Women often lead better than men do
Last week, I blogged about Southern women and in an effort to balance that blog out, yesterday I addressed the subject of women who respond to God’s call better than men. Let’s explore that subject some more today.
On a mission trip I led to Peru in 2002, when it came time for our team to do spiritual warfare, it was the women who were best equipped to do it. The team’s female leader, Mary Lou Jackson, was our most spiritually sensitive team member.
She was prepared to pray for another person’s healing or deliverance no matter how long it took, no matter the hour of day or night. No one could match Mary Lou for boldness in confronting the enemy. Before meeting Christ, she had been a witch. She knows how ruthless our enemy can be and she knows the authority she’s been given to take him on in combat.
It was the female followers of Jesus who were the last to leave him at the cross and the first to believe in his resurrection. Some of the greatest spiritual warriors down through history have been women. What better example in the last century than Mother Teresa?
She ventured into India, a nation where the wives of men who died prematurely were expected to burn themselves alive on their husband’s funeral pyre. A nation with a thousand Hindu gods. And then there’s her predecessor in the previous century, Amy Carmichael, a woman who rescued hundreds of orphans from lives as temple prostitutes.
Women have always been on the cutting edge when men have lagged. When Paul Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world (750k or so), wanted to start small group fellowships, his elders turned him down. Hearing this, the women of the church stepped up and made his vision happen. Eventually, the small groups were so successful, the men of the church had to get involved.
Yes, consistently in Scripture we find that men were chosen to lead. But when they don’t lead, women must rise up (and, let’s be clear, oftentimes, a woman leader may be God’s first choice for a ministry).
Dick Bransford, a missionary to Kenya, notes:
“Women have often been the backbone of mission work. Sometimes they went to the hard places, and this was not necessarily because the organization or the mission chose that path, but it was because there were no men to do it. Two women missionaries worked hard to translate a portion of the Scriptures for the Uduk, handed them out in Sudan just before they were kicked out by the government. Many years later, when someone could get ‘back in’, they found that the Uduk had gone from about 5% Christian to about 95% Christian.”
Bransford goes on to wryly note that too many men are occupied with careers, improving their golf scores, and putting money in the bank, while the women of our generation are winning the world for Christ.
Paul told Timothy not to allow anyone to look down upon him because he was young. Neither should women allow their gender to be an excuse or get in the way of fighting to usher in the kingdom of the Lord. Jesus showed a deep respect for the role of women in building the kingdom.
We need to honor our women, who, seeing the plight of the widow and the orphan around the world, step up and bring hope. And at the same time, it’s time for more men to stop abdicating and start leading.
Also, check out: Women seem to hear God better than men
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I think it’s the way God has built us…the way our hearts and emotions and logic play into each other. We see a need, our hearts break, and we do what needs to be done to fix it.
Thank you for writing this blog along with the one from yesterday. It is good to finally read something positive about the role of women in Christianity/church. Too many pastors are putting us down and leaving us to do either children’s ministry or women’s ministry. Those are all fine and great, but when God has really gifted a woman to lead it is so incredibly difficult for her to do so without some sort of backlash from the church. So, thank you.
“Even on my servants, both men and WOMEN, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
Thank God we are in the last days. I don’t think I could contain my zeal if it was 100 yrs ago! Or definitely 1,000… I would have been stoned for real
God, THANK YOU for Mary Lou!
I agree, Christine. I think there are appropriate times and places for women to lead within the church outside those two cliche areas. I personally have a passion and enjoy my work with the youth, but I hate how we always get corraled with the women and children. There’s always this inner circle of the church that we’re not allowed into because we don’t have the “equipment.” I understand that the two genders are very different, but I thought that one of the key building blocks of a great team is to have members of different strengths and backgrounds!!
I know that women in leadership is a touchy subject for many…but I can’t stand to hear another verse quoted to me by a gray haired man who feels the need to keep me down. What about Deborah!?!?!? She picked up the sword and charged while the men were shaking with fear and doubt. Because she was a leader and the people knew it. Period.
I’m not saying women should run the church, I just wish that when a capable, spirit-led female leader rises up in the church I wish she wasn’t led off to execution by flannelboard.
Initially when I read this blog as well as yesterdays I became irritated. Once again, men are getting bashed, seems to be the popular thing to do. And now another man is bashing men. However, after I thought about it for a few minutes I think that while you may be making some very broad brush statements, if men aren’t as spiritually mature or if they aren’t as good leaders as women its, at least in part, due to the failure of their fathers, pastors, grandfathers, etc., to lead them and be the example for them. Men in the church, as well as across society, are suffering horribly from failed leadership. God please help us raise the next generation of men to leaders!!!!
thank you so much for posting this. God’s been answering our (the oct 08 WR crew) prayers for more men to step up and respond to the call. 🙂
Like Sara said above our team has been in deep prayer for more men to answer the call and join us on the World Race. When I first signed up there was only one man. Now we have six! God is already answering our prayers and I know he will continue to do so. Thank you so much for posting this.
I heard a Brother say that his wife said that if there were a man eating lion running wild in America it would starve to death. So many churches i see the women having to do so much of the work because the men are doing nothing but being lazy. I see it not only in church but in families with the Wife having to Disciple their children. Its very sad. Im with KF that God would please raise a generation of men to be leaders!
another amazing article! encouraging..
So so so thankful you are the founder. 11 years later…after this blog was written, you continue to champion this message. I am a receiver of this in a HUGE way.