Half the Vineyard Unharvested: How the Church Withers When Women’s Gifts Are Silenced
Ten of the twenty-six names are women.
In Romans 16, the closing chapter of his theological masterpiece, Paul commends Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, Junia, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, the mother of Rufus, Julia, and the sister of Nereus. As Nijay Gupta notes in Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church, “This is nothing short of astounding… none of Paul’s comments are focused on their domestic duties but on their ‘hard work’ on behalf of the Lord.” [1]
I grew up assuming that was normal. In my suburban Presbyterian church, women served as associate pastors, elders, and choir director. At my women’s college, our motto was “the challenge to excel.” Only decades later – in my 50s – did I realize that many congregations still restrict women from preaching, teaching, or leading. The discovery left me stunned—and grieved.
Why would the church exclude half its members from full participation in God’s mission?
I asked that question years ago, and I can’t believe I’m still having to ask it. When the church limits women’s leadership, it stifles not only their flourishing but the flourishing of the whole body.
Biblical and Theological Foundations for Flourishing
Scripture offers a continuous pattern of God calling and empowering women despite patriarchal norms. Deborah judged Israel, Huldah prophesied to kings, Mary of Bethany learned at Jesus’ feet, and Mary Magdalene proclaimed the Resurrection. Paul’s own ministry thrived through partnership with women like Priscilla and Junia.
Dallas Willard (who was a Southern Baptist pastor before becoming a full-time philosophy professor and scholar) insisted that “there is no suggestion whatsoever in Scripture that the gifts of the Spirit are distributed along gender lines.” [2] To exclude women, he wrote, inflicts an “incalculable loss” on the church. [3] Leadership is not about rights but about obedience to divine gifting.
From Genesis to Paul, flourishing leadership arises when all God’s image-bearers live out their callings. When we silence the voices God has empowered, we do more than ignore Scripture; we impoverish the body of Christ.
Human Flourishing and the Cost of Exclusion
Recent data from the Global Flourishing Study—a collaboration between Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, Baylor University, and Gallup—confirms what theology has long proclaimed: flourishing cannot happen in isolation or at the expense of others. The study identifies six domains of human flourishing—happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial stability—and finds that the deepest well-being is driven by meaning, purpose, community, and faith, not wealth or achievement. [4]
Matthew Lee, one of the project’s researchers, explains, “It’s possible for me to have well-being at the expense of you, but I don’t think it’s possible for me to flourish at the expense of you.” [5] The church, then, cannot claim to flourish when it limits women’s full participation in ministry.
If flourishing requires mutuality, shared purpose, and belonging, then excluding women from leadership violates both empirical evidence and the gospel itself.
In addition, the Human Flourishing Program’s research shows that regular participation in religious community—including leadership engagement—is strongly associated with greater life satisfaction, purpose, and longevity. [6] When women are confined to passive or supportive roles, both their personal meaning and the community’s collective well-being diminish.
A church that silences half its voices deprives itself of joy, creativity, and relational strength. Flourishing, as both research and Scripture agree, depends on the full engagement of every member in God’s work of renewal.
Formation and Flourishing: Morgan’s Model
Anna R. Morgan’s Growing Women in Ministry offers a practical vision for how the church can nurture flourishing for women—and through them, for the whole community. Her model identifies seven interconnected aspects of leadership development: three internal (spiritual calling, leadership cognition, emotional intelligence) and four external (home support, ministry environment, leadership relationships, and communication). [7]
Each domain reflects one of the Human Flourishing Program’s indicators—meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships in particular—showing how personal formation and communal flourishing are intertwined.
Morgan emphasizes that developing women leaders is not a matter of political equity but of spiritual vitality. When women discern and live out their callings, they embody meaning and purpose; when they are mentored and supported within healthy ministry environments, they foster belonging and resilience; when their voices are heard, their communities grow in empathy and moral strength.
As Dallas Willard wrote, spiritual gifts create obligations—responsibilities derived from divine design. [8] To ignore those gifts is to defy the Spirit’s intent. Supporting women’s leadership, therefore, is a formation practice: it aligns human potential with divine purpose.
When the church invests in women’s development—through mentoring networks, inclusive leadership teams, and environments of trust—it fulfills both theological and psychological criteria for flourishing. Morgan’s model, Willard’s theology, Gupta’s examples, and the Harvard research converge on a single truth: flourishing multiplies when every believer’s gifts are honored and exercised.
The Church That Flourishes Together
True flourishing cannot be one-sided. As the Global Flourishing Study reminds us, well-being that comes at another’s expense is not flourishing at all. When the church limits women’s leadership, it diminishes its own spiritual vitality and silences part of the image of God meant to be expressed through His people.
Anna Morgan’s model, Nijay Gupta’s recovery of the women who “worked hard in the Lord,” and Dallas Willard’s conviction that gifts are given without regard to gender all reveal a consistent truth: the Spirit distributes calling for the good of the whole body, not for the protection of tradition or ego.
A flourishing church is one in which every believer’s purpose and voice contribute to the life of the community. When women are free to lead, teach, and serve as God calls, the entire body of Christ becomes more whole, more loving, and more alive—a living testimony to the God who delights in mutual flourishing and in whose image we are all created.
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- Nijay K. Gupta, Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2023), 4.
- Dallas Willard, “The Roles of Women in Ministry Leadership,” in How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership, ed. James Beck and Stanley J. Grenz (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 422.
- Willard, 423.
- “The Global Flourishing Study,” Harvard Human Flourishing Program, 2025, https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/measuring-flourishing.
- Bella DePaulo, “Human Flourishing in Unprecedented Times,” Psychology Today, March 8, 2023, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-effect/202303/human-flourishing-in-unprecedented-times#:~:text=Human%20flourishing%20can%20be%20defined,individuals%20as%20well%20as%20communities.
- Tyler J. VanderWeele, “Religious Communities and Human Flourishing,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 26, no. 5 (2017): 476–81, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417721526.
- Anna R. Morgan, Growing Women in Ministry: Seven Aspects of Leadership Development (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2024), 31.
- Willard, “The Roles of Women in Ministry Leadership,” 422.
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On a personal note, we have three young adult children, plus a daughter-in-law, who are all looking for churches that support and develop anyone into spiritual leadership who is called to it. Unfortunately, too often, the churches that exclude women from leadership are the kind they are otherwise looking for: larger, more active churches with many young people and families.
Our children all want to grow in discipleship and in knowing and loving God, but in the churches of exclusion, our daughter and daughter-in-law do not feel welcome, and our son doesn’t want his daughters to be stifled. (Our other son is in Seattle, attending a welcoming Episcopal church.)
I pray for the day when ALL are truly welcome to explore their callings and giftings, for their own well-being and for the flourishing of the body of Christ and our communities.
Additional note: I’m coming back to this post because I spoke with my husband about it. He latched onto my story about how dramatically several women ministry leaders – pastors and others – have deeply and profoundly affected my spiritual growth and development. If it weren’t for them, I would not be able to share the ripple effects of their guidance and wisdom with others. And if not for these women pouring into me, how many others have I mentored, discipled, taught, and influenced, who would be poorer in their relationship with God? This isn’t a reflection on me; it’s a reflection of the grace of God who can do much with cracked vessels!
My husband was thinking especially about our two little granddaughters who are attending a complementarian church – only reluctantly, because our son and his wife feel like they have so few options – and he’s concerned that they won’t have women ministry role models, teachers, preachers, and leaders in their lives who could also influence them, and by extension, many others throughout their lives.
We cannot say “No” when the Holy Spirit calls us into leadership, and we equally defy the Spirit when we discourage other people the Spirit has called. Discouraging and prohibiting women from ministry leadership is, I believe, a significant part of the reason why our country is suffering from ethical decline, moral deterioration, and erosion of values. People are inherently human, so in communities that prioritize the tough self-confidence associated with rugged individualism—a trait that has dominated our culture and media for decades—male leaders may be significantly influenced by this mindset. However, if this approach is not balanced with empathy and compassion for everyone, these leaders risk falling prey to its more negative aspects and, therefore, being ill-equipped to incarnate, preach, and teach empathy and compassion for others.
We desperately need to focus on empathy, compassion, and lifting up ALL the people who live in the margins of society, just as Jesus did. Who is best equipped – on average – to do that? Research offers some statistics.
Not that men can’t show and teach empathy and compassion. They can, and many do. And there are certainly specific women leaders in the US who are clearly and publicly NOT showing empathy and compassion. But a 2022 Pew Research Center study found that women were much more likely than men to report feeling sad for those suffering (71% vs. 53%) and to have a desire to help (46% vs. 34%). Research also finds that women in many countries score higher, on average, in cognitive empathy, or the ability to understand another’s perspective.
By following Jesus’ example in his honoring and calling of women, our churches need to do their part to change society by changing the script. I believe that begins by, as Morgan wrote, honoring and developing women for leadership roles in the church.
About the Author
Debbie Owen
Deborah C. Owen is an experienced spiritual director, Neuro-based Enneagram executive and life coach, disciple maker, professional writer, senior librarian, and long-time church Music Director and lay leader. She has earned the award of National Board Certification for teaching excellence, and a podcasting award, and is pursuing a Doctor of Leadership degree through Portland Seminary at George Fox University. She lives in the backwoods of Maine with her husband and flat-coated retriever. She spends as much time as she can with their 3 grown children, daughter-in-law, and 2 small grandchildren. Find her online at InsideOutMinistries.info.12 responses to “Half the Vineyard Unharvested: How the Church Withers When Women’s Gifts Are Silenced”
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Thank you Debbie. Amazing as ever. You mentioned your grief at realising many churches still restrict women. What has helped you sustain hope and faith through that tension?
“You mentioned your grief at realising many churches still restrict women. What has helped you sustain hope and faith through that tension?”
Thanks for the question, Glyn. Because I know I’m not called to pastoral ministry, it’s not something I’ve had to deal with personally. But I’ve been led by multiple, truly Spirit-inspired women pastors. I can’t imagine my life today without their direct impact and influence. In fact, if it weren’t for a couple of them specifically, I wouldn’t be here.
So that says to me that the ripple effects of an open-arms policy of discerning, supporting, developing, and sustaining Spirit-inspired leadership, in whatever human guise it comes, is essential to the flourishing of the Church as a whole. Imagine if I weren’t in this class? (Maybe some people here wish I weren’t! Lol!) And imagine the people whom I’ve been invited to disciple and mentor over the years. None of that would have been possible if it hadn’t been for the women pastors and ministry leaders who have profoundly changed MY life. By the grace of God, I’ve been able to pass on at least some of that.
And I haven’t answered your question. I am extremely concerned that — OK, I’ll wade into dangerous waters here — if there weren’t so many male-led churches in the US we might not be as MAGA-fied as we are right now. I could be totally wrong on that. But I wonder, by silencing half the potential leaders in much of the US church, has that contributed to the lack of empathy, compassion, and humility to which we are ALL called? How much impact has the “Marlboro Man” mindset had on the US church’s ability to empathize with and minister to “the least of these”?
My hope is in the Lord alone. Because we are making a mess of it every time we focus on ourselves and not on Christ and especially not on others.
Thank you for your post Debbie,
How can churches practically assess whether their ministry environments are truly fostering the kind of flourishing Anna Morgan describes, especially in terms of emotional intelligence and leadership relationships?
“How can churches practically assess whether their ministry environments are truly fostering the kind of flourishing Anna Morgan describes, especially in terms of emotional intelligence and leadership relationships?”
Shela, there are multiple, evidence-based assessments available that would easily give churches immediate feedback. There’s a burnout assessment, a flourishing assessment, and others. That’s a great start to determining first, how someone is doing. Then that leads to discussions about what can be improved.
Debbie, great blog. I can only imagine how grieved you were when you found out that women in many churches don’t have the opportunity to lead. From your experience, what practices help us discern and celebrate the Spirit’s call in one another, regardless of gender?”
“From your experience, what practices help us discern and celebrate the Spirit’s call in one another, regardless of gender?”
Graham, in my experience – as you asked – it requires spiritual discernment, ideally in an accompanied way. This could be ongoing spiritual direction meetings; a trusted friend and/or advisor/mentor; a small group discernment event pulled together specifically for that purpose (I believe Quakers have a protocol for this). There are a million books written about discernment. Most of them come down to a few key elements:
1 – you can’t shake off the notion, even if you try
2 – you likely feel inadequate to the task
3 – others sense your gifting and tell you
4 – you engage in private prayer and study of God’s word, through which the message keeps coming to you over and over.
It’s not, as some might think, a decision made lightly or to make someone else happy (parents or a professor, for instance). It may hit like lightning, or it may grow more intense over time. But the discernment process is usually pretty much the same for any major decision. But I know you know that. 🙂
Thank you for this post, Debbie. As you continue to build your life coaching and spiritual direction ministries, do you see yourself primarily focusing on women, or is it more universal?
“As you continue to build your life coaching and spiritual direction ministries, do you see yourself primarily focusing on women, or is it more universal?”
Good question Diane. So far, my private clients and directees have been all women, though I don’t advertise it that way (I’ve been coaching some couples though, so there are a few men that way).
My doctoral project has both men and women. I’m delighted to work with whomever the Lord places in my path.
Dr. Owen,
Thank you for this affirming post. I am one of the women who worshiped and worked in these restrictive environments, and I have to admit that I am still healing from the experience. I know you engage with a wide range of literature—do you happen to have any recommendations on writings that explore healing from church hurt or how individuals have found ways to move forward despite what was done to them?
Sorry, I missed hitting “reply” properly. Here’s my reply: https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/half-the-vineyard-unharvested-how-the-church-withers-when-womens-gifts-are-silenced/comment-page-1/#comment-222811
“…do you happen to have any recommendations on writings that explore healing from church hurt or how individuals have found ways to move forward despite what was done to them?”
Elysse, I am truly and deeply sorry for the hurt you’ve experienced by well-meaning (but in my mind and theology, mis-guided) church leaders. I am grateful that you have hung on, stayed with your calling, and trusted in God to carry you through. No one should have to deny the Spirit’s call on our hearts. Who would knowingly say “no!” to the Creator of the universe, and the One who created and loves and knows each one of us so intimately! I can’t imagine it!
It’s not directly related, but the Renovare Institute has been dealing with church hurt issues recently. This page may be helpful to you: https://renovare.org/events/healing-church-wounds
And I’m sure there’s a lot more out there. God bless you, my friend, and know that the Lord is accompanying you every step of this journey!
Hi, Debbie, thank you for your post, it is very interesting and informative. As your title stated, leadership is a vocation that does not regard gender. It is how we think that affected what we believe and what we practice. Thank you, Debbie.