Best Practices For Female LeadersНамуна

 Know Your Environment 

The environment you’re in will greatly impact how you’re able to lead and what opportunities will be given to you. It’s this way in any profession or organization, not just in churches. But make no mistake: God’s plans for you cannot be stopped. He may use times of rich environments or times of desert environments to do His great work in your heart. 

Here are some important questions to ask as you discern where God wants you to serve:

Is my heart right? Keeping a spirit of unity, respect, and submission is always going to be asked of you. We all serve under authority, so honoring the roles God has established will always win in the end. You can be strong, smart, confident, and vocal without being disrespectful. In cases of abuse or ungodly behavior or treatment, however, you are under no obligation to defend or endure under that kind of environment.

Do my beliefs line up? Rarely do one’s beliefs fully line up with those of every other person in their church. So focus on the major things and look past the minor things. But if the issue of women leading in the church is an important topic for you, or if it impacts how you will fulfill your calling, you need to know for yourself what you believe God is saying about this. Then, you need to know what your church believes about this. If they match, great! But if they don’t match, you need to decide if you can live within those belief systems and support them as part of the church. The key is, you have to be able to support your leadership, respect its views, and communicate them, especially if you hold any sort of leadership position yourself. 

Am I able to follow my leaders? A final piece of knowing comes down to the actual leaders in place. I’ve seen churches that seem to have everything going for them, except that one or two of the top leaders is “off” just enough that everything gets wonky. Sometimes God leaves us in places that are rough, and other times He releases us to move on to healthier teams and churches. Working through your emotions and experiences will help you identify the underlying issues, so you can decide if they are big enough to cause you to make a change. 

Regardless of your theology, being honest about the environment in which you are serving and leading, and discerning from the Lord what He is calling you to do, will help you know your next steps.