Wesleyans need to quitsending daughters to the youth conventions
One of the great strengths of my denomination is its youth conventions. Thousands of youth gather for motivation, to make deeper commitments and to hear a challenge to respond to God’s call to the ordained ministry. The effect of these conventions on my denomination is immeasurable—in training church leaders, and calling out the next generation of church planters, pastors, and denominational leaders.But we have a big problem. Traditionally one service of these conventions is dedicated to “the call” to full time ordained ministry. Usually young people are asked to listen to God’s voice to discern if they believe God is calling them to His full time ministry. They are asked to come forward and take a stand, or to take some other action testifying to their call to the ministry.Well, that’s not the real problem. Here’s the real problem: Since my denomination approves the ordination of women, young women go forward in these meetings too. Thus we wind up with a number of women who have heard God’s call to the ministry, gone forward to confirm it, testify to their call to their friends and parents, then go off to our colleges and universities to train for the ministry. I teach these women in my classes—and they are gifted, bright, talented, and have a great heart for ministry and a clear understanding of their call. Perhaps one of them is your daughter or grand-daughter. You know how gifted she is, and you know that she feels clearly called to the ministry.So, what’s the problem?
Here’s the problem: when your daughter graduates and starts seeking a staff or solo pastorate in her home denomination—the Wesleyan Church—she will have a much harder time finding a place to fulfill her calling than my male students will have. In fact, my mediocre male students can get a job faster than the finest of my women students. No, that’s not right—my bottom-of-the-barrel male students can even get jobs faster than the very best women. Most pastors simply prefer male ministers—so do many church boards. Though my own denomination allows women to be ordained, and its leaders are significantly pro-women, people can still survive in my denomination yet passive block women from ever fulfilling their calling. It’s like a pocket veto—they simply do not respond and hope “the problem” will go away. Indeed a popular para-church organization related to my denomination still has no women itinerant speaker—at least one who speaks to whole churches and not merely “women’s retreats” or “with her husband.”
People who quietly resist women in ministry survive—even thrive—in my denomination and are treated as if their view is merely a matter of personal opinion not a denominational value. Women in ministry say there are even District Superintendents who have actively spoken against women in spiritual authority and they get away with it. We have a high-level official in one of our denomination’s colleges who has made statements apposing women in ministry in educational forums he survives as if it is his right to a matter of personal interpretation of the Bible. And we apparently (if you believe the women working for them) have at least a few larger church pastors who think women can serve on staff, or with children or youth, but not as the lead spiritual authority in a church. Ever. When I wrote the first draft of this article I addressed it to my own denomination. Since then I have received an outpouring of reports describing an almost identical situation among the Nazarene and Free Methodist churches too—apparently the entire holiness movement—a movement that exploded under women pastors—has the same problem. Why? Is the holiness movement Baptist or Wesleyan?Thus, while I am in a holiness denomination that “permits” women to be ordained, it means little since they hardly can get a place to serve. This is your daughter I’m talking about.
While there are hundreds of “supporters” of women in ministry in my denomination, most of them are moderate supporters—they would not go so far as to reprimand a DS woman-blocker, or reprimand a large church pastor. So, when it comes right down to it, they treat all this like it is a matter of personal opinion not a church stand. Supporters who aren’t willing to make hard decisions are not supporters at all but merely politicians.So this is why I think Wesleyan folk should quit sending their daughters to the youth conventions. If you let them go they’ll be challenged to hear God call them to the ordained ministry, and they’ll answer, then they’ll come to my school or one of the other Wesleyan schools and they’ll get a degree in ministry thinking God and the church was serious when it challenged them to “listen for the call.” Then they’ll graduate from college or seminary and start looking for a church in the denomination that encouraged them to respond—and they’ll get that email back from the DS saying, “I’m sorry, I really have nothing for you.” Or more likely no email response at all (and the fellow right next to them in class has gotten three already from the same DS). So your called daughter or granddaughter will be frustrated. She will wonder why God called her and the church encouraged her so she earned her ministry degree but now there is not a DS or church willing to let her fulfill her calling while she watches the male students one by one get the peachy jobs until even the marginal males are all placed.
So what should your daughter do? She should fulfill her calling I say. Which means find a denomination that will let her minister. In my neck of the woods right now that is the United Methodist Church. I hate to send off our “best and brightest” to another denomination but that’s better than sending them to Taco Bell. Essentially this means the daughters you’re sending to the youth conventions are likely to wind up ministers in another denomination. So quit sending them! Then you can keep them Wesleyans.
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Of course there is another answer to this problem isn’t there? We could spot the DSs, pastors , educational leaders and para-church organizations who quietly resist women in ministry and return the favor and black-list them like they are doing to the women. I know, this sounds naughty. But that may be the only way to get these folk to live up to their own denomination’s stand. Power may be all they understand or listen to. Gentle persuasion has been practiced now for several decades—they may only hear louder pressure from the rest of us—the vast majority of us. I figure if they can quietly black-list women from their district we can black-list them from speaking at our camp meetings and ministers conferences. Maybe they’ll straighten up and get with the program. What comes around goes around.
So, if you actively care about your daughter’s or granddaughter’s ministry maybe you should start asking questions about college spiritual emphasis week speakers, college professors and camp and conference speakers. Yes, and denominational religion divisions like mine (who has gone for the last three years straight with an all-male faculty). Perhaps you’ll want to start reviewing brochures and advertisements for itinerant speakers and pastor’s conferences. Maybe start asking around in order to find out if your DS in your denomination is one of those the women in ministry keep talking about. Perhaps you’ll want to track down the para-church organizations that are refusing to let women speak to the whole congregation—even letting them speak to churches that want them. When you discover the culprits, speak up and make sure they never speak at your camp or college spiritual emphasis week or conferences—for your daughter’s sake. Apparently “having a denominational stand” isn’t enough for these few holdouts. They need a louder voice. And it is time to speak. Otherwise we’ll just have to quit sending our daughters to the youth conventions.
Keith Drury 4/07/04
Keith.drury@TuesdayColumn.com
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