WOMEN IN YOUTH MINISTRY
In 2009, Kirsty Moore became the first female Red Arrows pilot, Carol Ann Duffy became the first female poet laureate and Claire Taylor was the first woman to be named a Wisden cricketer of the year. When women now have opportunities that our grandmothers could only dream about, is there any need to single out women in youth ministry as an area of concern?
Well, the fact that at the end of the first decade of the 21st century we can still be celebrating so many female firsts says a lot about how far we need to go before there’s true equality of opportunity for both men and women. Women still face a pay gap, have limited access to power and leadership in politics, business and the church, and suffer a rise in gender-based violence. In the church, there’s a huge ambivalence about what women can and should be doing to serve God that easily undermines even the most competent and experienced women in ministry, let alone those just beginning.
Earlier this year, a university CU refused to have a woman speak about mission opportunities, because they only have male speakers ‘for the sake of the gospel’. A male Baptist minister told a female vicar that he couldn’t work with her, because she was in sin as a woman in leadership. A youth worker wrote of constantly running into the inherent belief that she is inferior and incapable because of her gender. At conferences, in churches and within organisations across the country, women are still firmly in the minority as speakers, opinion shapers and decision makers. When there is so much work to be done in the Kingdom of God, can we really afford to sideline the gifts, calling and energy of half the human race?
I believe passionately that God created men and women to work together in partnership; only together do we truly reflect the image of God. Although, there will always be a need for single sex groups for specific reasons, in the work of the Kingdom something is missing when women, or men, are sidelined, silenced and ignored. That doesn’t mean that men and women have to be identical, but the arrangement where men make decisions and women make the tea is not partnership as God intended and never has been. Too often our assumptions in the church that one particular male way of leading and speaking is the ‘right’ way, means we overlook the rich contribution that others could bring to the table.
This is not just an issue that affects women. Historically, it has been women who have agitated for change and equality, but we will never get anywhere on our own; we need men as partners on the journey as well. I long for us to get away from the conflict and competition that so often characterises discussions about gender, particularly among Christians. If you listen to some of the rhetoric written about the ‘feminisation of the church’, you would think that the greatest threat to the body of Christ is women. Both young men and young women are struggling to find a sense of identity in our culture, to know what it means to mature as men and women. As a mother of teenage boys, I’m really concerned that many boys seem to be losing their way, which people are calling a crisis in masculinity. Can’t we work on this together, instead of seeing each other as a threat? If we don’t, then we risk putting barriers to the gospel in the way of women and men outside the church, who have grown up with equality as a given and who won’t join a church that silences and restricts women. We need to wrestle with theology, confront ingrained discrimination, grab opportunities to learn and expand our experience, make space for each other, take some risks and learn new ways of doing things.
I’m hopeful because it feels like something is stirring in the body of Christ on this issue, that more and more of us are not satisfied with the gender status quo. So, in ten years time, I want to see a woman as CEO of a major Christian youth organisation, because she’s a woman of integrity, vision and experience who was the best person for the job. I want it to be unacceptable and inconceivable for Christian conferences, churches and university CUs to not make room for women’s voices on an equal basis to men’s as speakers and leaders, for there to be a vast and visible pool of talented, competent women to choose from and for audiences to have been educated beyond the narrow and very male style of speaking that we so often equate with ‘hearing from God’. I want young people to have strong role models of their own sex that show them what it is to be men and women of God, and healthy, respectful, empowering relationships with the opposite sex. I want youth work to meet the gender-specific needs of young people in a way that enables them to reach their full potential instead of boxing them into stereotypical roles that constrain and deaden them. I hope that in ten years’ time, there’s no longer any need to speak up for women in youth ministry, because we’ll all be free to use our gifts and follow our callings in the work of the kingdom.