What Would People Think?

“What would people think?” is a common response I often got in the past and still get today, when I have conversations about senior leadership with women from the Middle East. The fear of being judged has crippled women in general to be thriving in the community at large and in particular inside the local church. The fact that a woman lives in a lopsided society that promotes males over females makes it very difficult for her to navigate the conflicting values of equality and personal achievement versus honor‐shame and community’s best interest. Consequently, when faced with an invitation to lead, her immediate response is: What would people think?

As I explored the topic of women in ministry on a global scale, I learned that it is a global struggle manifested in different degrees of severity depending on the culture’s openness to embrace the Theology of equality. For this article, I want to shed the light on the Middle East and focus on the story of the Church of God (COG) in that region and in particular the country of Lebanon.

Why Lebanon? Simply, because I was born and grew up in this country and I want share my personal experience and observations. Another reason is that the work of the COG in Lebanon was started by women missionaries in the early 1900s. In addition to that, in the early 1920s, the first three women to be ordained in the Middle East were from the COG in Lebanon. One might think that this is a big win for the church in Lebanon at that time. This is true except that the church did not follow through to transform this win into a paradigm shift and establish the new normal for the generations to follow. Since then, we do not know of any ordained women in the country, and in this same country now I hear the words “What would people think if I became a pastor/senior leader?” Those words break my heart because the church is missing a lot of opportunities.

As I reflect on this story, I am not discouraged; instead I still see great potential in the COG Lebanon because it is a fertile soil to become a pioneer once again. I say that because this coming October, the first woman will be ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Lebanon, and will be serving in a city where Islam is the dominant influence. I had the chance to contact her, and I sensed a lot of hope in her vision for the city. The COG is a movement and we will continue to explore new ways to build the Kingdom. Almost a hundred years ago the COG in Lebanon was a trailblazer to prepare the path for another denomination to have their first female ordained pastor. I wonder what God has in store for the COG in Lebanon!

Finally, I believe that God has positioned the global COG in a place to begin living the prophecy in Joel 2:29. We neither need to debate nor to prove whether ‘women in ministry’ is a biblically sound teaching or not; rather we ought to start boldly practicing and celebrating what God has ordained. My response to the women leaders I am having conversations with about their role in ministry is: Let us not focus on what people think, let us obey what God says.