Can Men and Women Really Lead Together?

I frequently get asked, “What it’s like to be a woman leader?” Frankly I loathe the question. As if being a woman is like having a third eye or some other science fiction abnormality.

I am a leader who happens to be a woman. That’s all. My gender shouldn’t define my opportunities or my limitations. It shouldn’t dictate whether I’m a good leader or a bad one. It shouldn’t be the thing that holds me back from leading nor should it be an excuse for me to be given opportunities that I haven’t earned.

But for as much as I wish gender wasn’t an issue, it is – especially in ministry leadership. We get clumsy, fearful, and inhibited when we lead among the opposite sex. In fact many of our church cultures dictate that men should lead men and women should lead women. Nice clean tidy, controllable lines. But is that God’s best? Did he really intend for us to be segregated? Did he mean for our spiritual gifts to only impact half of the population? Are we limiting God’s work through us because of our fear of the gender he assigned us?

Continue reading this article at the Catalyst website…

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