Wednesday, October 27, 2004
women and the future of the church
I have been teaching a class on preaching in the postmodern. It has been a huge success, as I re-worked an existing seminary course with an in-service training option.
The class has totaled 26 participants. 8 of the students are training for ministry, while 18 are in ministry, most pastors, grappling with communication in our changing world.
Of the 18 in ministry, only 3 are women. Of the 8 training for ministry, 5 are women.
Is this hope? Or is this a reality check; that for women a huge gulf exists between dreaming and training and between the reality of ministry?
Posted by steve at 10:51 PM
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I think it depends what denom you are talking about 🙂
Comment by rochelle — October 28, 2004 @ 4:22 pm
rochelle,
the class was probably the most diverse denominational setting i have taught in. the (mainly male) ministers included anglican, methodist, lutheran, brethren, pentecostal. the (mainly female) students would tend to be pentecostal. So I am not sure how accurate a denominational analysis would be.
Comment by steve — October 28, 2004 @ 5:01 pm
As a Methodist – it looks to me like most of the incoming ministers are female here in UK.
Comment by Alison — October 29, 2004 @ 10:56 am
I certainly think that a lot of women are entering training, and in some areas, ministry, however I am not convinced that there are many places for women in leadership, particularly in evangelical / charismatic churches. I am well prepared to believe that this is a result of the people in the congregations rather than church leadership as such…
Comment by rochelle — October 31, 2004 @ 3:21 pm
i think lots of the women leaders end up as associates — children’s ministers, music ministers, assistant ministers, etc.
no data, just an assumption. i think people can accept that better right now.
Comment by tammy — November 1, 2004 @ 12:37 pm