Proclaimer Blog
Women in ministry
I'm away at the moment speaking and serving at our Women in Ministry conference with 73 women serving local churches up and down the country. It's a very encouraging time. That's partly due to the warm and faithful ministry of Kathleen Nielson, the Director of Women's Initiatives at The Gospel Coalition. She's quite a find (and is speaking at Word Alive week 1 this year). But more importantly there is represented here a real breadth of ministry with one common factor, it is bible ministry women to women. The encouragement for me is the breadth here:
- Free church and Anglican
- paid and voluntary
- part time and full time
- working with kids, teens, young women, older women
- working in groups, working 1-2-1
And so on.
It's good to see UK churches embracing the value of this kind of ministry. Sure, some churches are having to be creative how they fund such positions. But increasingly, churches are recognising the difference that targeted women's ministry can bring. I think we'd find that we're ahead here in the UK of other complementarian evangelicals around the world, including (perhaps) the US as well.
It's something to rejoice in, but not be complacent about. And perhaps it's worth thinking how this could be a ministry that might bless and benefit your particular local church?