Start Where You Are

by J. J. Johnson Leese

Fifteen years ago I came to the conviction that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was not correct in its interpretation of Scripture regarding male and female leadership in the Church. Sometimes I wonder what I have been able to do to help others address the issues. I have found the following principles helpful when raising the question, what difference can I make?

1. Maintain the Priority of the Word and Prayer 

The LCMS is a "Word-centered" denomination. For this we can rejoice! And likewise, we dare not hold any opinion on the issues of gender and authority that is not firmly grounded in the Bible. Therefore, every congregation ought to have a special study group address the biblical issues. Often a small group can provide much needed support. Prayer remains key to embracing a God-directed attitude of humility for such study.

2.  Don't Underestimate the Power of Resources

My own journey of questioning was facilitated by having access to good biblical studies and materials as I re-evaluated the LCMS position on women and men in the church. Try to identify useful resources for your setting and get them in the hands of people on every possible occasion. Be careful and practical in what you give and to whom. Unfortunately, one won't find resources through CPH that offer multiple perspectives, nor perhaps even in your local Christian bookstore. One good venue for resources is Christians for Biblical Equality. <www.cbeinternational.org> They offer a useful catalogue from which numerous Bible studies, books, and tapes can be ordered. 

3.  Be a Light. . . not a critic

Coming to this topic with a hypercritical attitude tends to close doors rather than open them. This principle does not imply simply avoiding conflict. Nor do I promote ignoring the problems. What does light do? It exposes reality for all to see. It makes plain what is otherwise hidden.

4.  Be a Good Steward of the Gifts God has given you

I have increasingly developed the conviction that as women function with the gifts that God has given them, the fruits of service will be one of the best evidences of how God desires to use women in the church of the 21^st century. The Apostle Paul exhorts those in the Church at Corinth that ALL should use their gifts to build up the other members of the body of Christ. If you've never been given the opportunity to identify your own spiritual gifts, then I strongly encourage you to begin the process. Many congregations offer spiritual gifts inventories for their members. If yours doesn't, there are a number of books on the subject, some of which include a personal inventory and scoring instructions. Even easier is listening for the affirmation of others. When we are gifted in a particular area, people notice and often will mention it.

Focus your energy and time on the areas where your gifts fit. For example, if God has gifted you with gifts of mercy and compassion for those who are hurting, then perhaps you should start making hospital/home visits to the sick or dying. Talk with them, encourage them, pray with them.  Who knows how God might powerfully use you and what opportunities for service/ministry this may provide? Perhaps you could meet with the hospital chaplain and inquire about getting formal on-the-job training for your gifts to build up the church.

Very much related to using one's gifts is the power of example. Where there are opportunities, use them! For example, my husband credits his openness to the teaching role of women to his high school teacher, Marva Dawn.

5.  Assessing One's Local Church Setting (doing a "reality check")

This is a step that may be sobering, yet very important for one's emotional and spiritual health.  The growing polarization of "parties" in the LCMS creates an environment where some congregations affirm the gifts and leadership of women, while other congregations effectively silence them. What is your situation? And what does that tell you about setting realistic expectations?

6. Power of Experience

When I think back over the past fifteen years, I can recall moments along the journey that helped me clarify what the "real issues" were that contributed to the current complacent environment in the LCMS related to women/men's role in the church. One of those realizations came through a simple, yet profound encounter with my then four year-old son, Nathan.  I had decided to have Nathan attend my seminary class with me one day so that he could better visualize and understand what it meant that "Mommy was going to school now."  During the course of the systematics class, Nathan became fidgety and, attempting to refocus his energy, I suggested that he "sit still and listen to the teacher. . . ."  In response to my request, my son stood up in his chair, pointed at the teacher and very loudly announced to the whole class,  "He can't be a teacher, only women are teachers. . . ."  After his disruption and the resultant laughter from the class, I attempted to explain to him that men could be teachers, even though all of his teachers up to this point in his life had been women. . . . Interestingly, it took me the entire 25-minute drive home to convince my four year-old son that he could be a teacher when he grew up! 

There are many lessons that one can learn from this vignette in the life of a four year-old, yet for me, it was a poignant expression of the power of experience in the formation of one's theology and ideology.  My guess is that by the age of four or five most of us knew "women's place in the church" and "men's place" without ever having read a CTCR document or Scriptures, or even having been explicitly told. Yet for many women (and men), somewhere along the way "what we thought to be true" has been shattered or questioned or simply not proven true to who we are as women of God. Yet, for many people within the LCMS (including many LCMS pastors), their experience has been different. One's perspective on ministry and gender are closely entangled with one's own personal identity and often shape major life choices. Consequently, when one's identity is challenged, the reaction is often fueled more by experience than carefully articulated reasons.

This realization has assisted me in keeping perspective. Often (as most of us have experienced first hand), reactions to questions that begin to dismantle the LCMS resolutions on women/men in the church are emotive and seem directed to bring harm and hurt to women. While hurtful interactions can become moments for great learning and growth, we also must attempt not to perceive others' reactions as personal attacks.

7.  Patience, without complacency

I'd like to share that from my vantage point of living in St. Louis, Missouri, the horizon in the LCMS looks encouraging and hopeful. In some regard there is perhaps reason to rejoice, yet the reality is that much change must take place ― change of attitudes, change of heart, change of perspective. The sense of urgency is real (our church body as a whole continues to decline in membership and vitality, facing the harsh reality of an enormous lack of church workers), yet ironically there are so many in our denomination who spend an enormous amount of time and energy keeping women "silent" and actually reducing meaningful opportunities of service for women.

Our denomination possesses a wealth of God-given talent with great potential to share the treasure of the Gospel with a world of lost people. There is nothing quite so important as to help people see themselves as God's ambassadors using their gifts as faithful stewards.