Photo by Reinante El Pintor de Fuego
By Joy Wong
Not long ago, a friend from seminary told me that it was the opinion of congregants in his Asian American church that those opposed to having women in ministry leadership were not those of older generations, but rather the younger generations. It was disheartening to hear. I have long been enjoying environments that fully support empowering and training women as pastors or other ministry leaders (ie. Fuller Theological Seminary) that I had momentarily forgotten that there were still a vast majority of Christians who staunchly believe that women should not be pastors, ministers, or in other forms of church leadership. I felt a sinking feeling inside as I thought to myself, Here we are, trying to help Asian American women ministry leaders overcome their many internal and external obstacles, and yet there are still those who believe we shouldn’t even be leading! Are we ever going to get anywhere? The question hovered in my mind like a dark cloud.
However, I’ve been encouraged as of late. As I have only recently taken up charge of the AAWOL blog, I’ve just begun familiarizing myself with the blogosphere, and I’ve discovered that there are other Asian American Christians out there that adamantly support women in ministry. In particular, I want to thank DJ Chuang, Kathy Khang, Eugene Cho, the L2 Foundation, and the bloggers at Next Gener.Asian Church who have all expressed in various ways their desire to support and empower women in ministry leadership. Because so many of us acutely feel the lack of support in our leadership journeys, AAWOL’s motto is “Never alone again.” Through all this blog reading, I’m reminded that although there are times when I feel alone, the truth is that I’m not alone at all. Not only am I not alone because of those who are able to be physically present in my leadership journey, but also I am not alone because of those who are struggling alongside me though we have never met. For both communities, I am truly grateful.
(By the way, if anyone has any other blogs they’d like to recommend, please let me know!)
Joy Wong completed a Masters of Divinity degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. She and her husband currently attend New City Church of Los Angeles. To contact Joy, please send your inquiry to aawolsisters@gmail.com.
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I am glad that Joy is encouraged by gender issues upon reading the blogs by Asian American leaders. Compared to the ’90s, I see more of regression when it comes to women in leadership. Unlike the corporate business world, evangelical churchspheres are still largely dominated by male leaders. Ironically, I have yet to be invited to preach at the Englsih-speaking Asian American churches except one EFC church in Alhambra. Levy Hwang has consistenly invited AAWOL women leaders to his pulpit. It is one thing that the second generation pastors fill the blogsphere with politically correct championing of women’s leadership but it is a totally different matter to actually invite ANA clergy women to preach in their pulpits or retreats. I was so busy in the ’90s with invitations to preach at the first generation churchs. However, in 2010, rarely do I get invitations. I believe it has a lot to do with the perceived power based on one’s status and positions. I was wearing dual hats during ’90s–a full time faculty title and ordained clergy title. Nevertheless, I keep on trying to invite EM pastors to speak at the events that often requires much prayer and numerous emails. We have a lot more work to do in improving gender inequality in the church where women are the majority in numbers. As long as they view male leadership every Sunday, women’s internalized sexism will be maximized for male pastors to keep women clergy off of their pulpits.
Thanks for your response, Young! In regards to myself, I tend to see a lot of internal obstacles rather than external obstacles, but when I look more closely, I realize that the two cannot be separated so easily. For instance, my inability to picture myself as a pastor (internal obstacle) has much to do with not having seen many women pastors in action, in part due to conservative views about women’s roles (external obstacle).
I am not sure who responded to my response to Joy’s. Anyways, I agree with you that both internal and external obstacles are deeply interelated. Often our internal struggle is shaped by the perception of others rooted in cultural values. When trying to upstream as women leaders, we face obstacles from all sides. Having said that, somehow God’s power of love can transform our inner landscape much easier than the others (external). After all we can reframe our values that are oppressive grounded in God’s love exemplified by Jesus.
Ongoing renewal of our mind requires editing those tapes we play both consciously and unconsciously. I’d love to organize women’s workshop around “How to Reframe Our Oppressive Scripts,” which I learned in the ’90s during nonstop upstreaming. Thank you for your response.
Sorry for not identifying myself, Young — that last comment was from me (Joy)! I think that “How to Reframe Our Oppressive Scripts” workshop is a great idea!
hi Joy!
I recently started a research project on the topic of Asian American female preacher. There are not a lot resources out there, and I think your blog is one of the rare jewels I can find. I am very thankful for your voice, Joy!
I am currently 3rd year MDiv student at FTS, and I look forward to learn from you!
Thanks for letting me know how our blog has encouraged you, Elizabeth! I know a handful of Asian American women preachers around the nation, so if you think it’d be helpful to connect with them for your research, feel free to send me an email: aawolsisters@gmail.com