I've been meaning to write this for a while now. Since LAUP actually. The topic has to do with women in ministry. I don't mean this to be an exhaustive theological work with citations and all that. It's just my thoughts on the subject.
Toward the end of LAUP, Erna, the program director talked about how for many it would be the first and maybe last time they would ever see a woman in a position of leadership. That took me off guard.
See, I had never really given much thought to the fact that a woman was a director for the program. For me, it was "Okay, Erna is the director. She's a bit scary, but she seems cool." I hadn't stopped to consider that there are many churches out there where women aren't allowed to be in positions of leadership.
I grew up in a Pentecostal church where both men and women were in positions of leadership. The pastor's wife was a woman who was most definitely powered by the Holy Spirit. You could just feel it oozing out of her. She probably preached as much as the pastor did. And when she preached, oh boy, you needed to prepare yourself. You could feel the Spirit convicting you all the way to your inner core.
My mom is also skilled at preaching. I grew up with my mom also preaching at church, or being invited to preach at other churches. Later on, my mom got involved with a ministry that went to prisons in Tijuana, Mexico. Whenever I could go, I would also go with my mom.
Growing up, seeing women in positions of leadership was common. In fact, the women would often exhort the men to stand up and take more leadership.
That's why I have no problem with women in leadership. Because I was raised in an environment where I could see how women were used powerfully by the Holy Spirit to exhort and convince. I saw them speaking in tongues, prophesying, and healing others.
I probably wouldn't be where I'm at right now, applying for InterVarsity staff, if it weren't for women that God placed in my way.
My freshman year, I had no Christian community at UCSD. One day, while putting up flyers for another group I was involved with, I heard somebody playing the guitar in one of the common rooms. As I listened closely, I noticed that it was a Christian song. I approached the girl and asked if she was Christian. It turned out she was! She invited me out to the Bible study that InterVarsity held in Muir. She followed up on the day of the Bible study to make sure I was going to come out which I thought was pretty cool.
My second year, I still had no idea that the Bible study from last year was part of something bigger. Honestly, it was God who brought Christine Lee, Christina Kim, and Andrew Bryant to my door. I think they were looking for one of my roommates, but she wasn't there at the time. They found out I was part of Muir Bible study and they invited me out to Westside, the community group for Muir/Marshall upperclassmen. As the year went by, the fact that Christine made a special effort to meet up with me and ask how my spiritual life was going, was something that encouraged me to step up my Bible reading and prayer life. Those meetings made me feel like I was in community.
Little did I know that God was working with other students that year to start up LaFe my third year. That's when I got to meet Iris. Iris is one of my best friends. I have shared so much of my life with her and I'm really grateful for her friendship. As I started going to LaFe, God started moving in my life. Slowly but surely, God started to break down ethnic shame that I had long carried. I found community that I really cared about and a space where I could be open and honest. That lead to me joining student leadership my fourth year, volunteer staff with LaFe this year, and (hopefully) staff with LaFe next year. (Followed by being the San Diego Area Director for LaFe of course).
Which amazing woman helped me my fourth year? The wonderful LaFe staff worker, Julie. No matter where I go in ministry, the way I lead is definitely going to have Julie's influence in there. Julie encouraged me to go to Urbana, which is where I felt the call to pray for a Latino/a staff worker at UCSD, and start considering staff life myself. She encouraged me to go to LAUP, which was a HUGE blessing in my life. It helped confirm the staff calling and gave me the opportunity to help with the LaFe chapter at USC. Having been lead by Julie, and now getting a chance to work with her, I've definitely learned a lot about leadership from her. What to do and what not to do. I can say with certainty that she's probably been the main influence in how I view/do leadership.
And even this summer, having Kelsey as my ASC meant she was the one leading me in the Bible studies and helping challenge my view on how I saw certain passages. Having both Chizu and Laura as directors for the Borderlands group. Having Erna as the overall director. Women have played such an instrumental part in my faith.
I just finished reading a book called Jesus Feminist, where the author talks about how when women are held back, the Church loses half of its power. One restricts the Holy Spirit so much when they tell half of its membership that they're not allowed to do anything in leadership. I wish that churches everywhere would allow the women to lead, because I've seen what happens when women are allowed to lead and it's exciting! To see the full power of the Holy Spirit being released is something amazing.
So much of my faith walk is tied to women and I shall be eternally grateful for the role that they played. So women, feel empowered to follow what the Spirit says, and men, let's humble ourselves and allow ourselves to be lead by women and learn from them. In that way, we can allow the Kingdom to be seen even more clearly in our lives.
