the return of the lydia phase
Still digesting the women in leadership essay - this is a good bit too:
The post-modern Church looks for small group experiences, for mission projects close at home, for leadership that dresses in casual clothes and knows how to build teams rather than committees. The second-reformation churches are less inclined to send dollars to a distant, convention headquarters building, which they have never even seen, and to programs which do not respond to their needs. The Church is changing.
While top-heavy denominational structures and large, mega-church corporations must wrestle with these new challenges by slicing budgets, reformatting programs, and closing old projects, women must be aware that, like Esther, we are here “for such a time as this.” This second reformation will actually be a time when women can finally come home. The future direction of the Church may not be that different than the conditions of its early beginnings, when the “Lydia phase” was in full flower. The conditions are right for women’s inclusion in the Church. The Church of the future will be much like the early Church of the past. The faith will be less corporately structured and oriented more along the lines of the family. Just as women contributed much to this environment in the first century, women, likewise, will be the future leaders of the Church in the next century. The second half of this article attempts to describe women’s style of leading and the appropriateness of such a leader for the second-reformation Church.
February 14th, 2004 at 9:28 am
I think women have largely gotten a bum rap throughout the long history of the church. And, think about it, in most cases it is the women who hold families together spiritually. They are the catalyst that prod their children and husbands to attend services.
February 14th, 2004 at 10:47 am
I would agree that women have had a bum rap over the centuries, although that has nothing to do with leadership. However I think the second part of your statement IS evidence as to why women are coming to the fore in leadership. God will use people that are ready, willing and available. If men need to be driven to church then they are hardly fit for any kind of leadership role.