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<\/a><\/p>\nWhen I picked up\u00a0Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice\u00a0<\/em>edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Kjurana I will admit I had some fear thinking about how big the book looked. That was before South Africa and learning through our readings this semester this very important lesson, I will not be able to fully read every book we are assigned in our program.\u00a0 This brought a huge sense of relief to me, I was worried going into this program that I would have to make decisions on cutting down my ministry responsibilities so I could concentrate on all the reading required for my Dmin journey.\u00a0 Happily that has not been the case, I have been able to work through keeping up with both, not that has not been some moments of panic, but I have worked through those times.<\/p>\n This being the case I chose to focus on one area in our book for this week.\u00a0 The first was the chapter by Robin J. Ely and Deborah L. Rhode, Women and Leadership: Defining the Challenges.\u00a0 Most people who know me would find my time spent on this chapter curious.\u00a0 I have a wife who has dealt with many of the issues discussed within this chapter. She has been called a Nazi for making people actually work, been called many other names I will not grace this page with. She has had men come on to her that were both subordinates and superiors, and had to talk me out of going to have “talks” with these men. I may not be a woman who has had to deal with the issues discussed but I have seen its results. It has always been my opinion that women generally make better bosses. I am not sure where this comes from but there it is. One of the statements made by the authors “Until the home becomes and equal opportunity employer, women will pay the price in the world outside it” [1] struck home with me. My mother instilled a sense of it was everyone’s duty to help around the house.\u00a0 It was because she also was a working single mother. I have been married since 1991 and my wife and I have always shared all of the duties.\u00a0 Whither it was inside cleaning or outside earning we have always strived to share the load. She does not hold it against me when I have gone on trips for two or more weeks for work, nor have I. It was just an accepted part of the relationship.<\/p>\n So you may ask, how does this apply to my dissertation problem. Well, if my problem is getting the church out of its mindset of self centered that is a leadership problem. I know most in my denomination do not see most women as eligible to serve in a leadership position other than children’s ministry, youth ministry (sometimes), and missions (again sometimes).\u00a0 The verse given to justify is always the same, 1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man: rather, she is to remain quiet.[2]\u00a0 I have come to believe that Paul was speaking to a specific situation. Women in the Ancient Near East were not seen as having the same value as men. Jesus came along and made some radical changes, there were women always traveling and ministering with Jesus. Paul writes to us in Romans and Philippians to remember the women who were working along side him, Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians and Phoebe, Priscilla, and Mary in Romans, describing them as fellow workers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this seems to be at odds with what he wrote to Timothy. One possibility for the difference could be this\u00a0“women in Ephesus at this time were uneducated and secluded, Paul was warning that they could be misled by the false teachers trying to lure new Christians away from the church Paul wanted to establish. Those circumstances don’t necessarily exist today, because many women, when trained, have gifts that can bring blessing to both men and women.” [3] If this is the case, then this would allow women who are properly educated and trained to be a leader in a church other than what was discussed above. I would argue this is a possibility, especially in light of Paul’s writing in Galatians 3:28 which states “There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”[4]\u00a0 All of this to say, the church needs as many leaders working to reach the lost as possible, who am I to say you cannot work.\u00a0 It would be akin to telling an African American, you cannot preach in the church where I serve, this was the case for many years in the United States, now I know of no churches or pastors who would say this would be a good thing. I know there are some in my denomination who would condemn me for writing this but, so be it.<\/p>\n There are many issues confronting the church today. In my opinion, we should look for as many good leaders as we can, no matter their gender or race. There are too many other issues facing the church today, to focus on something that could be bad theology.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]Ely, Robin J., and Deborah L. Rhode.\u00a0Handbook of leadership theory and practice an HBS centennial colloquium on advancing leadership<\/i>. Edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Boston, MA: Harvard Business press, 2010. 382.<\/p>\n [2] 1st Timothy 2:12, ESV.<\/p>\n [3] Briscoe, Jill. “Does the Bible Really Say I Can’t Teach Men?” WomenLeaders.com | Women Called to Ministry. Accessed December 07, 2017. https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/women-leaders\/2007\/january\/does-bible-really-say-i-cant-teach-men.html.<\/p>\n [4] Galatians 3:28 ESV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I picked up\u00a0Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice\u00a0edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Kjurana I will admit I had some fear thinking about how big the book looked. That was before South Africa and learning through our readings this semester this very important lesson, I will not be able to fully read every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15656,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions\/15656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}