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        From the very beginning, God made known His precision in hand-crafting the woman, a creation after His own heart, His very image in human flesh (Gen. 1:27). He breathed into her the sweet spirit of gentleness, vulnerability, assertiveness, ambition, and empathy. He equipped her with the vision and tactfulness necessary to lead, while still gracing her with the tenderness to birth and nurture another soul. God looked upon His careful design of a woman and said, “It is good” (Gen. 1:31).
        The prominent role of women in the early development of the Christian church is often overlooked and overshadowed by the contributions of male figures. Scholar Karen L. King offers a “truer portrait” of Mary Magdelene, for example, whose reputation is primarily rooted in prostitution. In contrast, King suggests literature that portrays Mary as a prophetic visionary and leader of the early church, following the death of Jesus Christ (King, 2017). In the Gospel of John, the risen Christ commands Mary to be the first to announce His resurrection, and while she is not typically referred to as an apostle, Mary was given this role by Christ, Himself, when He calls her to share the good news with the other apostles (John 20:11-18). This is, undoubtedly, a high calling.
        Katherine von Bora, yet another key influencer for what we often call “women’s ministry” was a woman who reshaped the role of women in society (Aucoin, 2018). A few years after Martin Luther had published his “95 Theses,” Katherine and ten other nuns concluded that God had a purpose for women beyond the monastic life and devised an escape from the convent. Without the support of their families, the women wrote to Luther for help, and on Easter of 1523, they were hidden in a merchant’s wagon and taken from the convent, for good. While this may seem like a triumphant escape story, one must recognize the magnitude of social shame Katherine and the nuns risked in boldly defying societal standards of women in ministry. Luther later wed Katherine, and her approach to family life set a standard for future decades. Katherine proved that life not only as a woman, but as a wife and mother, are “just as much a discipline of grace and means of sanctification” as life in a monastery.
        I recently had a conversation with a close guy friend who mentioned the ways in which God’s image is expressed through women and men. He shared that there is a different sense, a freshness, experienced amongst the women in his life; that women “just smile more” and embrace a unique freedom of expression often neglected by men, who can be more “emotionally reserved.” My friend’s comments suggest that maybe the Adventist church suffers from a lack of a woman’s perspective, her freshness. I posed this point to a mentor and friend, Pastor Jannel Monroe. Similarly, Monroe pointed out the lack of perspective and variance amongst the woman experience in church leadership positions, for instance, the experience of a white woman versus a woman of color, or that of a middle-class woman versus a poor woman. Inviting various perspectives to the table, Monroe says, would greatly inform how the church leads, as well as how we reach and cater to people. It simply takes the desire to listen.
        Interestingly, however, Pastor Monroe also believes that if one is not careful, this idea of women displaying such different parts of God’s character can serve as a limiting mindset. She said that it is often through this belief that women have been denied a seat ‘at the table,’ where their so-called ‘differences’ have rendered them inadequate in the eyes of the church. Rather, Monroe shared that it is not so much that women should add something so spectacularly different, but rather, the issue lies in who is allowed to obtain certain leadership positions, at all.
        In hopes of gaining even more perspective into the Christian woman’s experience, I asked a fellow student and woman in Christ how her Christianity manifests itself in her life…
“To me, being a woman connected to God means that I am merely a vessel for God to show tangible evidence of His love to everyone I interact with. My relationship with God became a lot more personal once I realized that, ultimately, He wants to show His beautiful, perfect, comforting love to this broken world and that He wants to fill me with His love so that everyone around me can experience it through every single one of my words and actions. He wants to fill me so much that it transforms my character into a character of love that can be felt simply just by eye contact or my presence in a room. He wants the atmosphere and space around me to have an overwhelming sense of His pure love.”
       To the woman reading this, know that while you may often be denied the space to provide valuable perspective, that while you may not be singled out for your contributions like Katherine von Bora, you are, nonetheless, reshaping culture for God’s glory. Your strong-mindedness, integrity, compassion, independence, wisdom, and eloquent communication are vital for the growth of God’s kingdom and for humanity, as a whole. Embrace how God leads through you. Lean into the connection between your femininity and being made in His image.

References

Aucoin, A. (2018). 5 Christian Women Who Have Shaped Culture. Intersect.

King, K. L. (2014). Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries. PBS.