Saturday 28 July 2007

Women and Ministry

We are regularly reminded of the role of women in TSA. There is no question as to their importance. Keep this in mind as we go forward. This is not an area in which we can afford to go back on. Hallelujah!

I'm very interested in ministry to women as well. We need more women in TSA to reach more women for Christ. We need women of all ages and we need to be strategic in our efforts to minister appropriately. I'm certain that we should take the lead from women as to how to most effectively attract and serve women.

Let us celebrate the incredible role women have had and are having in the movement.

Revelation 21:3 (MSG)
3 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whilst men seem to still dominate the administrative leadership of our movement, it is often women who do much of the work of our social services. I wonder if there is something significant here that we need to take notice of?

I also suspect that sometimes we are still held back by a view of women as secondary which is unfairly justified by reference to the scriptures. Perhaps we need to be clear about this first as we strive to move forward rather than back.

Regards, JDK

Unknown said...

Of course (and I don't think you meant to say it quite that way), women have more to offer than just being able to minister to other women. It surprises me that after over a century of women having access to all roles available to men in the Army we still get excited about the place of women in the Army... which is (in reality) no better than the rest of our society.

I do agree we need to do more to 'minister' to women in the Army, but then we need to be doing more to 'minister' to people full stop. Indeed, there are many corps with healthy women's ministries that don't have as much as a Bible study for men -- and the reverse doesn't seem to be in anything like the same number.

Allison Ward said...

I just listened to General Eva Burrows preach lastnight at the Pavilion in OOB. What a wonderful woman of God. She has struck up a whole lot of conversation about the role of women in TSA.
Wish you guys were here :(

Jim Knaggs said...

JDK - I'd like to talk about this further.

C- I agree.

A - I'll bet she was brilliant.

Anonymous said...

I am very interested in how the Salvation Army enables their women to take on full time ministry.
Can you please explain how young women officers are enabled to minister whilst looking after a young family?
Also I would be interested to know how many married women officers (with young children) have been given responsibility for a congregation, while their husband takes on a smaller role in the church.
Many different groups talk about equality for women, but do not enable them to reach that full potential. I am interested in how the Salvation Army deals with this.

Jim Knaggs said...

A - I would caution you that TSA has a long way to go in this area. I do believe that as corps officership is constructed, the issue you raise is individually considered. In the team of the couple, the specific roles are best determined by the couple itself. Outside of corps leadership, the arrangements are different.

We're also seeing the raising of the family to be more and more of the responsibility of husband and wife.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the Salvation Army really treat women equally. Do you have any women ministers whose husbands do other jobs within the Salvation Army?

Jim Knaggs said...

I would say the TSA is attempting to offer equal service to women and men while admitting that we are not perfect at this.

We have many couples here in Australia where the wife is in corps ministry and the husband has an alternate appointment.