A Vision of Persistence

Editor’s note: This article is a 2024 CBE Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See

Sally Ride (1951–2012) was a physicist who overcame prejudice to become the first American female astronaut in 1983. Ride later co-founded a non-profit to encourage young people to study science, highlighting the importance of providing role models for girls. Ride asserted, “Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can’t be what you can’t see.”¹

Though I never wanted to be an astronaut, the truth of that statement resonates with me. I grew up loving the church and wanting to serve God; I reveled in Bible study, attended youth group functions, and helped with children’s classes and church potlucks. I traveled with college singing groups to church camps and youth rallies.

And then I majored in early childhood studies and became a wife, mom, and preschool teacher.

It wasn’t that God hadn’t yet “called” me to ministry—I was serving God by teaching children’s Sunday school and coordinating volunteers. But all the women I knew were wives, moms, teachers, and (a few) nurses. Until I was 35 years old, I had never seen a woman lead a worship song or prayer. Until I was nearly 50, I had never seen or heard a woman preach a sermon in person.

You can’t be what you can’t see.

My call to ministry followed “a long and winding road.” In addition to mothering and working for a preschool, I spent several years in sales and recruiting. I was mentored by businesswomen who affirmed my leadership and teaching gifts. People invested in my potential by inviting me to train others and inspired my success in business. But those gifts didn’t seem valuable or needed in my church. It never occurred to me that I might use leadership and teaching gifts to build God’s kingdom—until I’d seen other women using those gifts in a church. A cloud of witnesses, you might say.

I’d like to think that none of my experiences were wasted; each of them served to make me the person I am today. I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to go to seminary and serve in a variety of ministry contexts, but I’m still a little sad that my calling was delayed—by circumstance, by a lack of vision of what could be. At the time, I didn’t think of myself as being silenced or marginalized. The priority of men in church leadership was simply ingrained in my DNA. It was all I’d ever known or seen, but it limited me, just the same.

The reality of women being silenced and marginalized is so common that we barely allow it to register in our collective consciences. My cloud of witnesses includes Beth Moore, who has served the church teaching God’s word for the last 30 years, but faced silencing through the SBC when she spoke out against racism. Even outside my church experience, my cloud of witnesses includes a female senator who was silenced on the Senate floor in February 2017; nevertheless, she persisted. This month I re-read that week’s political news and remembered again my own sense of injustice at that event, realizing that the explanation of her censure described decades of my own experience as well.²

She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.

She Was Warned.

When I told others about my call to full-time ministry, some warned that I was just being influenced by feminism. Even though women now serve as CEOs and political leaders, the church is different. The spoken and unspoken message was, “Women have limited roles; you need to stay in your place.” I was happy as a wife and mom, and I also enjoyed using my gifts of leadership and teaching in my business. That said, I grew incredulous that God would only want those gifts used to improve my family’s finances. Was my only purpose in life selling people “stuff”?

Others warned that I was influenced by a desire for power. These voices said, “You want to be a pastor so you can be in charge. You just want to take over the church with your own agenda.” Patriarchal bias and a misunderstanding of healthy leadership are so evident in these statements. When boys grow up serving the church it’s often assumed they will want to be ministers. Why are women’s motives questioned? Biblical ministry should not be about personal power, being in charge, or wielding organizational control.³ Instead, it’s about using one’s God-given gifts to serve and benefit the common good (1 Cor. 12:7).

She Was Given an Explanation.

Others, rather than provide warnings about my motives, have instead explained why I cannot lead in ministry. Most explanations focus on two select texts colored by centuries of traditional bias—1 Corinthians 14:34–35 and 1 Timothy 2:11–12. Many quote the texts in question without providing any historical context or theological ideas behind the phrases. Both these texts are from letters—one to a church and one to a younger minister—dealing with specific problems. Both texts presume the letter’s recipient has far more background information than any modern reader can. Both passages have significant textual and translation challenges which point out the need for humility regarding “what the text clearly says.”⁴

While we sometimes downplay its impact, our worldview always influences how we read Scripture. Many explanations of why women should not lead and teach are given with black-and-white assumptions instead of acknowledging the grayscale reality of how God works in different places and times, through diverse women and men. Some have even limited their explanations to X’s⁵ 140 characters!⁶ These explanations have not satisfied my curiosity or swayed me from my calling. In fact, I’ve persisted in the face of social media trolls on a sermon reel of my own.⁷

Nevertheless, She Persisted.

Interestingly, Scripture itself convinced me of the importance of biblical equality for women and men in ministry. My theology about women was well-formed before I read any feminist theory. My commitment to the biblical text led me to several realities that push back against those two limiting passages. One is the many examples of women who have served God’s purposes throughout history.⁸ Another is the importance of all Christ followers serving as priests (1 Peter 2:5–9)

God prepares “works in advance for each of us” to do “so that the body of Christ is built up” (Eph. 2:10, 4:12). The Spirit distributes gifts to each one of us “for the common good” (1 Cor. 12). God is the one who gives “different gifts” but makes us “one body” (Rom. 12). All of us are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood” who should “use [our] gifts to serve others” (1 Pet. 2:9, 4:10). In these texts alone, more than fifty verses remind us God is the one who gives these gifts for the good of the kingdom. None of these texts limit who might receive or use a gift based on gender. God doesn’t make mistakes when distributing these gifts. If the Holy Spirit has gifted someone to lead or teach or preach, God intends for those gifts to be used for God’s glory and for the expansion of God’s kingdom.

Since this is true, I am empowered to persist because I want others to know Jesus. The biblical story from beginning to end shows movement away from the fall’s curse toward a new life in Christ—freedom from sin and flourishing in relationships. God’s priority throughout Scripture is that the life-giving gospel is proclaimed so that people might be saved.⁹ We are called to participate in God’s kingdom work and live as people free from oppression who care for others and seek their wellbeing above our own.

My own cloud of witnesses includes many authors I’ve never met. My cloud of witnesses includes women who persisted in the face of adversity and challenge, both in and outside the church. It also includes my daughter who had the opportunity to preach before I did, my theology professor at seminary, and the women who served as elders at the church where I was ordained to ministry. Now I serve as one of those witnesses for the young people at the church where I currently work. I persist because young girls—and other women—need to see “someone who looks like them” serving as a minister. They need to physically, visually see other women “doing whatever careers they might like to do someday,” as Sally Ride taught us. They need to see it in their minds, as mentors speak value and vision into their lives. They need to see it in their future and recognize their own potential as they move toward that future. They need to believe it before they can achieve it.

Because you can’t be what you can’t see.

Quoted by Chelsea Clinton in She Persisted: 13 American Women who Changed the World (New York: Philomel Books, 2017), 22.
One take on those proceedings is here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/nevertheless-she-persisted-and-the-age-of-the-weaponized-meme/516012/.
For example, see Matt 9:35-38, Mark 10:35-45, Luke 4:16-21, Acts 3:6-10, Rom 16, 1 Cor 9:18-20, Phil 2:1-4, 1 Timothy 3, Heb 11:36-40.
Both Philip B. Payne, Men and Women in Christ (2009) and Cynthia L Westfall, Paul and Gender (2017) provide excellent bibliographies for further reading on the variety of textual and translation issues with these texts.
Formerly Twitter
One such thread: https://www.cbeinternational.org/blogs/practice-discomfort-centering-womens-pain-church?platform=hootsuite
From a sermon I preached on 1 Corinthians 14, April 21, 2024: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6HhPcTJsAh/
Deborah, Huldah, Esther, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman at the well, Phoebe, Junia, Priscilla, and Lydia all come to mind, to name just a few.
Note Jesus’ priorities in Matt. 9:12-13, Luke 4:42-43, Luke 19:10, Luke 22:42, John 4:34, Paul’s priorities in Rom. 15:15-16 and 1 Cor. 9:19-23, and God’s priorities in 1 Tim. 2:3-4 and 4:15-16.

Related Resources

Academic Articles/Book Reviews

Book Review: Finding Their Voices: Sermons by Women in the Churches of Christ
Book Review: When Others Shuddered: Eight Women Who Refused to Give Up
Who’s Who? Biblical Models of Women in Leadership
Does It Matter? Remembering Our Foremothers
A Glimpse into the Life of a Courageous Woman: The Story of Emilienne Niangui Loubota
Book Review: Mentor for Life

Audio/Visual Materials

Mutuality Matters: Why Didn’t God Make Me a Boy so I Could be a Preacher?
Intersectionality: A Woman Called—The Role of Mentors, Champions, and Prayer for Women in Ministry with guest Rev. Dr. Carolyn Ann Knight
Audio – Unlikely Partnerships: Mentorships Bridging Age, Race, Gender, and Class
Global Impact: Egalitarian Leadership in Christian Humanitarian Organizations with Dr. Beth Birmingham
My Journey as a Christian Woman Leader

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references in this article are taken from the NIV 2011 translation.

A Church Unafraid of the Light: Women, Mutuality, and the Gift of Accountability Part 2

A Church Unafraid of the Light: Women, Mutuality, and the Gift of Accountability

Review Books for CBE

Like What You’re Reading?

A Vision of Persistence

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See