onehandclapping

Thursday, June 30, 2005,1:59 PM

Mentoring Women

Something that will be addressed here a lot is the issue of women in the church and the obstacles they face in it. I had a conversation recently about the lack of women being mentored in the church. Even in churches that support women in ministry there is a lack of women being trained and mentored. We realized that part of the reason that this is stems from a desire to respect and protect women. In this day of lawsuits and stuff, most men will not be alone with a women. Men seem afraid of either temptation, judgment of others, or of false accusations and so avoid ever being alone (or have personal conversations) with women. Part of that fear is to keep themselves safe, part of it is out of respect for women. But the result is that while men still continue to raise up more men to be leaders in the church, no one is doing that for women. Something that in one sense is intended to help actually hurts. How can this be overcome? Do men just have to face the fear and take risks? Or are the structures that mentoring takes place in now need to be re-examined?

Labels: Church, Gender Issues

posted by Julie at 1:59 PM

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2 Comments:

At 6/30/2005 02:36:00 PM, Monaca

Julie - I really like your entry and agree with it a lot. It made me laugh though because Mike always made a point to never be alone with me at church (or really, anywhere else) to avoid any false accusations... or whatever.
At 7/03/2005 09:14:00 AM, Anonymous

Julie =)

True, true, true.

It is much much easier if the FEMALE pastoral staff just train up the next generation of women for church leadership.

oh wait...

mmmmmmmmm. =)

Life gets a little dicey when the church discourages women from their call from Jesus to "Go into all the world and make disciples," because they might start preaching to all nations, including OURS! (Oh wait...He said to do that too. =)

What a beautiful thing it is when brothers and sisters live and serve together in unity...building God's kingdom with the gifts His Spirit has given each one of them--just like I Peter 4. And somehow when we start loving and serving together both men and women are built up and equipped for works of service.

I checked Mike's blog (and found yours today) because I have been thinking about you guys and wondering how the next season is emerging, and how I should pray. (and how late is too late to call now that you have a little one, and perhaps Mike is going into the office a bit earlier than youth pastor days.)

love to you!!

cz