, religion, tradition, history, family, etc.). But once I come back to the U.S., I go back to the ongoing tension about my own identity. So last year when I was working on my thesis for my seminary degree I went through a very personal process of discovery on how I want to be identified on this side of the border. In Mexico, I’m Mexican, but here it’s a different story.

When I first arrived in 1997 I used to say, “I am Mexican”, I was new to this country and that was the experience I had. Then as I was learning about U.S. culture and terminology when it comes to race and ethnicity (in my case being Hispanic and/or Latino), I decided to identify as Hispanic and for a while that was the term I preferred. However, lately, I have been using Latina. As I reflect on this, I can see how my personal preferences changed, first as a new immigrant, then as I was trying to assimilate and using the term used in the Census, which is Hispanic. However, now as I am trying to understand and define my own identity. As someone of the 1.5 generation, I’m coming to the realization that I’m still Mexican with my language, culture, and Roman Catholic influence. But at the same time I am American, not only because I hold a U.S. passport, but also because I have been educated in this country and understand its social and political dynamics. Also I have been influenced by American Protestantism and am a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church so the term Latina embraces all of that. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Corrie Gustafson is an ordained Covenant pastor and the Pacific Southwest liaison for Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women. She currently serves as the K-5 chaplain at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. She blogs regularly at http://pastorwithapurse.com

My friend John (not his real name) is the lead pastor of a small church. One day, as we talked ministry over coffee, John said, “Women aren’t gifted preachers.” His manner was as startling to me as his message. He spoke casually and with assurance, like this was an indisputable fact. I asked John how many women he’d heard preach in his life. He said three. One was during summer camp, the other two during chapel services at Bible college.

In 2011, a Covenant church hired me as their interim associate pastor. Preaching and teaching were part of the job description. A married couple in the church believed so strongly that women should not preach, that they left the church shortly after I was hired. They’d never heard my testimony, heard me preach nor seen any of my gifts in action. All they needed to know was that the new pastor was a woman.

Many Christians form negative conclusions about women preaching with a simple reading of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12. Sincere, devoted followers of Jesus, some of them my family and friends, believe that women who preach are sinning. But for those of us who’ve been called to ministry, and for the men that advocate for us, it’s not that easy. We believe these seemingly prohibitive passages – like all scripture – must be examined, interpreted and applied under the light of the full gospel. We believe these verses must be reconciled with passages like Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2:14 and 4:16.

I think this debate often comes down to a matter of authority. I can’t speak for all women, but I certainly didn’t go to seminary, become a pastor or get ordained to get attention and status. Not a step of my spiritual journey has been motivated by the desire to have spiritual authority over others. I wanted to serve God, the church and the world in love. More than anything, I minister out of obedience to God. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Rev. Rebecca Poor (Becky) is ordained to Word and Sacrament, has an MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, and is the Senior Pastor at Saranac Community Church, a small rural town in western Michigan. Becky is the Great Lakes Conference Liaison for Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW) and has a passion for sharing Christ’s love and hope with our hurting world!

When I graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in May of 2011 the keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. Isolde Anderson, reflected upon her graduation from NPTS in the 1980’s. At that time there were only a few female graduates, and they were worried that a motion might be passed in the ECC to rescind the ordination of women. Rev. Dr. Anderson expressed how difficult it was to receive an initial call into pastoral ministry because very few churches were willing to consider a female candidate, and those who were open to this had very limited resources. Rev. Anderson’s first church was so small (only 25 people) that they couldn’t afford to fly her out for an interview.

The Covenant Church has come a long way in 30 years! The Covenant has made a strong commitment to affirming and supporting God’s call to women in ministry. In our class of 2011 half of the North Park Theological Seminary graduates were women! It’s exciting to see an increasing number of women entering seminary, pastoring churches, and serving in leadership positions in the denomination as well! However, we still have a way to go before there is a more balanced representation of women in ministry in the ECC; particularly in senior pastoral roles in larger churches. It’s interesting to note that while 23 of the 46 graduates in my class were women, the distribution of male/female balance was less equal in specific degree areas: 7 of the 10 MACF graduates were women, while only 13 of 34 of the MDiv graduates were women. Why this difference? Continue Reading »

Report This Post