New E-book Features Women Pastors Breaking Through the Stained Glass Ceiling
Nashville, TN (PRWEB) August 08, 2013 -- The collection of essays in "Breaking Through the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Pastoring Large Churches" were all written by women who have served as lead pastors in United Methodist churches with 1,000 or more members.
Published by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and edited by the Revs. HiRho Park and Susan Willhauck, the book offers a frank assessment of the opportunities and obstacles in church leadership for women.
“These trailblazers’ stories are intriguing and full of wisdom, passion, and grace as they strive to perform top-level executive leadership while at the same time juggling spirituality, work, family, and their personal life,” Park said. “I hope their experiences will shed light on a new paradigm of ministry leadership and inform the future pedagogical practice of theological education.”
The essays are accompanied by study data from the Lead Women Pastors Project, carried out by Park, GBHEM’s director of Clergy Lifelong Learning, and Willhauck, associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Atlantic School of Theology.
Among the study’s intriguing findings: the denomination’s 100 largest churches are still led by male clergy with one exception – Glide Memorial UMC; women clergy serve more preliminary appointments than men before leading a large congregation; and large churches led by women report higher membership numbers and worship attendance.
Willhauck said the essay collection is an extension of the work begun by the Lead Women Pastors Project in 2008.
“Through interviews, a survey, retreats, and online dialogues, we learned how women are leading big churches in increasing numbers with grace and aplomb, setting an example for pastoral leadership in The United Methodist Church, indeed shattering the glass ceiling,” Willhauck said.
Bishop Violet L. Fisher (retired) praised the book’s use of qualitative research to support the insights of the essayists.
“There are many books on leadership, but few address it from the lead women pastor experience or as simply and critically,” Fisher said. “This work is the beginning of needed conversations.”
One of those conversations should be about diversity among lead women pastors. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, the leading feminist biblical scholar who wrote the foreword for the book, pointed out that only one racial-ethnic clergywoman served a large United Methodist church. “The ‘glass’ ceiling metaphor is best understood as a ‘class’ ceiling which in society and church allows breakthroughs for highly educated white and upperclass women, but not for the majority of women. Why does the ceiling still hold in society and church, despite the many successful attempts at cracking it?” she said.
The Rev. Robin Crews Wilson, co-senior pastor of Dauphine Way United Methodist Church in Mobile, Ala., described the writers’ voices as full of “honesty, humor, and wisdom.”
“These lead women pastors call us to confront our own preconceived notions of what it means for women to be created in the image of God and gifted to lead large congregations,” Wilson said.
Laceye Warner, executive vice dean and associate professor of the Practice of Evangelism and Methodist Studies at Duke University, the Divinity School, called the work “rare and valuable.”
“The editors and contributors speak honestly with wisdom and candor, offering encouragement and insight to their sisters—and brothers—in Christ as we serve God’s church in the twenty-first century,” Warner said.
The editors and essayists together make a convincing case that sharing stories and supporting one another’s pastoral leadership roles through educational and coaching resources can help empower women working in large churches.
“I believe this project will help the church raise up a new generation of women leaders for such a time as this,” Willhauck said.
"Breaking Through the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Pastoring Large Churches," available as an E-book only, can be ordered online through Cokesbury, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes at http://bit.ly/17BgWiS.
About the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM):
GBHEM’s role is to assist The United Methodist Church in preparing and training those who are called to serve as ordained clergy.
Vicki Brown, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, http://www.gbhem.org, 615-340-7380, [email protected]
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