An observation was recently made about the absence of women in leadership positions in the emerging conversation in Canada, and this has been a subject of discussion. It’s not a unique characteristic to the situation in Canada from what I observe. Don’t worry, this post is not going to be about any kind of “affirmative action” or anything like that. I don’t believe those undertakings are genuinely helpful…. they tend to insist on taking an equal number of people from a smaller pool, which is itself an imbalance and necessarily means that less qualified people displace others. In general, I think they seek a good goal in a bad way.
Now, in prior contexts when the criticism of a lack of women in leadership has arisen, I’ve heard it responded to by saying that women teach Sunday School, work in the children’s ministry, serve in the hospitality area…. and let’s just agree that there’s no point in ranting on that one, at least not at the moment — everyone knows that response sounds cheap. I’ve also heard the response that it isn’t actually true, because — and then followed a list of almost every woman who had been in leadership of some type there in the past 25 years. Giving this response is just as hollow, but it isn’t really as immediately apparent to most. In resorting to this answer, the respondent is basically indicating they haven’t actually got a proper response and can’t see or admit that there’s a real issue. Why is it hollow? Think about this — the retort that immediately comes to my mind in that situation is, “That’s great, thanks for that. By the way, off the top of your head, how many men can you name who have been in leadership of various types here over the past 25 years?” You see where we’re going, of course. There are too many men on the list to start listing, but it’s not a difficult task for the women.
So here’s the rub. Where are the women in the emerging church conversation worldwide? In the context of the aforementioned question, this evening I was asked by one of people in our little gathering (who seems to like being referred to as one of the “missional chicks”) what women were blogging in the emerging church conversation. She thought she gravitated toward the male bloggers, but I think my response would support a different interpretation, or at least explain that one.
At the risk of saying something offensive — a risk I’ve taken and lost at far too often to count — I told her that there were very few. I told her to visit Maggi Dawn, perhaps the most preeminent female voice in the conversation. I also directed her to Emerging Grace, a more recent entry into the conversation, at least as a blogger. I was a bit more hard-pressed to think of any others though, and told her that most of the female bloggers I knew of spent a fair bit of time talking about themselves, their kids, and what they did that day. They all have “wonderful” husbands (a description which I doubt that even they believe all the time, though that single word seems to describe all of them without exception in their profiles). It isn’t that we don’t like their kids or anything, and I really don’t want to offend, but for most of us, these are not that interresting to us unless (or until) we know the blogger. For these, even though they may be part of the emerging church, their blogs are not part of the emerging conversation in quite the same way. See, I told you I risked offending people. I’m not saying that personal entries are bad — even I do those from time to time… what I am saying is that when they’re the vast majority, the blog in general takes on a different character, and the emerging conversation becomes somewhat secondary at best.
So here’s my question: who and where are the women bloggers in the emergent church, the ones who are talking about missional or emerging church subjects and participating in that conversation? I’m sure there are more out there, and I’d like to know.
Update: Don’t miss the followup post to this one, Located: Emerging/Missional Chick Bloggers.
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November 9th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
writes a lot on the emerging church. I did, and being who I am, my eyes noticed this entry as I has skimming along: Wanted: Emerging/Missional Chick Bloggers As the emergent church seems to be largely driven by blogging, it has been noticed by several people that there aren’t a lot of
August 15th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
forgets how to play Head’s Up, 7-Up? I’m trying to be intentional about keeping an eye on pulse of our youth – but apparently I’ve gotta keep digging deeper. [IMG ;)] In my bloglines account through the Dtour aggregator the title of this post
August 15th, 2005 at 12:38 am
Well, I would like to count myself in the category of women blogging about emerging church stuff (albeit as a part of a team)
August 15th, 2005 at 4:50 am
Well, after Maggi Dawn, who you’ve already mentioned, the names that come most immediately to my mind are Karen Ward, Jen Lemen, Rachelle Mee-Chapman, and Susie Albert Miller, all of whom you are probably already familiar with. A recent discovery who I have found has some worthwhile things to say at times is A.J. Schwanz as well. All of these are linked on Planet Emergent.
Now I’ll return to my non-emergent neo-catholic and monastic corner and shut up.
Peace
August 15th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Dan, I love the stuff that pops up at Signposts, but I haven’t figured out who everybody is yet… you must admit the About Us page isn’t very revealing… you could stand to have a bit more detail there! I take it that “Dan” is short for something, as I normally associate it as a man’s name, so I probably wouldn’t have clued in. Or maybe it’s one of those things like the book of Hebrews where some people think it wasn’t “signed” because it was written by a woman and she didn’t want it to be dismissed, so didn’t sign it. ;^)
Arlen, good list… and I’m a little embarassed, because of course I’m familiar with and read many in your list. Don’t know why some of those didn’t come to mind quicker, maybe because “In Christ [and emergent blogdom] there is neither …male nor female…” Unfortunately Jen Lemen is no longer blogging though. With A.J. Schwanz, you have to actually read long enough to get the tidbits before you realize which gender she represents… “A.J.” isn’t an immediate tip-off!
Links for those not familiar with Arlen’s list are
A.J. Schwanz
Rachelle Mee-Chapman
Karen Ward
Susie Albert Miller
And with my brain in gear a bit more, I also remembered
Sarah Dylan Breuer
And while Scanning Planet Emergent for a link, I noticed some that I would read there:
Adele Sakler
Ann Pittman
and Emerging Women Leaders (which isn’t resolving at present).
Obviously I might find more by scanning people’s blogrolls, but a blogroll would tend to link people who are read that may or may not be on topic for our purposes here, and I don’t have time to read the blogs of all the blogrolled people on blogs I read to see if they’re on-point or not! (I do find new and interesting blogs this way though.)
I feel like we’re getting somewhere with this list now. I’m not out to balance the scales or anything, just to work out that there are more Emerging/Missional Chick Bloggers out there than might at first be apparent… and maybe even encourage some others to start. I know they’re in the analog conversations.
August 15th, 2005 at 9:51 am
Hey Bro,
I was coming to mention several such missional women, but most have been listed. I would, of course, like to add Ivy Beckwith to the list (see http://www.soulshepherds.com). I’d also like to mention Wendy Cooper. Within YWAM, I have found many emergent women leaders who are far too busy leading to start a blog, which says something, I think.
I couple of additional thoughts came to me (other than almost delinking you for dissing affirmative action- wink, wink), so let me try and sum up. First, for several millenium, the patriarchal system has been strongly in place (with a few noted exceptions). Never before in history has this imbalance been more challenged. So, while this should in NO way slow our continual battle in this regards, it should at least lend us a note of patience, as it will likely take much more time to come into its own (as I know you already know).
Second, a point which I feel is both significant and difficult to respond to, is that we cannot demand or expect (unconsciously or otherwise) for women leaders to engage the conversation, their faith, relationships, etc. as men do. It could be argued that we are still requiring them to function in good, but patriarchal models of exchange.
To speculate, while I think there is more to it than this, perhaps talking about their kids and families is a foundational approach to emergent faith. While I have been deeply influenced by theological thinkers and practitioners, I must acknowledge that my leanings towards emergent are largely due to the women in my life (grandmothers, aunts, cousins, friends, and of course, my wife and my mother). This is ust one example of how, perhaps, we are the ones who need to change or perspective.
Thanks for engaging this topic. Its a needed one!
Peace,
Jamie
August 15th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Jamie, you trouble-maker! We could get into affirmative action, but that’s a whole side-issue to this one. I think there are reasons that there are fewer ec/missional bloggerchicks out there, so it’d be good to consider what these are. I don’t mean to dis’ the families that some women like to blog about, but I’m talking about where out of 100 posts, 75 are about the family or what they did, 15 are general church or spirituality thoughts, 5 are links to their husband’s blog or mirror posts of what’s there, and 5 are specific to the ec/missional conversation. While these may be blogs by emergent women, I wouldn’t necessarily call it an emergent blog. MumJones is a good blog by an ec/missional lady, but the main thrust of the blog isn’t really the emerging church (see her hubby’s blog for that; I think Wendy Cooper is much like that). Not saying this is bad, just to be extra-clear.
Perhaps this is a difference that you’re suggesting, Jamie — women are processing differently what it means to be ec/missional, and doing it in a much more personal way. Problem for me is I’m looking for the headlines… it’s a guy thing. Maybe the ec/missional bloggerchicks are speaking more to one another, but perhaps the issue at hand is that the existing conversation needs to be less divided along gender lines… so the blogs we’re listing are maybe by women but they’re ones that represent a point of conversational intersection. On this note, we could maybe be asking ec/missional women which blogs by men they read and more easily identify with, and why, because in the “why” perhaps maybe we’ll start to better understand how the intersection works in both directions.
As for Ivy Beckwith’s blog, just take me out back and shoot me for not including her! I haven’t even visited there that often, but should do so.
August 15th, 2005 at 11:30 am
“On this note, we could maybe be asking ec/missional women which blogs by men they read and more easily identify with, and why, because in the “whyâ€? perhaps maybe we’ll start to better understand how the intersection works in both directions.”
Excellent idea. Do it!
Peace,
Jamie
August 15th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
This morning I was sitting with my wife over a leisurely breakfast on our deck talking about our planned fall forum. I was suddenly struck that she is one of the most articulate females voices I know.. she has experienced the journey, she is very sensitive to the Spirit, she is profoundly missional, and she is female.
So as I was about to ask her if she would tell her story at our coming forum, I saw Wendy McAlpine and Tammi Smith (Andrew’s wife) both of whom are or will be local, on stage with her. I started getting excited. I really want these three women to tell their own stories at our forum this fall. I believe we can make this happen. More female voices need to be heard by women and men..
August 15th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
Hey again,
My own wife is thoroughly emergent in her faith and leadership, though she doesn’t follow or engage in the dialogue (I know many women like this). I wonder how many are out there that are either unaware of or not interested in the conversation?
Peace,
Jamie
August 15th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
chick – yes. emerging – probably. missional – wannabe.
August 15th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
My wife, Kris, is also a blogreader but not a blogwriter. She loves it all, and keeps me informed about some of you all. Plus, she’s a psychologist, so be careful what you write because she might see more in it than you think you are saying.
August 15th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
I hope, Brother Maynard, you’ll be composing a complete link list of all these so we can follow them all.
August 15th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
Brother Maynard,
I’ve recently set up a group blog with some smart emerging chicks
on it. It’s called Eternal
Revolution and its affiliated with our emergent church in
Denver, CO.
August 15th, 2005 at 5:44 pm
Many many dankes for mentioning me on your list of women ec bloggers! I saw this post’s title, and my heart went pitter-patter at seeing that folks actually read my modest little blog! I rarely get comments, and thus assume that I’m writing out to the empty cosmos. But I perhaps that stems from being more relational in nature. If I bake cookies for my mother, she gushes with praise, whereas my husband just mutters “mmm, good” and I assume they’re crappy and spout off that I’m never baking again. :) Getting feedback is my way of feeling as though I’ve been heard, as well as allowing for further/deeper/more meaningful engagement and conversation.
That’s what I’ve noticed about blogs written by women: not only are they a place to share stories (and let me tell you, there are some storytellers out there!), but they’re a place to chat with others who are or have been at the place where you’re at. They’re relational – conversational – engaging.
[Broad general statement about to be made] Perhaps women view and live their lives more holistically than men. Being a woman and a writer and a mom and a cook and a blogger and a friend and a daughter and a child of God – these are all elements of me, and they’re not easy to separate out.
I admit that I have two blogs – one that’s a mom-blog where I feel free to talk about the beautiful nature and the ugly aspects of motherhood. Not everyone wants to hear about yarf rags and mastitis: shocking, I know. ;) Sometimes I feel the need to write about the graphic nature of what I’m going through: it’s tricky to balance getting your message across without potentially offending others with non-related material. I’ve often found that folks who are interested in talking about ec/faith walk/spiritual stuff don’t necessarily want to hear about the nitty-gritty details of my life. But for most women, that’s what’s on their minds: they don’t live in the theoretical, but the utterly elemental and practical. That’s what’s interesting, though: it seems easier in my American culture/society to live a (w)holistic life than it is for my husband – his life tends to be more compartmentalized.
Reading ec blogs for me is like being back in college, listening to lectures or engaging in a few group discussions, with the occassional random story from the professor when he/she digresses about their trip tracing the early journeys of George Fox. But then I read knitting blogs, and I imagine they’re they closest thing to creating a knitting circle online: lots of practical information on the craft, but woven in with personal stories.
So, where’s the balance? Is the style and content of ec blogs in harmony with the message? I believe cool chick bloggers are out there: in true missional fashion, how do we go out to them?
August 15th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Thanks for including me in your list also. If I were to label myself it would be as a new-to-the-scene, sharing-my-journey-of-learning, emerging blogger. Does the fact that I am female make my journey or my contribution to the conversation different than others? I don’t know.
As far as the blogs I read and identify with, there are several categories. There are those I view as someone to follow, and I draw from their writing and experience. There are others I see as being at a similar place on their journey as I am, and it’s helpful to learn from them as they wrestle with the same issues. Finally, there are some whose writing or personality that I find entertaining.
For me, that connection of being able to relate to someone’s blog doesn’t seem to depend much on whether they are male or female, but rather whether we came from or are head in similar directions.
August 15th, 2005 at 10:49 pm
We are out there, we just don’t use all the emergentspeak that you guys seem to be so attached to. We talk about connecting and missions, worship and growth in grace on a more basic level. Trying to reach the unchurched and those unfamiliar with the old church language. Tried to get in on the Resonate conversation and got nowhere.
August 15th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
I leave you people alone for a few hours, and look at the comments that pop up!
Kim, honest – yes. Nice blog, too! Makes me think of the spin cycle somehow… I do like the church invitation T-shirt. Glad to have your link here, as well as Eternal Revolution (Megan and Tiffany) as well as AJ and Grace’s links.
AJ, I was laughing reading your comment here… I think you make the point well. A few months back my wife was reading a book called Men Are Like Waffles – Women Are Like Spaghetti. I dunno, I think the title says it all: for women, everthing is all intertwined and interconnected… try unravelling just one strand, I dare you! For men, everything is neatly organized into its own little space… and some of those compartments are completely empty (”What are you thinking about?” “Oh, nothing…” And he’s not lying!) I wish I had a better answer to your question, but with some reflection on the thoughts here maybe we’ll find something. I notice you’ve put the question to your readers as well, which is great.
Scot, all of the blogs mentioned in this thread should be hyperlinked, but it’s a good idea to present them in a list format — I’ll try to do that once the comments die down. Anyone else in the discussion should feel free to beat me to it and create a special blogroll or list of ec/missional chickbloggers and provide a link in a comment here.
I think this is proving helpful, at least to me — and I hope to others as well. For whatever reason, we can probably all think of women who are part of the conversation or who are practitioners, but who just don’t blog.
Len, I think you’ve got a great idea there… tell Wendy I said so, and I’m sorry I missed her when they were here; they should be in town there by Wednesday this week. I hope I can get out to the forum, it looks like a fantastic event… just not sure about travel costs as yet; finances are tight.
Oh, and Scot — I’ll be more than a little nervous if Kris is psychoanalyzing me and my secret-identity Superman-complex!
August 16th, 2005 at 4:31 am
http://happydaydeadfish.blogspot.com/ is the blog of Holly Rankin-Zaher. Located at Pittsburgh and leading a really good emerging church called Three Nails.
Love
Alan
August 16th, 2005 at 11:43 pm
Sushi, thanks for dropping in on this conversation. I’m not sure what emergentspeak I’m attached to, but I won’t even try to deny it ;^) Funny how people can be saying the same things and both call it “plain English” yet it doesn’t sound alike sometimes. Sorry to hear about the response from Resonate, but I couldn’t begin to address that — I do hope you’ll join in on this conversation though. I would like to see some women involved in the Emergent.ca discussion from the outset… helps make sure we keep our eyes on what we’re about rather than bulldozing ahead to conquer the goal.
Good addition, Alan.
August 20th, 2005 at 3:05 am
I’d like to know where you think you have the power to be giving me a set of rules on how to have the ‘conversation’ – What right or authority do you have to invalidate my ‘conversation’? I mean no offense but merely would like to point out that perhaps the reason you see so little women talking about ‘it’ more is because of the general opinion and attitude we get from the “men’s club” putting us down for talking about families, day to day life. Accounts of Chrsit himself are day to day life…do you think they had a script each day on how to share? Women are multi taskers who write about what goes on in our lives,men are more common to write article formatted thoughts. It is no better nor worse than the way we at least I , share my life. I am driven by relationship because God created that part in me. I find that comments like yours shoot women in the head and drown us out so we don’t bother speaking out in the first place..unless angered or wounded enough to be prompted to yell out.
August 22nd, 2005 at 8:34 am
Sliver; respectfully, I think you may be reading in some ideas and motives that aren’t there. I don’t think I have the “power” for what you’re suggesting, and I wouldn’t want it. This entire thread is largely about making sure there’s space in the conversation for the female voice, and if someone — especially men — try to “shape” it somehow, it’ll stop being the voice we need it to be. I wouldn’t invalidate your conversation at all, even though it takes a different format than the way I “talk.” That’s the point here: I think the one thing that this thread has highlighted more than any other is the fact that men and women converse differently and see their practice of emerging / missional (perhaps church generally) in a different way. Nothing wrong with that, but for a guy reading a large number of blogs which are more article-type, it helps to be reminded that some of these blogs are going to take a different shape simply because they’re by women, and that this different shape is critical to keep in the conversation. At a glance, we might think it’s not a part of the same conversation (because of our tendancy to want to categorize) and I think the conversation in this thread has probably demonstrated that it is part of the same discussion.
General comment — as Scot suggested, I’ll be compiling a list of the blogs we’ve listed and will add a few thoughts summarizing the conversation here. Hopefully I’ll get some time for it and have it posted next week.
August 22nd, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Unfortunately I think that there is the implication of “shaping” in your post. I also think this one could get ugly though SO I think I will step back and not respond right now – we do have a few barriers here to note as well, text lacks the ability to always form the sincere impression and the fact that men and women honestly do think and process differently. Maybe I’ll tackle it at a later date!
I’d like to note however that it is appreciated and refreshing to see the desire is being voiced to hear what God is impressing on the hearts and minds of His daughters.
2 cents.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:57 pm
Brother Maynard. Yes, Dan is short for something – Danielle. When signposts started I was a little opaque about my identity, partly because I have a job elsewhere. But I also found it interesting that most people who read the blog assumed that I was a guy, until I “came out” a little while ago.
I think that women, like men, participate in a whole range of different ways in this conversation. There is definitely a difference in the way that Phil and I blog and what fires us up. This is one of the reason I like having a “co-blogger” – we each tend to cover different areas and perspectives.
October 7th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
i’ve just started a blog… it’s angled more towards alternative worship (as part of a project i’m working for)…
November 24th, 2005 at 6:51 am
gotta give props to my wife who has been a faithfull blogger for about 4 years now
http://www.bethkeck.com :)
April 28th, 2006 at 12:46 am
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August 5th, 2006 at 7:24 am
I’m a few months late for this discussion, but I thought I’d chime in. I recently saw a listing of emerging church blogs, 200 in all and 8 were from women. This is pretty f**ked up, so I started my own:
http://www.sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com
Let’s go girls….
Nadia
January 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hey everyone, I just started…. some years behind… and I try to learn from you all ;-D
I noticed that some of the women in our group do the work their guys talk about in numerous meetings ;-D but hey: this is The Netherlands, we are wicked good in talking, there’s even a name for our way of talking: Poldermodel… yeah… translates something like poldermodel … ???
So, here’s maybe a thing about blogging: my lovely hubby blogs a lot, talks a lot, and I’m not, just starting…
Remember: we missional/emergings (f) are out there -> doing the job
;-D