Asbury’s Gendered Culture: Heterosexual Marriage and Modest Femininity None of our seminaries want the analyses and evaluations and public writing up of sociologists, particularly when the sociologist examines gender discourse and its embodiment in routine practices. No sociologist considers everything, nor are any infallible. I remember when James Davison Hunter examined Christian colleges in his book,
Nov 16, 2022·edited Nov 16, 2022Liked by Scot McKnight
As for Churchwomen and Wives, the two categories of women Weaver-Swartz observed at Asbury, this has been my experience in church leadership.
As a church planter, I’ve been encouraged to join church planting networks, presumably for mentorship, encouragement, and support. No one seems to know what to do with me in these spaces. I’ve been asked if my husband was present (I answered with the truth: He’s home shuttling our kids to their activities and making them dinner). I’ve been invited to the women’s meetings for church planters which was made up of the wives of church planters—almost exclusively. While there should be meeting space for church planting spouses, as a church planter, I have more in common with other church planting pastors. I’ve had to sit through seminars doing the exhausting work of translating the teaching into something that might work for my context and my embodied experience.
In short, what was supposed to be a place of mentoring, support, and encouragement has been a space where I am regularly reminded that I’m still a surprise and an anomaly. Hospitality looks like preparing with every guest in mind. I have felt like an uninvited guest in these spaces.
If we want women in church leadership—and I think we do—we need to adjust these leadership spaces to reflect our expectation of the actual presence of women. Rather than respond with surprise and a clear lack of preparation and accommodation, prepare for the ones you’ve invited. Make them welcome.
This is so very true Laura, and many of us want to be part of the transformation of those cultures. One of the major takeaways from the study of Kate Bowler is that many women, because of the male-shaped cultures in church work, have moved into parachurch ministries where women can flourish as women.
The more I think about this, the more convinced I become that we miss the core central issue. I must see and value the things Randy uniquely brings to our working relationship, and he must equally see and value the unique things I bring to that relationship. Anything less than truly valuing what the other sex brings even as I bring things that person needs will lead us into endless conversations about "roles" and "gender," etc. Men and women bring different things to ministry, and both are needed and MUST be equally valued. The role for men is more difficult because they've been handed the reins of ministry for decades and think they can do all that needs to be done. Not so. So a starting point may need to be an acceptance of the intrinsic necessity of the opposite sex before God's work can fully go forward. But we easily too quickly settle for less than God intended for the working relationship.
As for Churchwomen and Wives, the two categories of women Weaver-Swartz observed at Asbury, this has been my experience in church leadership.
As a church planter, I’ve been encouraged to join church planting networks, presumably for mentorship, encouragement, and support. No one seems to know what to do with me in these spaces. I’ve been asked if my husband was present (I answered with the truth: He’s home shuttling our kids to their activities and making them dinner). I’ve been invited to the women’s meetings for church planters which was made up of the wives of church planters—almost exclusively. While there should be meeting space for church planting spouses, as a church planter, I have more in common with other church planting pastors. I’ve had to sit through seminars doing the exhausting work of translating the teaching into something that might work for my context and my embodied experience.
In short, what was supposed to be a place of mentoring, support, and encouragement has been a space where I am regularly reminded that I’m still a surprise and an anomaly. Hospitality looks like preparing with every guest in mind. I have felt like an uninvited guest in these spaces.
If we want women in church leadership—and I think we do—we need to adjust these leadership spaces to reflect our expectation of the actual presence of women. Rather than respond with surprise and a clear lack of preparation and accommodation, prepare for the ones you’ve invited. Make them welcome.
This is so very true Laura, and many of us want to be part of the transformation of those cultures. One of the major takeaways from the study of Kate Bowler is that many women, because of the male-shaped cultures in church work, have moved into parachurch ministries where women can flourish as women.
The more I think about this, the more convinced I become that we miss the core central issue. I must see and value the things Randy uniquely brings to our working relationship, and he must equally see and value the unique things I bring to that relationship. Anything less than truly valuing what the other sex brings even as I bring things that person needs will lead us into endless conversations about "roles" and "gender," etc. Men and women bring different things to ministry, and both are needed and MUST be equally valued. The role for men is more difficult because they've been handed the reins of ministry for decades and think they can do all that needs to be done. Not so. So a starting point may need to be an acceptance of the intrinsic necessity of the opposite sex before God's work can fully go forward. But we easily too quickly settle for less than God intended for the working relationship.