How to Discourage Women Leaders in the Church

This is a satirical re-write of this post from The Gospel Coalition. As I re-read the original post today, I was struck by how applicable it is to the discussion about women in leadership in the church. I began this re-write by simply replacing all instances of the word “artist” in the article with the words “women leaders.” I made a few other modifications and omitted some sections, but the bulk of the article is taken from the original, word-for-word. Please note that all of the quotations below have been modified from their original, and should not be attributed as written to the individuals quoted. 

Many Christian women leaders live between two strange worlds. Their faith in Christ seems odd to many of their friends in the leadership community—almost as odd as their calling as women leaders seems to some of their friends at church. Yet Christian women called to write, teach, preach, lead, and disciple have extraordinary opportunities to honor God in their daily work and to bear witness to the grace, beauty, and truth of the gospel. How can pastors (and churches) encourage Christian women with leadership gifts in their dual calling as Christian women leaders?

As a pastor and college president, I have made a sad discovery: women are not always affirmed in the life of the local church. We need a general rediscovery of the role of women in the context of the church. This is badly needed because gender issues are in focus at the leading edge of culture.

In this article, I am taking a fresh and somewhat contrarian approach by seeking to answer the question, “How do you discourage women leaders in the church?”

In preparation, I asked some friends for their answers to my question: an actor, a sculptor, a jazz singer, a photographer. They are not whiners, but they gave me an earful (and said that it was kind of fun).

Here is my non-exhaustive list of ways that churches can discourage their women leaders (and some quotes from my friends).

Treat women as a window dressing for the truth rather than a window into God’s character. See the role of women as merely decorative or entertaining, not serious and life-changing. “'Humor' Women leaders by 'allowing' them to work in less visible ministry areas, or some forgotten, invisible corner with no influence over the direction of the church, where it can be 'decoration,'” David Hooker told me.

Embrace mistreatment of women. Tolerate low standards of honor toward all women. Only value women that are totally accessible, not difficult or challenging. Value input from women that is sentimental, that doesn't take risks, that doesn't give offense, that people immediately “get.”

Value women leaders only for their traditionally feminine gifts, not for the other contributions they can make to the life of the church. See them in one dimension, not as whole persons. Specifically, discount women leaders for leadership roles because they are too female, are not male, do not have a Y chromosome.

Demand women leaders to unquestioningly submit to male leadership in their work, and never raise questions or challenge the positions of that authority.

Never pay women leaders for their work. Expect that they will volunteer their service, without recognizing their calling or believing that they are workers worthy of their hire. (Or, pay them disproportionately lower wages than their male counterparts.)

When you ask them to serve, tell them what to do and also how to do it. Don't leave room for the creative process. Discourage improvisation; give women leaders a AAA road map.

Idolize family success. Add to the burden women leaders already feel by only validating the calling of women leaders who are wives and mothers.

I could go on. Here are some more ways to discourage women leaders in the church:
• Not setting reasonable boundaries.
• Not allowing women leaders to experience creative freedom.
• Asking the input of women leaders and deciding not to use it without an explanation.
• Not giving women leaders the gift of real listening.
• Not preaching and teaching the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the last item on my list is, in general, make women leaders not feel fully at home in the church. Most of the items on my list reflect a failure to understand women and to let women be women as a creative expression of the diversity of God's creation. This is a crushing burden because women leaders already know that as Christians they will not be fully at home in the world of women's rights advocacy —they don't worship its idols or believe its lies. N. T. Wright comments:

In my experience the Christian woman is regularly regarded as something of a curiosity, to be tolerated, humoured even, maybe even allowed to put on a show once in a while. But the idea that they are, or could be, anything more than that—that they have a vocation to re-imagine and re-express the beauty of God, to lift our sights and change our vision of reality—is often not even considered.

So will you make a home for Christians called to be women leaders?

Please do what you can to accommodate them, because they are pointing us toward eternity.



See note about source material above.