Empowering young women through holistic teaching and learning

By Beth Martin Birky, professor of English and women's studies

As an English and Women's Studies professor at Goshen College, I encounter Mennonite young women at an important stage in their leadership development. In my classroom and my office, through campus activities and worship, and over a cup of coffee, I meet amazing young women who are committed Christians and active leaders in our campus community.

Many young Mennonite women bring to our campus gifts that have been nurtured by supportive Mennonite congregations. Like my own experience at Orrville Mennonite Church in the 1970s, their contributions – from playing piano to teaching Sunday school classes – were encouraged and their leadership praised. You probably see similar active teenage women leaders in your own congregations.

Within Mennonite Church USA today, according to the Women in Leadership Audit, an increasing number of women participate in congregational ministry and on boards of Mennonite institutions. However, most top-level institutional positions continue to be held by men. As we consider that report, we might wonder what happens to those young Mennonite women as they journey from high school to college and back into our congregations and Mennonite institutions.

The reasons for women's hesitance to lead in any setting are complex, and fortunately, leadership research has begun to consider the role of gender in leadership development, styles and success. But leadership models (and our cultural expectations for leadership style) are still male-dominated. Women in U.S. society have made amazing strides toward greater social, political, economic and personal equality with men in the last 40 years, but clearly women's leadership still lags behind men's.

For example, women constitute less than one fifth of the U.S. Congress. That is slightly less than the number of actively serving women pastors in the Mennonite church. Women of color see even fewer role models for women's leadership. Somehow, MC USA will need to actively pursue ways to nurture women leaders if we want the face of our denominational leadership to reflect the make up of our congregations.

At Goshen College, I see some very positive trends, one that suggests our Mennonite college campuses are supportive places for female students to explore their call to ministry. In the classroom, female students encounter ideas and faculty who live and teach from the perspective of gender equality and God's vision for us as a divine creation. Outside the classroom, Goshen College, like many Mennonite colleges and universities, offers young women of all faith backgrounds opportunities to learn, practice and explore their call to ministry.

My thanks to Bob Yoder, Goshen College campus pastor, for his help with gathering some of the following co-curricular information and reflecting with me on the importance of nurturing women leaders for service in the Mennonite church.

Influence of a college curriculum
The majority of Goshen College's Women's Studies classes encourage our female and male students to explore their gendered identity and their faith. The academic discipline called Women's Studies, which only emerged in the 1970s, has been a secular one. Although women theologians and religious scholars have made significant contributions to the Women's Studies discipline, the relationship of faith and feminism has often been a contentious one. At Goshen College, we are not immune to those tensions; in fact, some might say the tensions are even greater on a Christian campus.

Issues of equality and faith have been integrated into our Women's Studies courses since the first Women's Studies History and Social Science classes were offered in 1977. The subject is directly addressed in Bible and Religion courses like "Religion and Sexuality," "Spiritual Writings of Women" and "Women in the Bible." Since 2000, many Bible and Religion courses, like "Gender and Race in the Bible," have the influence of intersecting forces, such as race and class, on women's lives.

Even when taught outside of the Bible and Religion department, Goshen College Women's Studies courses are faith-infused courses concerned with students' spiritual as well as intellectual development. Through their courses, their own faith stories, and their mentoring, many faculty empower students to examine their place as men and women in the broader Christian church and in the Mennonite church in particular.

Exploration through co-curricular opportunities
Just as our curriculum informs students' exploration of gender, leadership and faith, Goshen College Campus Ministries supports student exploration of ministry as a vocation. In the past few years, over half of the students exploring ministry opportunities are women. The most notable opportunities are the Camping, Service, and Ministry Inquiry programs, which help students experience church leadership in a camp, a faith-based service agency, or a Mennonite congregation.

In these programs, female students make up around half of Camping and Ministry Inquiry programs and almost three fourths of those doing Service Inquiry. While the Camping and Service Inquiry programs are unique to Goshen College, Ministry Inquiry is a denominational program begun in 1988 for all the Mennonite colleges and universities.

Another opportunity, the Ministry Leader program, pairs students with dorm floor Resident Assistants to create a welcoming spiritual atmosphere and care for the emotional and spiritual needs of their peers. In the 2010-2011 school year, 66 percent (10/15) Ministry Leaders are women, matching the gender distribution of the dorms.

Each year, Campus Ministries and the Bible/Religion department invite equal numbers of women and men students to the fall Missions Banquet and Spring Vocations Banquet (co-sponsored with AMBS). For the past two conventions Goshen College has also financially supported students to attend Mennonite Church USA bi-annual delegate convention, with 16 of the 20 being female.

Goshen College women students find other ways to lead. Some are active in campus clubs, campus worship, and small groups. The Music Department's World Women's Choir encourages students to explore their role in the global community of women by sharing the powerful testimony of women's experience through music.

One student's story
In presentations last September and this January, Bob and I have invited student Emily Graber (Red Hill, Pennsylvania) to share her exploration of faith and gender identity, and her relationship to the Mennonite church. While I won't attempt to retell Emily's story here, I will note that her interest in ministry stretches back to two nurturing parents who were pastors, active involvement in several congregations and a Mennonite High School, and a seminary program called !Explore.

Emily has reflected on specific Goshen College courses that opened her eyes to God's working through diverse facets of society and the church as she completed her double major in English and Peace/Justice/Conflict Studies. While valuing her experience as a Ministry Leader, doing Ministry Inquiry, and participating in multiple clubs, Emily values the mentoring of Goshen College faculty who helped her explore her role in the Mennonite church.

Calling Women Leaders
Learning, doing, relating—Goshen College weaves a web of discovery as well as a net of support for students at a very critical point in their faith development and in their relationship to the church. I hope that the larger Mennonite Church USA recognizes the importance of Mennonite colleges and universities in contributing to women's leadership development, even as they impart knowledge, skills, and values through liberal arts programs. I also hope that individual congregations within MC USA consider their role in calling women to church leadership. Here are just a few ideas.

Learning: Offer educational opportunities (speakers, book study, small group discussion) around gender identity in Christian community. Provide input on gender, leadership, and ministry issues in a supportive, reflective, and prayerful context. Encourage people to look at their individual life experiences as women and men, as well as at the social structures that influence how we live out gender norms.

Doing: Plan activities with an intentional awareness of gender equality in leadership roles. You might plan new events that encourage women's leadership, or you might re-evaluate existing congregational or community events for their accessibility to and encouragement of female participation.

Relating: Nurture relationships with potential women leaders in your congregations. Provide space for questions, listening, affirmation and support. Ask women for their stories, and be willing to share your story.

Achieving greater gender equality in our denominational leadership will be a complicated process but one full of rich opportunities to nurture women and men in new ways. Jesus calls us to "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'[b]Ó (NIV Luke 10:27).

Heart, soul, strength, and mind suggest an embodied faith tied to our experience as women and men created by God. Goshen College—like all the Mennonite colleges and universities—can play an important role in calling women and men to serve God in ways that honor our diversity and the unique gifts God has given us.

This piece first appeared in the March 2011 issue of Equipping, a resource provided by Mennonite Church USA for church leaders.