what i'm reading...

i recently started reading/rereading "Gifted to Lead: The Art of Leading as a Woman in the Church" by Nancy Beach.  i received this book last year from dave and kimberly, my awesome summer missionary supervisor and his wife from when i was in california in 2007.  before i get too far into what i am learning from reading this book, let me say that as a women in the ministry, i believe that God does call women to the be in the ministry, in all types of ministry.  while i'm still not 100% sure about how i feel about women being lead pastors, i do believe that God calls women to lead in the church and not just in positions that are traditionally seen as a "women's place in the church", i.e. children's ministry.  with that being said, know that i am not some crazy feminist who thinks i deserve special treatment as a woman in the ministry.  i am simply a woman who has been called to work in the church and i'm trying to figure out what that looks like and how that works with the way God has created me...

i am not very far into the book (chapter 3 to be exact), but here are some of the things i'm learning...

-God didn't make a mistake when He gave me leadership gifts and when He called me to work in the church.  while it's not always going to be easy to carve out a place for myself in a mostly male-dominated arena of work, it wasn't a mistake that i was called to do this work.

-humility and self-confidence go hand in hand in leadership.  humility is not letting people walk all over us, rather it is having the proper view of one's self in relationship to the sovereignty of God.  God expects us to lead with diligence and boldness and He wants us to be confident in who He created us to be.  nancy writes "Even if we find ourselves in settings in which people are unaccustomed to women displaying confidence, we must not hold back our efforts to manage the tensions between boldness and grace, assertiveness and collaboration, strength and vulnerability."  so very true!

as a women in the ministry, i want to represent my gender well, to inform the world that women are as capable of working in the ministry men but i know that i must be careful not to appear too "over the top" because i don't want to drive people away.  we all dislike being around those kind of people.  it's a difficult balance to strike, but i know that it will come.  my hope is that God will use this book to continue to teach me how to do this.