Ellie VerGowe is currently serving as Ministerial Resident for Community Outreach at First Covenant Church on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Ellie enjoys dancing, being outside and reading a good book on a rainy day with a friend and a cup of tea.

From the moment my parents met in a mountaineering class, my future was determined. My sister and I would be outdoor people.

My parents encouraged my sister and I to hike and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation around us. I grew up being outside as often as our family was free to do so and though we may have complained a little about our camping trips in our junior high years, wilderness was in our blood. We couldn’t help it.

When I got to seminary, I took the “Wilderness and Faith” class taught by professors Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, Jim Bruckner and Phil Anderson and found myself feeling so at home. We discussed together two things I deeply loved: God and creation. And in the middle of it all, as we canoed together over the mostly calm, but sometimes choppy waters of the Flambeau River in Wisconsin, I saw the wildness of creation…in the waves and currents that tipped over our canoes…in the wind in the trees…and in the giant bonfire that we built as Jim recited poetry to us.

But as much as the wilderness was home, I felt…somehow…not a part of what was happening. I felt less than majestic as I commented on the theological readings that we discussed over the course of the trip. I was so aware of what I didn’t know and I felt that I couldn’t speak as eloquently as so many in our class did. The mountains I had seen in my life were big, but I had been kept small over the years. The trees were warped, knotted and unique as weather shaped them, but I took to heart society’s expectation that I always be nice, always look a certain way and always fit into people’s expectations of what a woman was supposed to be. The waters and the trees and the wind were wild and excellent…but was I?

This seems to be a pattern in my life and in the lives of so many women I know. We are taught to think less of ourselves and our ideas. The world around us does the same to us. Many churches we know don’t allow us to preach the gospel. When we state our ideas, some of our brothers interrupt us or summarize what we say, implying that what we said wasn’t good enough the first time. We are told to follow and not lead, though we have the experience, the skills and the calling. Sometimes we women inadvertently take these things to heart. We think to ourselves: “Why would I speak up if my thoughts are so different from what has already been spoken? Maybe I am wrong in my assessment of what is going on. Maybe I am not good at this…maybe I am not called to what I think God is asking me to do.” Sometimes my thoughts (and I hear it in so many of my female friend’s stories too) spiral into dangerous territory of doubting the ways that God has created me.

But a colleague recently gave me a quote by author Ursula K. Le Guin that turns all of these lies on their heads. It says:

“I know that many men and even women are afraid and angry when women do speak, because in this barbaric society, when women speak truly, they speak subversively—they can’t help it: If you are underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experiences as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That’s what I want—to hear you erupting. You young Mt. St. Helenses who don’t know the power in you—I want to hear you…Speak with a woman’s tongue. Come out and tells us what time of night it is! Don’t let us sink back in silence.”[1]

These words resonated deeply in my nature-loving soul. The wildness of a volcano, the vastness of a mountain glacier…these are strong. They burst into song and in their very being, they tell of the glory and goodness of God. With their own voices and in their own unique and majestic ways, the mountains and rivers and trees and oceans proclaim God’s presence among us. I’ve seen others do this…from the Black Lives Matter activist who works and shouts until her voice is hoarse that violence towards black and brown bodies must stop, to the artist who paints in defiance against the chronic pain she suffers. I learn from them. So many women I know are doing this already and are leading the way, but we can all do the same. We MUST do the same…in our own ways…in the ways that God has created us. We need the voices of women to tell the truth in ways that aren’t heard as often or as loud as male voices in our broken world.

And while we are telling truth in the ways that we are made, we recognize that it can be terrifying, wild and unpredictable to patriarchy. While the destruction that comes from mountains exploding is awful and while we don’t want to leave destruction in our wake, we too are wild. We too are are called to be fully ourselves with our erupting voices that image God and that aren’t unlike powerful mountains. While listening is imperative and necessary (we all have much to learn and we must listen to each other), maybe some of us need permission to erupt.

So, my sisters: don’t be quiet. Erupt with the truth. Tell the gospel as you live fully into who YOU are created to be. Do justice with your words and actions. Love mercy with your words and actions. And as you erupt, erupt with humility, knowing the one who created us also loves us and continues to teach and shape us into the people we have been created to be.

^[1] 1986 Bryn Mawr College Commencement Address

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Bio: Rev. Cathy Kaminski is the lead pastor at Trinity Community Church in Cincinnati, OH. She is privileged to be among the female pastors in the Evangelical Covenant Church. This is a post to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the decision to ordain women in ministry.

This past weekend the Evangelical Covenant Church celebrated its 131st annual meeting. Gather 2016 also marked 40 years since the Covenant decided to ordain women in ministry. 40 years of faithful women setting an example. 40 years of blazing new paths. 40 years of pioneers navigating waters of heart-ache, triumph, frustration, grace, and everything in between. On day one of Gather 2016, one speaker noted the reality that “The floor that you stand on is someone else’s ceiling.” This truth shakes me to my core. As a woman in ministry I often feel like I’m in an old boys’ club. People see my gender before they recognize my calling. My sexuality seems to define me more than my identity as an image bearer of God. I find myself trying to prove my place at the table instead of allowing the gifts God instilled in my personhood to speak for themselves. Yet, when I stop and listen to this profound statement I am instantly humbled. “My floor is someone else’s ceiling.”

As hard as my experience is, as difficult as my fellow sisters in ministry have it, we all stand on the ceiling of the faithful Christ-followers who have gone before. We have a long way to go, we have many more doors to open and walls to break down. But first, I’d like to take a moment and thank the women who went where no woman had gone before. I recognize them. Their sacrifice. Their bravery. Their faithfulness to follow God. And I am profoundly in their debt.

But God has used women as ambassadors for His Kingdom for way longer than 40 years. To do our Covenant sisters justice, we must go farther back. I hope we can see the ceiling that THEY stood upon. For generations and generations women have demonstrated giftedness and embodied calling even if not formally recognized by the church. And it is the culmination of their witness that brought the whole denomination to a place to celebrate God’s calling on our sisters.

Before women like Carol Nordstrom and Sherron Hughes-Tremper were ordained to the Evangelical Covenant Church, there were many who went before. Victoria Weltner was the first to graduate from North Park Theological Seminary in 1903. Dr. Mildred Nordren, the first single female missionary in the Covenant. We should know their stories and celebrate them. We should know women throughout Church history like Katherine von Bora, St Olga of Kiev, Matilda of Tuscany, Hedwig of Silesia, St Catherine of Siena, St Theresa of Avila. We should know women of the bible like Junia, Phoebe, Lydia, Chloe, Dorcas, Jael, Deborah, Tamar, Rahab. We should celebrate the stories of the unnamed women like the maidservant of Namaan’s wife, the woman at the well, Pharaoh’s daughter, daughters of Jephthah, Heman’s daughter, the widow who gave a tithe of two coins. Why don’t we know their stories? Why don’t we preach them on Sundays? Teach them in our Christian formation classes? Tell our sons and daughters about their courage and their faith? (If you don’t know one of these women, look them up and share what you find!)

Since before the birth of the Church women have stood on the ceilings of these women celebrated in scripture. Each generation building on the progress of the ones who went before. Today we tell the stories of these women. Today we celebrate the women in the Covenant. Today we pray for the next generation who will call our ceilings THEIR floors. In the picture above are the faces of 25 women serving the Covenant Church. Some missionary, others pastors, some directors, others lay leaders, but all ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope we tell their stories. I hope we name and celebrated their gifts and callings. I hope we all recognize the potential to add to the collective witness of faithful women. Every woman stands on the witness of those who came before, may others one day stand on us!

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Jo Ann Deasy is an ordained Covenant pastor currently serving as the director of institutional initiatives and student research at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh, PA.

Last year, in honor of Mother’s Day, my son’s daycare hosted “Muffins with Mom.” While a lovely idea, the event was held at 10:00 am which meant that all of us working mom’s dropped our children off at daycare, rushed to work for an hour or so, and then returned for the celebration. While fun for a minute or two, the event soon devolved into a room of screaming children who did not understand why their mother’s were leaving them once again to return to work. Despite the inconvenience, almost all of the mom’s in my son’s classroom came.

A month later the same daycare held “Donuts with Dad.” Scheduled from 7:00 am to 9:00 am, the event was designed to allow dad’s to spend a few extra moments at drop-off time with their children before heading to work. So convenient for them. Despite trying to work around their schedules, though, many dads didn’t show up or managed to eat their donut before they even got to the classroom. When I showed up at the tail end of this year’s celebration, there was not a single dad still celebrating with their child.

After the “Muffins with Mom” event, several of us spent a few moments in the parking lot sharing the guilt that drove us to be present and the frustration at another Mother’s Day celebration that seemed to be about everyone except mom herself. No one had bothered to ask us what might actually make us feel celebrated. No one had made adjustments for working moms, even in a daycare facility that was designed to watch children while both parents were at work.

So, what does this have to do with biblical gender equality? First, it highlights the assumptions made about gender roles in our society. We often assume that Mom’s don’t work, or if they do work they must have more flexible schedules, or being a mom must be more important than their job and surely their bosses will understand. And even if other people don’t feel that way, as moms we often carry those feelings. The guilt at not being available all of the time, of having other priorities whether work or relationships or self-care or ministry or education.

We also assume that fathers are not willing or able to make the same time available for their children. We actually often make men feel guilty if family is a priority over work, if they are stay at home dads, if their jobs don’t pay as much or they choose to work part-time.

Biblical Gender Equality is not about all women working or everyone neglecting children and family. Instead, it is about supporting men and women as they seek to make the best possible decisions in response to God’s call to care for and provide for each other, their children, and the world that we have been called to minister to. It is about making space to allow people to listen to the call of God on their lives, even if it is out of sync with cultural norms. It is about giving men freedom to care for their children and women the freedom to follow their call whether to ministry or to a job that might provide for her family financially.

Biblical Gender Equality is also about listening. Asking women, and men for that matter, what makes them feel cared for, valued, supported.

I am grateful that our daycare did listen. Not that they had much choice. With so many working moms in the community, they received a lot of feedback on that first “Muffins with Mom.” This year the event was shifted to earlier in the morning, allowing us to extend our drop off time for a few minutes before heading to work. Yes, once again most of the moms showed up and stayed longer, but it was a start. It was the beginning of a larger discussion about what it means to support both women and men as we try to navigate this life together.

When was the last time your church sat down with the moms in your community and asked if they felt supported? Or how you might support them better? Have you asked them how you might support them in their work outside the home? What about the fathers? Have you asked how you might support them not just in their jobs, but in their relationships with their children? As we look at our ministries to families, do we make space for discernment and choices that might look different than the norm? Do we, as a congregation, see ourselves as part of that equation? Part of the community, a resource that should be considered as we all seek to live lives that honor God and one another?

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Megan Herrold is a pastoral intern at Resurrection Covenant Church in Chicago. She is currently pursuing an MA in Christian Formation at North Park Theological Seminary, and is the seminary’s student representative on the ECC Commission on Biblical Gender Equality.

A couple of months ago we had our spring meeting for the Committee on Biblical Gender Equality. During that conversation, someone asked the question, “Why is this important?” As in, why do we think it’s important that women are welcome to be ordained? Why do we think it’s important that all people in our denomination welcome women to be ordained? It’s a question I’ve been thinking about again as we get closer to this month’s Annual Meeting.

I can’t say that we had a clear-cut answer, though the question wasn’t really asked in a way that required one.

I can’t even say that I had a clear-cut answer. But I wanted one, at least for myself. I’m just the type of person who likes to have reasons for what she believes.

It just happened that this meeting came the day after my midterm in my Old Testament class. The exam primarily focused on Genesis, including the story of the Fall into sin laid out in Genesis 3-11. I’ll be honest, until this point, I had only thought of the Fall as Adam and Eve eating fruit in the third chapter of the book, and this class gave me new appreciation for the fuller depiction of sin and its many facets that Genesis gives us.

The message overall was the idea that the effect of sin on God’s good creation broke relationships between God, ourselves, other people, and the rest of creation. In my eyes, today this means that people do not have space to live life to the fullest. There are barriers in the world that keep us from living into God’s good plan for our lives—individually and as a community.

So that’s my answer to the question of why this is important. When we don’t welcome certain groups of people into ordination, or really into any profession or role in society, we put up barriers in the face of what God may be trying to do.

There’s a reason I’m talking about welcoming women into ordination. There are plenty of people who may not be particularly opposed to ordained women, but also don’t care a lot about the idea that some people do oppose them. That there are barriers. I think of this as acceptance without welcome.

Acceptance without welcome does not break down barriers. It doesn’t help provide space for people to live life to the fullest, to live into God’s plan for them.

This year the ECC celebrates 40 years of ordaining women. We also mourn and lament with those who have been hurt by a lack of welcome into ordination. For the last four decades, we’ve been striving to convince people why we should welcome women who seek ordination. I think most of us now agree, and if you don’t agree at this point, I don’t necessarily expect anything I say to convince you.

Instead I’m writing to those of us who agree with the practice of ordaining women, but don’t really think of it as an issue anymore. And I say “those of us” because I find myself in this group sometimes. Since I first felt called to ministry ten years ago, I’ve had much more support than discouragement in my pursuit of that call. It’s consequently easy for me to forget that this is not the experience for many other women, even though I grew up in a church that did not support women’s ordination or female church leaders.

Yet I’ve heard stories of male pastors who support women in ministry, but don’t want to speak up about it in their less-supportive congregations because to do so might put their job in jeopardy. I’ve heard of women who’ve been told that there are no pastoral roles for them in certain ECC conferences because those congregations aren’t looking for a woman as their pastor. (I hesitate to share vague stories of unidentified people and places, but I’ve heard enough such stories that I’m convinced these are indicative of a larger pattern.) And when I expressed an interest in doing my North Park Field Education internship in a certain part of the country, I was told about a specific congregation that they don’t recommend for female interns because they won’t receive as much support in their call.

To me, these are all examples of how we can accept the idea of women in ministry, yet fail to consciously welcome women to that role. To really make space for all people to live according to God’s plan, we can’t just not put up barriers. We also have to help remove the barriers that are already there. And once again when I say we, I’m including myself: I have to remember that when I don’t take risks to speak out on behalf of women, I’m practicing acceptance without welcome.

The effects of sin in our lives—individually and as a community—are not removed without constant work and striving to live according to God’s will. The effects of sin do not go away because we stop sinning. We need to take concrete action to reverse that impact, and to ensure that all people whom God calls as ministers in any capacity have the space to respond to that call.

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Jo Ann Deasy is an ordained Covenant pastor currently serving as the director of institutional initiatives and student research at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh, PA.

Several years ago, as part of my doctoral dissertation, I had the opportunity to interview a group of young women who had grown up in a Covenant Church that fully affirmed the role of women in all roles of leadership in the church about their identity as women and the role of the pastor.  These women were thoughtful and articulate, but had rarely been given an opportunity to talk deeply about these topics.  They strongly affirmed the unique strengths of women, seeing them as much more nurturing, caring, and emotionally sensitive, but they also believed women were more passive and too emotional to be effective as leaders, especially during times of crisis.  They fully affirmed women as pastors, but felt more comforted when a male pastor offered them care and wondered why any of their peers would ever want to be a pastor. At times they didn’t even recognize their own ambivalence about women pastors and their own identities as women until the words came out of their mouths.

I don’t think their struggle was particularly unique.  They are the struggles many women face in a culture that sends such mixed messages about the roles of women, somehow both idealizing and devaluing them at the same time.  How can we help women in the church claim a stronger sense of their own worth and dignity?  How might we change some of the cultural narratives that shape them so that they might fully embrace who they are as children of God?

One possibility is for us to reframe how we think about traditional gender roles by drawing on the history of evangelical Christian women who tried to change the world.[1]

In the late 19^th century, women claimed their universal right as mothers to change to society. They saw their role as leaders drawing on the image of mothers as the guardians of morality and the protectors of families. They started social service agencies, orphanages, mission societies and temperance leagues that gained international reputations. In a study of conservative women from the Presbyterian Church, theologian Mary McClintock Fulkerson found women drawing on similar images. They focused on the unique ability of women to care for those in need, particularly women and children around the globe. Those images gave them strength, power, and a mission within an otherwise restrictive environment.

In 1819, Jarena Lee is thought to be the first women authorized to preach in the United States.  She traveled thousands of miles of foot preaching as an evangelist for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  In the late 1800s, Antoinette Brown was ordained by the Congregationalist church; Catherine Booth was co-founding the Salvation Army; and Amanda Berry Smith, a former slave, was leading evangelistic crusades in the United States, England, India, and West Africa.

These women, both in the 19^th century and in contemporary conservative churches, often created their own separate organizations, parallel to existing structures and within these parallel organizations they were able to lead boldly, mobilize other women, change society, and serve God globally.  The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was a powerful force in the 19^th century that fought to restrict the use of alcohol in society because of its damaging effects on women and children and the Presbyterian women missions organizations are but one example of the many ways Christian women have served the world for Christ.

In the Evangelical Covenant Church, women also created their own independent structure.  Women Ministries originally functioned entirely independent from denominational structures.[2] For many years, Women Ministries was known for focusing on the role of women in the family and global missions, but they have always had that same desire to change the world.  Recently they have been extending their call to care for women and children beyond the home into the world through advocacy around issues such as domestic violence and human trafficking.[3]

 Women often hear mixed messages about their worth from the world around them.  They need to hear the stories of women who were strong and courageous, who embraced their roles as wives, mothers, and daughters of God as a call to change the world around them, to witness, preach, and fight for social justice. They need us to talk about these women in our sermons and our Sunday School classes, to celebrate them as we talk about history and heroes.  They need to see the pictures of these women up on the walls of our schools and churches.

And, they need time and space to talk about what it means to be a women, to critically reflect on the messages they are hearing, to discuss how they are navigating the various messages they are receiving. And they need to be toldWOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD over and over again that they have been created as women fully in the image of God, called to serve, to lead, to witness, and to change the world for good of the kingdom.

[1] The following draws significantly on my dissertation, “Called to the Image?  How Discourses about Gender and Ministry Shape the Potential for Young Women to Develop A Pastoral Identity,” Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, 2010.

[2] Women Ministries of the Evangelical Covenant Church does not appear as part of the denominational constitution until 1978 when it is first listed under the administrative boards of the denomination as the “Board of Women’s Work.” (The Evangelical Covenant Church, Covenant Yearbook 1978, Chicago, IL:  The Evangelical Covenant Church of America, 1978), 356-357. Women Ministries is currently listed along with the other denominational ministries in the constitution and comes under the governance of the Annual Meeting of the ECC. However, it is the only denominational ministry that still bears its own administrative costs (The Evangelical Covenant Church, Covenant Yearbook, 2008-2009 edition, Chicago, IL:  The Evangelical Covenant Church of America, 2009), 372-373.

[3] Women Ministries launched Advocacy for Victims of Abuse (AVA) in 2004 and in partnership with the Department of Christian Formation and the Department of Compassion and Justice launched Break the Chains, a program to combat human trafficking, in 2008. See Women Ministries, “Women Ministries Welcome,” The Evangelical Covenant Church, www.covchurch.org/women, Accessed 24 October 2009.

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Megan Herrold is a pastoral intern at Resurrection Covenant Church in Chicago. She is currently pursuing an MA in Christian Formation at North Park Theological Seminary, and is the seminary’s student representative on the ECC Commission on Biblical Gender Equality.

Lately I’ve been embracing the art of imperfection.

It started when I began reading Daring Greatly by Brené Brown. She studies and writes about shame and vulnerability. In her research, Brown noticed that women commonly experience shame when they make mistakes or are less than perfect, because we have an entrenched belief that we’re supposed to be perfect in all that we say and do.

Consequently, if we make a mistake, we feel it not as doing something wrong but being wrong—a mistake suggests there is something inherently ‘wrong’ about us.

(I want to mention briefly that in what I’ve read, Brown doesn’t mention anything about the cultural backgrounds of the people in her research, so her conclusions that I discuss here may apply more to white American women than to women of other cultures.)

I really identified with this desire to be perfect all the time. It’s actually somewhat crippling when it comes to taking leadership roles: I find myself in this loop of not feeling comfortable or right for a new role if I can’t do it perfectly, but not being able to do the new thing perfectly until I’ve tried a few times. It’s similar to the Imposter Syndrome Jo Ann Deasy wrote about last month.

In the last year or so, before I even read this book, I had found myself referring to my “perfectionistic tendencies” in conversations with friends, in counseling, and with my internship advisor. But when I talked about it before, I called it part of my personality. Brown’s research suggests a different source for this perfectionism. If a phenomenon is this pervasive among a socially delineated and identifiable group, it’s hard for me to believe that it isn’t at least somewhat socially constructed.

In other words, Brown’s observations suggest to me that I’m a perfectionist because that’s what society wants me to be, or tells me I should be.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately, I’m not really sure—I have a bit of a contrary streak. If someone tells me who I’m supposed to be or what I’m expected to do, I automatically don’t want to be or do it. It’s a good part of why I never saw the movie Avatar. Or Les Misérables. They were both movies that “everyone” was seeing and “everyone” just had to see. So of course, I didn’t.

I heard a speaker at church a few years ago (not the pastor, someone else on the teaching team) make a joke about how he doesn’t really know anything about women; the only things he knows are shoes, purses, and chocolate.

It made me angry to hear someone try to reduce me—and more than half of the rest of the congregation—to those three things, even as a joke. It also made me proud that two of them didn’t apply at all to me. I’m not super particular about purses or shoes. Most of what I own are hand-me-downs and my mom and her sisters have more than once said I should replace what I have because they’re so worn out.
I do like chocolate, but after that joke, I didn’t eat any for months. Just the idea of eating any made me slightly nauseous. I didn’t want to be this person someone else expected me to be.

This time, my contrariness has decided that I’m not going to be perfect anymore. (I laugh at how I try to write that as if I ever was perfect to begin with.) Instead I’ve started embracing the times that I make mistakes (minor ones) as a sign that I’m letting go of other people’s expectations of me.

And it’s just…so…freeing! I can’t tell you what it’s like to have this pressure off. It’s like I’ve lost a huge weight off my shoulders. Or like losing 20 pounds, but not even caring because who cares what I look like anyway? Everything from “Is my hair still perfect at the end of the work day?” to “Did I use the most theologically correct preposition when I was praying during communion?”
In addition, when I decided to feel happy about minor mistakes, I found I had a lot more to be happy about than when I was striving for perfectionism.

Obviously I don’t go out looking for mistakes I can make—why bother when there are plenty for me to make without going to all the effort of actually trying? What a waste of time. And I don’t want to do a bad job in new leadership roles, but it’s helpful to remember that maybe God can use me for good in the midst of my mistakes. I don’t want the fear of imperfection to keep me from the joy of God working through me like that.

So I’m happy to say that I plan to keep embracing my unintentional mistakes for awhile.

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Rev. Cathy Kaminski is the lead pastor at Trinity Community Church in Cincinnati, OH. Her entire life she has had the privilege of knowing and being influenced by strong women. Her hope is that she can follow and be that example for others.

Recently I was at a soccer game for one of the littles in our church. Soccer “game” is a loose term, it was more like a swarm of bees running after the ball. Or maybe ants on something sweet…they were a bit slower than bees. It was most certainly entertaining. The coach, try as he did, had a difficult time explaining the fundamentals to the four year olds. But what was more entertaining was sitting with the family.

I sat on a blanket with grandma and dad as they desperately encouraged their loved one to run in the direction of play. The dad would shout out helpful tips, then his mom would correct him. It was hilarious. Each generation passing down wisdom. Each generation choosing to listen or not.

The dad looked at me and said, “Everyone in my life knows what’s best for me.” He was commenting on the fact that be is blessed to have a family of strong women who often give him their two cents. Now here he was, putting his two cents in for his son. I couldn’t help but laugh.

But what struck me was something quite different. This dad is a new leader in our church. Their family have been coming for a little over three years and this past January he was elected to our council. He is such a strong voice and we are tremendously blessed to have him on our team. I never really thought about the people in his life that taught and shaped him, helping him to become the leader he is today. For this dad a huge influence in his personhood and leadership are the strong females in his world.

This got me thinking. What or rather who does it take to build up the next generation of strong leaders? What does it take to be a person of influence and as that person, how do we build up others? Sometimes in discussing this we talk about gender, but I think we might be missing the boat if we limit the discussion to this perspective.

Does having a female leader somehow diminish the capacity for strong male leaders? This is a question I have been asked at different points in my life. On the outset, this posed question always rubs me the wrong way. Do we take the time to ask the reverse? Does a male leader somehow diminish the capacity for strong female leaders? I mean that just seems ridiculous! However, when I breathe and take a step back I can be honest enough with myself to say sometimes yes. But not in the ways you might think.

Hear me out: we all read that question with a unique life experience that colors our understanding. Growing up in a conservative complementarian church, (where only men could be head leaders), I heard it from the pulpit that having strong male leaders was key to the development of younger men. Without male role models the younger generation missed out. What hurt me was the lack of awareness for young women. We too miss out when we do not see strong female leaders in the church. Yet, there is a whole other component of this conversation. When we encamp this discussion in gender, we lose sight of the greater definition of a strong leader. We forget that both genders are integral to the encouragement and building up of the younger generation and it is not so much having a male leader for young men and a female leader for young women, but have diversity in leadership and voice to give example and teaching to all.

I looked at this dad, who has been surrounded by strong women his whole life. This did not diminish his capacity for leadership. I would argue it equipped him to find his voice and become the leader he is today.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in gender that we forget God is first and foremost calling us to be HUMAN. And as humans we embody the Creator’s image and share that love, mercy and justice with the world. That is what it means to live out our faith and that is a crucial piece of what it means to be a leader in the church.

We need strong leaders, male and female. We need leaders that know the importance of making space for other leaders. Men who intentionally seek out female leaders and women who seek out male leaders. We need men and women pastors who set the example of strength which equips others to follow. We need to know that God calls and equips all people to have a role in the church and when we become homogenous, in any way, the overall community misses out.

It is not about how female leadership can diminish the capacity on male leaders or vice versa, but it is about being strong and encouraging and teaching others to find their strength!

This dad is a strong leader. He is also a person of tremendous faith. The people of integrity in his life helped to build up his personhood and skills for leadership. Looking at this beautiful family I saw a picture of strength building up strength. Males and females. And that’s a precious gift.

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Rev. Elizabeth (Liz) Jensen is an ordained Covenant Pastor serving as the solo pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Venice Isle in Venice, FL. She serves as the treasurer of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW). She recently completed 6 years serving on the Committee on Ministerial Standing (COMS) of the Southeast Conference (SEC) Ministerium; she chaired the committee the last three years. At their 2016 annual meeting she was elected President of the SEC Ministerium. She also serves as treasurer and chaplain for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) Venice Area Chapter; her husband is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Minnesota Army National Guard.

Have you heard the song “Words”? The lyrics roughly declare that words can make people feel like prisoners or can set them free. Words can make people feel like criminals or kings. Words can lift hearts to new places and drag hearts back into a pit. Words can build up and break down. Words can start a fire in a heart or put it out.

How do our words impact those who hear them? For those in ministry, how do the words of your preaching, teaching, singing and writing impact those who hear or sing or read them? We would never use derogatory language in reference to any group, yet I hear and read and sing words that ignore, diminish, overlook, and disregard half the population. Can you see it in these Scripture quotations?

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked” (Psalm 1:1).

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

If you do not see a problem with these words, read on. You see, words matter! Can you see (or hear) it in these lyrics from “Be Thou My Vision”?  Verse 2:

“Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.” Verse 3: Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,”

Can you see (or hear) it in these lyrics from “Joy to the World”?

“Joy to the world! the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ.”

Can you hear it in these sermon declarations?

“Man has fallen. Jesus came to redeem man.”

Can you hear it in these illustrations?

“The pastor…he. The Sunday school teacher…she. The fireman…he. The policeman…he. The secretary…she.”

These are but a few examples of what I have seen and heard – some rather recently. What message do these words send? As a woman, when scripture quotes ignore me, when sermons disregard me, when illustrations diminish me, and when songs overlook me I am lost to their message. I should not have to “suck it up” to hear God’s word and sing praises to Jesus. It is time to tune up our awareness of how the words we use in preaching, teaching, singing and writing impact half the people to whom we speak and to whom and with whom we minister. Words matter. Let’s not just tune up our awareness, let’s change our words so all are included.

“Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked” (Psalm 1:1).

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people” (Matthew 4:19).

“If I speak in the tongues of humans or of angels” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

“The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

“Be Thou My Vision” in the Covenant Hymnal a Book of Worship uses totally inclusive language. Here it is in case you don’t have the book:

Verse 2:

“Thou my great Father, thy child shall I be; Thou in me dwelling, and I one with thee.

“Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise.”

“Joy to the World” is easily changed to “Let us, our songs employ.”

We can change our sermons to declare: “All humanity has fallen. Jesus came to redeem us all.”

We can change our language to remove gender specific pronouns. Or we can regularly refer to “The pastor…she. The Sunday school teacher…he. The firefighter. The police officer. And even the secretary…he.” Be bold. Be brave. My brothers and sisters in Christ, do as did Jesus. He reached out to women in ways that were counter to his culture. It suggests to me that Jesus would not want females ignored in our preaching, teaching, singing and writing today. Words matter!

Let me ask a few questions using the song “Words”. Do your words make women feel like prisoners or help set them free? Do your words make women feel like criminals or help them feel like royalty? Do your words lift women’s hearts to new places or drag them into a pit? Do your words build up women or break them down? Do your words start a fire in women’s hearts or put fires out? Words matter!

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Evelmyn Ivens works at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) in Chicago and graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in 2013 with a MA in Theological Studies. Enjoys traveling and learning about other cultures. She’s passionate about issues of immigration, hunger, poverty, and human trafficking.

One of my favorite podcasts is Smart Women, Smart Power from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They are usually panels or one-on-one interviews of women in politics, economics, foreign policy, and religion. I am always very impressed by the women being interviewed they are experts in national security, terrorism, politics, etc. Very smart and empowered women. However, the other day the topic was on U.S Ambassadors and their lives abroad. At one point the conversation got emotional for one of the ambassadors (Saudi Arabia) as she was telling the story of having the evacuate the country at two different times and having to let her children go back to the US, as she stayed in Saudi Arabia and continued to work for months. I cannot imagine having to do that.

Like these women with power and positions of leadership, I think of my female pastor friends who have children. I very much admire that as mothers and wives are following their calling. Much respect to those women. I think of single mothers who work long hours and miss time with their children like my own mother who was a single mother for a number of years until she remarried. As I get older and sometimes nostalgic, I think of my mother often and the things she sacrificed so that I could have a better life and opportunity. My parents divorced when I was very young and both remarried and had more children. My father moved to the US after the divorce and when I was 14 I came to live with him, that’s how I ended up here! I am forever grateful to my mother because she let me go at such a young age. The plan was for me to stay for a year and then go back to Mexico. But things happened and I am convinced that God had other plans and I ended up staying. Writing about this almost 19 years later still makes me choked up a little. I cannot imagine how painful it was for my mother, and all I can say is thank you, thank you for letting me go and for always supporting me at a distance.

I want to end with this ritual liturgy that very much describes women and mothers, and the power and strength that they carry.

The power to give life

The power of being vulnerable without being weak

The power of believing in a better future

The power of changing oppressive situations

The power to face difficult circumstances

The power of not giving up

The power of loving and claiming the need for love

The power of crying

The power that is ours because we are women.[1]

[1] Opening ritual liturgy in Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century. 179-180.

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