My first memory of awakening to God’s voice in a personal and deeply moving way was under the powerful and moving voice of a Nazarene pastor, a woman named Fairy Chism. Her hair was long and wrapped around her head, graying streaks glistening under the bright lights inside that small rural church in Burley Idaho. The air outside was cold and crisp, but inside I breathed in the fiery passion of this woman who somehow married tender warmth with a courageous edge penetrating my seven year old heart with a deeply felt sorrow over my sin. I have no clue what a seven year old could feel so guilty about, but I will never forget the moment I met Jesus as a person. As I looked up into the eyes of Rev. Chism, my eyes wet from tears having flowed, I saw in her expression the acceptance that I had already received from Jesus; “Terry, you are forgiven”.
It was some forty five years later I was seated in a small simple garden dedicated to Dr Mildred Bangs-Wynkoop just outside the sanctuary of the Nazarene Theological Seminary. I was the oldest person invited to participate in an eight person round table discussion about emerging theological reflections on how the Seminary might prepare women and men for ministry. As I sat in silence I was moved by how much I owed to Reverend Dr. Wynkoop’s watershed writing on holiness in her book, “Theology of Love”. It’s one of a handful of my books that reveals by notes, underlining and dis-repair, just how her work gave voice and narrative language, describing my own felt struggle and despair with the American Holiness movement’s sterile two step dance with God. In short, I am a Nazarene today largely due to this brilliant theologian.
In between these two women was a deep prejudice nurtured by America’s conserving turn toward a theology of hell avoidance via the revivalist models popularized by Rev. Billy Graham and defined by the five fundamentals of judicious salvation wherein Jesus takes the hit of God’s anger against our sin. One of the saddest mostly unspoken prejudices of that time was that women could not and should not be pastors over God’s house.
Such a belief was foreign to Nazarene theology and experience, half of our pastors coming out of our denomination’s schools in the early decades of our church were women. By the time I came of age in the late 1950’s a counter revolution had swept through the Church, leaving very few Nazarene churches in America that would hire a woman as a senior pastor. I do not ever recall being taught such nonsense but when I left for college I certainly felt it.
Now, fifty years later God is again calling, once again half of our students preparing for ministry via Nazarene Seminaries are women. The pew remains divided and we who are pastors and regional leaders desperately need to take affirming actions which place women at the center of the local and regional governing authorities. An excellent and positive example is my own WAPAC’s first discussion group for pastors on race relations is being led by three women pastors who deftly walk us through the difficult subjects of racial and gender bias pregnant within the American experience, including the church.
Several years ago I was in a pastoral discussion, free flowing, when a friend and pastor noted that woman senior pastors—more than men—too easily place familial needs over the needs of the congregation they lead, reinforcing a stereotype of “why the laity are reticent to hire women as senior pastors”. I did not then push back, in part, because I probably shared the understanding and in part because the context was a conversation about ‘how to change the facts on the ground in favor of women as pastors.’
I’ve had time to reflect in the years since and recognize as I could not then my own prejudice inside the conversation. For example:
A) To the extent such an issue is raised, I know of no circumstance when the same concern with familial needs is raised or even thought of when men are under-consideration, and;
B) The very real tensions of family care are the responsibility of the local church to address, be they women or men, and;
C) It is we men of the church (ministers and laity) who need to consider how we can and should step into the very real human needs, walls and prejudices that our sisters in the ministry uniquely face.
Action Items:
1) When your community of Faith is looking at candidates for staff or senior pastors, influence your local leadership to conscientiously consider women.
2) If you are male and are invited to present your name for consideration for a staff/senior pastor position ask if any women are being considered and withdraw from the process if not.
3) Engage regional church leaders to present women’s names for any elected/appointed officers of the region.
4) Address financial/child care concerns for all staff, senior pastors or regional positions.
We at West Seattle Church of the Nazarene enjoy the ministry of two women currently; one of whom pours her heart into two life-giving missions: WSCN pastoral care & Neighborhood house—a cross cultural community based mission educating kids and families in multiple transitions. Our other pastor with considerable experience in world missions in Europe and Asia serves in significant familial, children’s and administrative WSCN missions and in early child education with our Renton Naz church. Both of these pastors are single, one a mom, bi-vocational and faithful in mission from a space of love and calling!
Blessings! Terry :)
Related: Please listen to a Dialogue Sermon on “The Woman at the Well” with three pastors, two of whom are women.
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