Lets have a conversation and learn from each other

One recent comment came from Susan Hall who had this to say

i did a small qualitative study of evangelical women for my doctoral dissertation in 2007 and found that indeed, they say these very positive things…while at the very same time they tell stories of sexism and marginalization which they explain away and justify. they dismissed and invalidated the meaning of any experiences that didn’t fit the “right” picture of the church. they would literally say that even though they couldn’t speak in front of the church, they had complete freedom because their men were representing them and speaking for them.

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Since The Outsider Interviews has been released, Todd, Craig and I have been interacting with a number of journalists. I thought you might enjoy reading the Q&A I recently engaged in with one interviewer. Read the rest of this entry »

Two months ago Jim Henderson and Lisa Whittle contracted with The Barna Group to ask women to respond to a number of questions about their experience with the church.

They (Barna Group) spoke with 603 women who met the following qualifications: 18 years or older, described themselves as “Christian” And had attended a Christian church service at least once during the past six months. Among those women, 63% met the survey criteria for being a “Born Again Christian.”

The complete survey findings will not be available until 2011 when our books are published but since we’re using these stats to help shape our thinking we thought it would be interesting to get the feedback from an even larger audience to see how they responded to some of the data.

To be fair, Lisa and I found the picture these statistics paint somewhat skewed toward an unusually positive view of things. However we might be wrong- these stats may in fact reflect how the majority of Christian women see things regarding their personal sense of spiritual fulfillment and access to influence and leadership in the church.

That’s why we want to hear from you! Especially if you agree with these statistics!

And if you disagree with them tell us why you think so many women disagree with you.

Choose whatever statistics speak to you and tell us your story.

Please post your response on our blog and (whenever possible) use your real name and tell us if you are willing for us to contact you with follow up questions.

(NOTE: by posting your story here you agree that we may use it in any of our publications)

Also please help us by posting this article on your Facebook, Twitter or Blog

Feel free to respond to one or several of the statistics. We are not looking for yes/no answers. We’re looking for all kinds of stories that substantiate, support, or refute and challenge these findings.

Here’s what we want to know…

Do these statistics match your experience?

1. 84% say that their church’s perspective on women in ministry is almost identical, very similar, or somewhat similar to their own.

2. 83% say that their Senior Pastor is somewhat, highly or completely supportive of women leading in their church

3. 82% say they can tell by their church’s actions that the church values the leadership of women

4. 81% say that their church provides women with the same degree of leadership opportunities as Jesus would.

5. 72% say they possess a lot of spiritual freedom in their life

6. 70% say that the media has little influence on their decision-making

7. 71% say fear is not something they experience ever or often in their life

8. 62% say that ALL leadership roles are open to them in their church.

9. Only 1% say they often struggle with jealousy

10. Among those who feel they are capable of doing more to serve God, and should be doing more, only 4% say that their fear of failure is holding them back from doing more to serve God.