The female voice

I woke up at 4:30 this morning. ...that's right, I said morning. And I chose to do this. No one made me. If you don't know me then you don't know how significant this is. Let me put it this way; at home my parents are shocked if I wake up before 11. The people who knew me best knew not to call me before at least 10a.m. Basically I love sleeping for as long as I possibly can.

So you may be wondering why I would wake myself up at such an hour when it is far from my normal routine of convincing myself that I can sleep until 10 minutes before I need to be somewhere...

This morning I met my friend Nate in Greenville at 6a.m. to get breakfast and lead worship in the chapel service at a Christian Academy for the 5th-8th graders. He asked me on Wednesday if I would come be a female voice and I agreed (as long as he bought me breakfast). So we ate, drove over to the school, set up, I typed in a few missing songs into PowerPoint, and at about 8 we worshipped briefly with the teachers then led worship at 8:30 for about 200 kids.
These kids were GREAT!! They had energy and they sang in worship. A group of girls even came up front when we played 'Marvelous Light' to lead the hand motions I had never seen (but I was VERY excited to learn. They were super cute!). We played for about 40 minutes before the kids had to head to class.
While we were starting to break stuff down, this 5th grade girl named Gala came up to me. I didn't know any of these kids which was a different experience for me because I'm used to having a gaggle of crazy girls around me at Christ Church. Anyway, Gala came up to me and told me that I had a really good voice. I smiled and said thank you, then asked her if she liked to sing and if she was in choir. She said she was and that she was taking voice lessons too. She was pretty shy. I told her that I took lessons too and that I sang opera in school. Then before she left she said, "you should come back more often."

That struck me, and not in a self-glorifying way (I am by no means a diva). This girl had just met me for the first time, only knew that I like to sing, but she wanted me to come back and sing again. This group of kids consisted primarily of girls. Nate is a great worship leader, but he does sing in 'guy-friendly' keys which are usually not very 'girl-friendly' (we're either trying to hit pitches in the stratosphere or we sound like tenors. I just make up a harmony). In fact, I'm willing to bet that before I came with Nate the usual set up is just one guy singing with a guitar. And that's not a bad thing by any means...but why do so few women step up to lead as God calls them?

When I was in youth group and we planned to go on a retreat, there were always enough dads willing to come as leaders but very few moms came forward at first notice. They had to be coaxed into it. Most of the speakers on these retreats were men. Most worship bands that I have seen are fronted by men(except for Flyleaf...cuz they rock). At WVU when I went to CRU, most of the talks were given by men. Even at Christ Church the 3 other interns are guys. And again, I don't have a problem with these men stepping up and using their spiritual gifts to glorify God. I respect them and I wish more men would step up and own the role God is asking them to play in His Kingdom.

My problem with all of this is that the female voice is missing in a lot of ministries. And a lot of ministries have more girls than guys who come regularly. These girls want to hear what the women in their lives have done to get where they are in their walks with Christ. I wish I had when I was in high school, just starting to explore Christianity and what that meant other than sitting in church every Sunday. There are so many issues we face as women that are not addressed in a group atmosphere. Some of those issues do need to be brought up in a safe environment of just women. But in general, I think it would be incredibly beneficial for the girls and guys to hear a strong woman of God lead large group talks in an authentic way. Guys want to understand us and so do girls.

Now before I get the words of Paul and Peter thrown in my face about the role of women in the church let me be clear. I am not suggesting that women should be favored in leadership or be in a high-ranking position within the church building. I AM saying that women need to speak up for what they believe, express themselves more in the church as a community, and to be role models to the young girls who are so desperately looking to them for guidance. We all need to look to Jesus to discern how to be effective in our respective ministries.


"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.""
-Luke 10:1-3 ESV