Like many, I have difficult stories about my experiences as a woman in the Church. There is nothing that I could contribute to the world by giving you a tour of that well-trodden path which represents the scarcity mindset of our faith institutions. Instead, I’ll offer two related confessions and a hope.

Confession #1: Over the years I have kept unpublished blogs of these stories. (Some of them with pretty clever names if I do say so myself!) Once I sent an anonymous blog to a ministry that advocates for women in churches and their response was, “We don’t publish anonymous stories, but here are some resources for therapy.” Ouch!

The volumes of stories I could write represent the pain of invisibility I’ve endured.

Confession #2: Something drastically changed for me when I was able to discern between human scarcity and God’s abundance. In a recent season, God’s abundance was expressed through words, visions, and confirmations of call that came through men in my local church.

These are not men of status and power. These are men of quiet obedience who are also on the outskirts of the system.

It is scarcity that overlooks and excludes others. It is scarcity that pushes women (and men) into painfully narrow narratives. It is scarcity that causes us to fall back on our institutions instead of our God.

I for one am longing to live under God’s abundance where these sorts of limitations have no hold on us. My hope is for all of us to move freely and share in God’s unending resources. In my opinion, a call into ministry cannot mean anything less.