On the Importance of Developing Women Leaders in the Church

Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

Three weeks ago, Ligon Duncan, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), posted a short video on social media celebrating a batch of new students at an orientation lunch. Quickly, comments began rolling in as some of Duncan’s audience took a critical stance toward what they observed.

RTS is a seminary that seeks “to serve the church in all branches of evangelical Christianity, … by preparing its leaders, with a priority on pastors, and including missionaries, educators, counselors, and others through a program of theological education on the graduate level, based upon the authority of the inerrant Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Bible …” 

RTS and other healthy seminaries are eager to train the next generation of leaders within the church—both men and women. Yet, the comments that flooded Duncan’s original post found an issue with the number of women attending that orientation lunch.

Among them, I read things like:

“Is RTS drifting toward egalitarianism?”
“These must be the wives of seminary students, right?!”
“Don’t these women know they’re not allowed to hold authority in the church?”
“Is there no more sacred place left for men—now we must share the seminary too?”

These comments are jarring. I’ve heard people say the internet is a wild place—and they ain’t wrong.

I know the social media scene isn’t a perfect microcosm of real life (for a host of reasons), but even a small handful of comments like these should be enough to sadden us—especially if Christians pen them.

Training Women for the Church

Ligon Duncan’s now-viral video, and the social commentary surrounding it, is just one example of the discussion still unsettled in the church today. Reasonably, we will continue to see the wake of the modernist movement play out. With it, gender roles in the church will garner much attention and will warrant much clarification. Recently, the 2024 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, also known as the Great Commission Baptists, took place in Indianapolis. It seemed that the question of women serving as pastors rose to the forefront there as well, and we’ll need to discuss it in an ongoing way in the future.

Churches must clarify their interpretation of Scripture whenever possible. But this is where we encounter the present disagreements.

Here’s where Ligon Duncan’s video comes in: Some oppose the idea of women being trained to serve churches in ministry. On the other hand, some champion women serving as pastors.

While some seminaries may aim to produce female pastors, institutions like RTS (and my own SEBTS) do not have this in mind. These schools welcome women to learn and train, knowing that the kingdom needs sharpened women, too. The kingdom, in fact, needs women who aren’t just thriving as disciples but are also helping to lead disciples.

For what it’s worth, from my reading of the Bible, it’s pretty clear that God calls for some men in each church to serve as pastors—leading and shepherding by handling the Word.

Most churches will have women who are very clearly gifted as teachers and leaders, but we understand that the Holy Spirit only assigns the highest burden of spiritual leadership to a few men. In other words, I’m thoroughly and convictionally complementarian.

It seems that on one side of the spectrum, there is a cohort of Christians who want to appoint women to the pastorate, and on the other, there are some who want women to remain silent and unengaged listeners.

What about the middle of the spectrum, where we acknowledge that God calls only men to be pastors but also understand that women are vital for ministry? How are we grading in that space?

In my observation, we still have work to do.

The Present Problem

Malcolm Gladwell describes the difference between basketball and soccer as follows: Basketball teams are usually as good as their best player. The way the game works, except for at the absolute highest level of competition, the top players can usually carry their teams to victory. In soccer, however, teams are typically as good as their weakest player. More charitably, the strength of the soccer squad depends on the players working together more cohesively, and the relative skill gap between the “top player” and the “least top player” should be as narrow as possible.

The way evangelical churches approach leadership development increasingly resembles a basketball team from Gladwell’s model. But I’m more and more convinced this isn’t helpful.

We dedicate the most tools and programs and conferences to equip the top dogs. In many congregations, even members expect their church’s success to rise and fall on the senior pastor. Salvations, baptisms, and bountiful offering baskets are attributed to him.

No doubt, God uses pastors as dynamic components in thriving churches. I don’t want to suggest we “defund” our pastoral training efforts. But, do we see a healthy expression of “equipping the saints for the work of ministry” according to Ephesians 4:11-13?

Paul’s encouragement sounds more like Gladwell’s soccer approach to me.

Many approach church health by focusing on leadership. Countless blog articles have been posted, and an increasing number of books are being published. Aspiring college and seminary students can even choose to pursue degree programs in “Christian Leadership,” with an array of targeted courses aimed at the development, task, and responsibility of leadership within the kingdom of God.

And this is a good thing.

Just before he ascended, the Lord Jesus gave his disciples a simple but comprehensive command: to multiply.

 Certainly, Christianity is a movement of worship (the Three in One) and confession (grace alone/faith alone/Christ alone). But in its execution—its commissioning—Christianity is disciple-making.

Pastors are right to remind their congregations that Christianity and the Great Commission aren’t limited to a brief gathered expression on Sunday mornings. On the contrary, we all live out our calling in the 98% of daily life—out there in the wild.

At the same time, we get ready for life in the wild from the safety of the family table. In regular fellowship encounters, we have conversations that nurture, heal, instruct, empower, and resource for greater effectiveness as disciples of Jesus in a broken world.

And while disciple-making doesn’t require leaders, per se, God has seen fit to bless the church with leaders to catalyze the mission of disciples and to strengthen the church for the mission.

Of course, leadership can manifest in two ways—and should. Churches will appoint some to leadership positions, and some will lead by example without needing to be asked.

In addition to the roles of pastor and deacon, many churches will have the resources to appoint (and hire) leaders to help steer various ministry efforts and care for the church’s members. There are also small group leaders, volunteer coordinators, and committee chairpersons. The list goes on. These are identified leaders in the congregation, and churches need these people.

 On the other hand, a healthy church will also likely have a large batch of members who lead by example and do so without a title. The church needs both kinds of leaders.

We’ve already established the biblical qualification of male eldership (pastorate), and for the sake of time, we’ll table deacon qualifications for another day. It’s in the space remaining that I’d like to focus our attention.

It’s my observation that most churches are under-equipping their women as leaders.

For some, this is due to an over-cautious approach to complementarianism. Perhaps the fear is that cultural influence will lead churches to compromise on the Bible, and the next step is female pastors.

But we mustn’t confuse the matter. Championing women comes from the Bible itself. The world doesn’t get to claim ownership over this pulse. The Old and New Testaments are each filled with examples of women being valued in ways contrary to society's ideals and utilized by God for kingdom service. Jesus himself went out of his way to highlight the equal inclusion of women in his discipleship ranks.

While the problem may be theological for some, I actually think it’s practical for most.

More often than not, we under-equip our women because we are more accustomed to building basketball teams than soccer teams.

We put all of our energy into raising men—because the men are the talent pool for the pastorate. The narrow pool is biblical (i.e. only men), but I’m not sure that our track record of energy distribution is.

I fear that when we focus all our efforts on raising up men, we neglect the vital leadership development of women. Again, we’re talking about half of the discipleship force of Jesus here (see Matthew 28, Acts 1-2, Romans 16, Ephesians 4, Titus 2).¹

As a pastor, I’m part of a team charged with caring for the souls of both males and females. That responsibility is clearly established. Yet, some of our pastors’ most significant allies are trusted and mature women who can assist with caring for the sisters in our church.

Most women are more able to trust other women. Most women will have a more natural gentleness and empathetic understanding of the plight of women. Men can relate to women in many things, but we simply can’t experience all that womanhood entails. Our pastors need our sisters to help us.

If we want to see the whole church mobilized as evangelists, mentors, caretakers, counselors, encouragers, rebukers, etc., we’ve got to be more diligent about training and equipping women as leaders.

How might we do this?

Healthy churches have layers of leadership filled with disciple-makers who lead by example. As we see in fantastic seminary institutions like RTS and SEBTS, our equipping outlets within the church should be diverse.

If we want to grow, we’ve got to take steps to change, and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers. My brother-pastors and I likely aren’t going to bat a thousand on this, but we’re committed to growing, and we are not content to settle for the status quo.

How can most churches develop women leaders? Let’s start with simplicity.

Just ask the question, “What are you already doing to cultivate leaders, in general?”

Unless those expressions are explicitly earmarked for pastoral training, women can easily be included—and not just included but explicitly invited. Our public heartbeat for training and equipping should make it obvious that women belong in leadership development spaces.

Note also that so much equipping takes place “off the books.” This can look like asking a woman to lead a prayer, inviting her to share input or insights in a Bible study, seeking wise women to help discern big decisions, and championing women to lead components of a worship service.

“Ministry” is not just preaching or wielding authority. Yes, more men are needed to step up to serve the church in the pulpit but the primary aim of Jesus’ call to ministry is basic disciple multiplication.

Today, significant ministry manifests in counseling, life guidance, and helping to clarify the Christian worldview. Women are desperately needed to help in these arenas. Maybe we can survive if we invest everything in a group of leading brothers to set the example for the flock, but we’ll always be lacking if we don’t also have a continuous force of female mentors ready and willing to serve.

Finally, leadership development is often the result of leadership deployment. Our church staff is privy to the most intense leadership development just by being in the thick of ministry all the time. For churches that have the means, prioritizing women on staff teams goes a long way in developing generations of female leadership in the church.

A vision for the next generation

I’m growing more aware that my children need direct instruction and a steady diet of demonstration—of healthy examples. My kids can’t merely know that I read my Bible. They need to see it.

This relates to the life of the church as well.

I hope my son will model his life after the brothers and sisters he sees following Jesus. I also hope my daughter will take her cues from godly men and women in our circles. The Lord may develop my kids into future leaders, yet He might not. But even if they don’t become leaders, they’ll only grow as disciples as they sit under the influence of healthy leaders.

When I think about my daughter, in particular, I’m reminded that my church needs women leaders. She needs to see a sister on stage celebrating the gospel. She needs to see women praying. She needs the feminine example of courage, boldness, and conviction. She needs an older sister to demonstrate that she has belonging and significance in this sacred space we call church.

We need female leaders. Let’s be faithful to cultivate them.

1. This is not to suggest that women are the “weak” link in Gladwell’s model, but rather the more historically overlooked demographic in churches–those never seen as the “star players.”