I was reading a blog post by Eugene Cho and the resulting blog conversation about the "uphill journey" to distribute leadership and influence among women and people of color in the church as fully and equally as for men and white people. A couple of comments from the blog conversation really resonated with me, so I'll just quote them here...
"I don’t have things figured out. I don’t know when to stand up and fight for myself, and when to wait for others to stand up for me. or if either of those options reflect Jesus. I’m a part of a denom that supports women in min, but it’s still hard, frustrating and i often want to hit my head against a brick wall… Because for the most part our system does give the advantage to white men. So while part of it is structure, part of it is us. I feel as women we need to step up and lead, inspire, share our stories, mentor the next generation of young women, ask to speak, get educated on this issue, listen, ask questions, keep advancing the Kingdom, discover your gifts, talents, passions-get what you need then do it and let’s have tough conversations with people out who are not valuing God’s creation and His story, but let’s do it with relentless love. maybe i’m crazy…"
--stacey
"A few years ago I was with a group of women talking with Dan Allender (President of Mars Hill Grad School) about women and the church. I said something like, its hard to talk about this issue without coming across like or being accused of having an agenda. Dan looked me square in the face and said, “you do have an agenda” to which I replied, “no I really don’t have an agenda.” His reply back, “the sooner you own that you have an agenda for biblical equality for women the more you will be able to use your voice.” He went on to say, “every time I get up to speak, I have an agenda, every public speaker does, but as a male that ’s not what I am accused of, it doesn’t even come into play.” I realized in that moment that whenever I had the opportunity to champion the cause of women for equality, I would use my voice. I do not want to come off as bitter, passionate yes, bitter no."
--Rose
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1 comment:
This is good stuff, Jenny. It encourages my soul. It just resonates with deep desires in my heart for equality, what does that mean exactly to God, to me, and what is that supposed to look like in ministry when I have only seen male leaders in the Korean church? Thanks for sharing, friend.
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