When I was a little girl and somebody asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “I want to be a pastor, but since girls can’t be pastors, I will be a pastor’s wife.”
Over the years, that call to be a pastor never left me. But I couldn’t follow it because I was still functioning out of my disbelief that I could. You see, in my conservative upbringing it was a sin for a woman to be in spiritual leadership over a man.
Finally, I joined a denomination (Presbyterian Church USA) that allowed women to be in pastoral leadership, and I overcame my doubts and fears started on the road through seminary to become a pastor. But even then, my troubles were not over. Even though I was now following my call to be a pastor, my journey has been filled with people who said that I can’t. I have heard, “Women have no business being a pastor”, or that “You can’t have a baby while going to seminary”, or that, “While women pastors were ok for some churches, they are certainly not welcome here.”
Currently, I am an Associate Pastor, The Minister of Lifelong Learning at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. God has blessed me with a good congregation and we are doing some wonderful ministry together.
And I know in my heart that when someone says, “Women can’t…” they are simply blind to the fact that God gives lots of talents and gifts to people, and those gifts from God are not in any way limited to one gender or another. Thanks be to God!
3 comments
Karen Fitz La Barge
Hi ladies,
Just an update for you. I am now the solo pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Allegan, Michigan! http://www.fpcallegan.org God is doing some new and amazing things at this church and I am so honored to be a part of it! BTW, if you are looking for an organization that has some great egalitarian bible resources and theological articles about women in ministry check out these folks:
http://www.cbeinternational.org/ They rock!
BTW, Hailey, if you want to connect, I would love to talk to you more about your sense of call. Remember God chose WOMEN to be the first witnesses to the resurrection, even when in their culture their testimony was not admissible in the courts. Oh, and read and study John 4!
hailey george
im a 15 year old girl and my dream is to be a pastor. every
one says “Hailey you cant! your a girl.” your little story
showed me i can. the way i see it is, if you were a TRUE Christian and really wanted to hear the word (thats the whole reason we go to church, right?) you would come no matter who was preaching God’s word. i am going to chase my dream of becoming a pastor (:
gretchen
That was a great story! Kudos to you for realizing that what we think and hear as children isn’t always right. =d>