What does leadership in the church look like for a woman? What does the Bible teach on the role of men and women in church leadership? Culture says men and women are the same, so is there a difference? Should there be a difference? If there is a difference, what does it look like? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in an eight-week Bible study/women’s leadership class which  begins on Tuesday, April 23, at 7 pm. We will meet every other Tuesday evening.

Why a class on this topic? In order to become an Elder at Grace Church, one must go through a class on what it means to be an elder. This past year, I was asked why we don’t have a leadership class for women; specifically, those serving or those desiring to serve as Deaconesses. This was a fair question. After researching my personal library and online sources, contacting Converge Heartland, and reaching out to other churches, I realized there is not much out there on this topic that is biblically based rather than emotionally based. To my knowledge, there is not a single church in our district that has wrestled with and led a study on this topic, outside of maybe a sermon on Sunday morning. Yes, they had statements about it in their constitution, but they never actually taught about it. So, I’m going to give it a try. Do I think I know what I’m doing? Nope! But I still believe this topic needs to be addressed.

I currently have over a dozen resources I am using as sources for the class materials and am excited about what I’ve learned on this topic. The Bible study will be broken up into three parts: the first part will be for both men and women and will teach on gender roles in the church; the second and third parts will be for just women, especially those who desire to be in leadership at some point at Grace and will be on the topics of character development and doctrinal training.

If you’re interested in this study and want to be part of this class, please let me know so I can be sure to have enough handouts for when we begin. You can email me at pastordanielbear@gmail.com, text me at 641.777.7355, or call me at 308.754.4770.