Working Like Unbelievers
November 30, 2007 |
In a recent interview with Rebecca Guillory Gilmer, vice president of The Impact Movement and Gifted For Leadership editorial advisor, the editors asked her what she considered the biggest pitfall to leaders in launching a new ministry. Here’s what she had to say.
Whenever we launch something—in ministry particular—we tend to say we can do it because “God is leading. God is in it. This is something God is doing.” At least, that’s what we say. And then we go and fall in what I call “the pit” and completely ignore the contradiction between what we say and what we do.
Because you see, while we may say this—that it’s up to God—we work like it’s all on us, and that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done! And we work like unbelievers, although we talk like believers.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 30, 2007 | Comments (5)
Madam President?
November 27, 2007 |
We’ve never been so close to the possibility of electing a female president of the United States. We’ll soon see early indicators of whether Hillary Clinton will be among the candidates voters will consider at this time next year. But while this would be a first for the U.S., women certainly have been charged with such influence before.
“Women & Power” are the words on the cover of the October 15 issue of Newsweek. Much of the magazine is devoted to stories of women in powerful positions and how they got there. One particularly intriguing article, “In All Their Glory,” briefly recalls the lives of Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Margaret Thatcher, and other women who have led nations. The article suggests that as we head into an election year with a female candidate as the arguable frontrunner, we may look to the past for models of how women wield power.
Continue reading...Posted by Amy Simpson on November 27, 2007 | Comments (8)
The Gift of Being Real
November 23, 2007 |
I should’ve trusted the worship leaders at my church more—but I didn’t. So when the video rolled and the cheesy, deep, deejayish voice announced, “And now, a Thanksgiving presentation…” I rolled my eyes. Oh, boy. Here we go, I thought. The opening scenes of a smiling, neatly sweatered man sitting in an upholstered chair with two fancily dressed toddlers on his lap and several preschoolers surrounding him did nothing to stop my continued disgust. And as the sweatered man began reminiscing about his perfect childhood Thanksgiving gatherings and started in about the joys of being surrounded by his children and nieces and nephews, I thought, This is like a Saturday Night Live skit! If this is how we present our Thanksgivings, no wonder they make fun of Christians!
But then the kids onscreen start getting mouthy and squirming impatiently, and the sweatered man rolled his eyes and yelled, “Cut!” Ha-ha! The reason it seemed like sketch comedy was because it was. I laughed along with the congregation as the man’s attempts to produce a perfect Thanksgiving memory got more and more pathetic. We laughed as his brothers teased him in the background. We laughed when the kids threw tantrums and misbehaved. We laughed when the whole thing ended in an on-camera family argument. We laughed because, as Homer Simpson says, “It’s funny because it’s true.”
What was so refreshing about this video is that it gave all of us that morning license to admit publicly—through our collective laughter—that holidays can be harsh, that they rarely live up to expectations, and that our families all are broken in some way. In short, it gave us a glimpse of reality. A glimpse that is more often than not overshadowed by our attempts to portray the perfect Christian families—especially during the holidays.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 23, 2007 | Comments (5)
What Our Femininity Means
November 20, 2007 |
Femininity has gone through the ringer.
I asked a group of Christian college students from the University of Boulder to explain femininity. They used words like catty, submissive, quiet, modest, emotional, weaker and lesser. With such a definition would you rush to claim your feminine identity? Even women like my grandmother who can out-tailor, knit, embroider, cook, clean, hostess, decorate, and shop most women don’t like being called “feminine.” When I asked her why, she said, “That word reminds me of feminine products.” Oh dear.
I remember learning to act feminine. Like when my first grade P.E. teacher told me stop hanging upside down on the monkey bars: “If you are not wearing shorts under your skirt, everyone can see your underwear.”
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 20, 2007 | Comments (8)
Food for Thought
November 18, 2007 |
Gossip—that chatty talk about other people’s intimate matters—is a favorite pastime around many office lunch tables and water coolers. If asked point-blank, most of us would say gossip is a bad habit, yet our culture treats it lightly. Every day we can access websites, watch television shows, or read tabloids to get the latest scandal scoop on celebrities and politicians. Some websites even send you an e-mail alert on late-breaking gossip. In our voyeuristic world of reality TV, being privy to intimate details of a person’s life is socially acceptable.
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 18, 2007 | Comments (0)
Questions about Sex, Difference, and Leadership
November 16, 2007 |
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about sex—specifically, what does a person’s sex have to do with how they function in the world? If we could remove everything we learn about being male and female from the cultures that shape us, would there be any significant differences to what it means to be male and female? If there aren’t, what does that mean for leadership? And if there are, what does that mean for leadership?
Many of you are going to run straight to your Bibles to answer the question of sex and difference. Sure, the Bible talks a lot about sex. About being created male and female. But it doesn’t talk as definitively on it as we might think. If it did, the site you’re on wouldn’t have pages and pages of blogs with such fierce and passionate debate about the subject.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 16, 2007 | Comments (17)
Leading After Failed Change
November 13, 2007 |
It was Saturday and I was at home. So I was a little puzzled when I answered the doorbell to find the church’s office manager dropping by. It was near Easter, and she had used the excuse of bringing some homemade treats over for my family as her reason to make the half-hour drive to my house. But there was more.
She also came by to let me know that she had found a job at another church and would be leaving her position in two weeks. We were good friends, and she wanted to be able to tell me in person, not over the phone or email. I thanked her for that, wished her well, closed the door, and sat down on the steps in shock. This was the sixth resignation from our small church’s staff in five months. We were down to just two—myself and our youth director.
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 13, 2007 | Comments (7)
Rest from the Race
November 9, 2007 |
Limp with exhaustion, I leaned into my husband’s arms and buried my face against his shoulder. “I don’t want to wait ‘til heaven to not be tired.” This was a pattern for me as I zealously strove to minister across the continent to women.
As women in ministry, the demand will always exceed the supply. There will always be far more ministry than we can accomplish personally. But even more importantly, we model the faith life, the trust life, for other women. When I read Jeremiah 50:6, addressed to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon, my heart sank to realize my own responsibility.
“My people have been lost sheep;
Their shepherds have led them astray
And caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
And forgot their resting place.”
Who leads them astray, away from their Resting Place? Their shepherds.
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 9, 2007 | Comments (6)
The Dangerous Book for Women
November 6, 2007 |
From the moment my husband brought home The Dangerous Book for Boys, he and our son have been doing some serious bonding. The premise of The Dangerous Book for Boys is to resurrect some of the classic boy activities of yesteryear—things our grandfathers did as boys that boys today just don’t do (like make their own bows and arrows or catch frogs in the creek). Since getting the book, my husband and son have mapped out the battle of Waterloo with green Army men, played an old-fashioned game of marbles, learned to tie sailor’s knots, performed magic tricks, and folded the best paper airplanes in the world.
I think my son sensed my jealousy as I’ve watched this flurry of daily activity. With a serious look on his face, he said, “Don’t feel bad, Mom. Maybe they can make a book for you. Maybe they can make The Dangerous Book for Women.”
That got me thinking. What in the world would I include in a “dangerous book for girls” (and grown-up girls like me!)?
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 6, 2007 | Comments (14)
A New Conversation about Gender
November 2, 2007 |
This is Part III in a series of posts. Click here for Part I and here for Part II.
As questions of Christianity and gender are placed within the deeper context of ecclesiology (what is the Church and what is it supposed to accomplish) and “missiology” (what is the church’s present context), the conversation will change substantively. Where the former dialogue has centered on equal gender influence within the top-down, institutional systems of modern Christendom, the new conversation reframes questions of gender outside of those systems. In the flattened, post-institutional realm shaped by the equalizing forces of digital communication and globalization, the focus must move to the people of God dispersed, a displacement more absolute than that of the first century. And in this new landscape of radical dispersion—beyond buildings, beyond programs, beyond pedestal personalities—what leadership qualities are most needed? What are the practices and gifts of those who minister well within such a context of deconstruction, chaos, and uncertainty?
To be certain, this reframed conversation is not for the faint of heart or closed of mind. The new frame of reference most needed may indeed be skewed toward the feminine. And if that skew is accurate, traditional gender conversations in the Church, i.e., the inclusion of women in essentially male systems, will seem like preschool banter compared to what it means to shift out of those systems altogether.
The encouraging news is, this new conversation is happening—perhaps at decibels audible only over quiet coffee tables, but it is happening.
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on November 2, 2007 | Comments (18)
