Women and Leadership: New Ways of Thinking
by Ann A. Michel

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of women being granted full clergy rights in the United Methodist Church and of women as ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). In the Episcopal Church, it has been thirty years since the General Convention voted to approve women’s ordination to the priesthood. These milestones have occasioned celebration, reflection, and reassessment of women’s leadership in the church.

A 2002 Pulpit and Pew Report, Women’s Path into Ministry, summarizes several major studies on clergywomen. Edward C. Lehman, Jr., a sociologist and the report’s author, concluded “the ordination of women is one of the most significant recent developments in American religion, fostering change in churchgoers’ attitudes toward women in leadership and expanding concepts of ministry beyond the local congregation.” But by many measures, equality is still an illusive goal -- not only for clergywomen, but for women in denominations still denying them ordination, for lay women in a variety of church roles -- indeed for women in all walks of life across the globe.

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Book Review

BACKTALK! Women Leaders Changing the Church
by Susan Willhauck, Pilgrim Press, 2005

Reviewed by Mary Clark Moschella, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Congregational Care, Wesley Theological Seminary

Backtalk! Sass! Lip! These words don’t exactly evoke the good-girl approach to life in which many Christian women have been nurtured. Susan Willhauck, an associate professor of Christian formation and discipleship at Wesley Theological Seminary, has written a new book, BACKTALK! Women Leaders Changing the Church. Distilling insights from feminist, womanist, mujerista, minjung, and post-colonial Christian theorists, Willhauck articulates a bold working strategy to create change in church and society.

The term “backtalk” is borrowed from African American commentator bell hooks. Willhauck describes backtalk as a form of dialogue, or “healthy agitation” that involves questioning, problem solving, and moving forward to create positive changes. Carefully grounding her ideas in biblical reflection, Willhauck cites Miriam, who “sassed God,” and the prophets who agitated for change. Indeed, backtalk suggests a new way to read the Bible – not as a simple authority but as a “talking book” that involves dialogue in the interpretive community. Bible study, according to Willhauck, can become “a truly revolutionary activity.”

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Margaret Wheatley said in a presentation that after any significant event, we should take the time to discuss what happened. She suggested these three simple questions:

1. What happened?
2. Why do we think it happened?
3. What can we learn from it?  

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).