Paying Attention

NOV 23, 2025

Nearly 30 years ago as a teenager, I sat down with my dad, a Church of Christ minister, and talked about wanting to be a minister and what I would major in when I went to college. We talked about the difficulties of that as a female, but he encouraged me to try. I had never seen it done by a woman, and I had a lot of questions about what that might look like. He shared with me about his good friend Bob Randolph, who was a minister at Brookline Church of Christ in Boston and how his church was open to women ministers. I remember dreaming about what that church looked like in this strange land called Boston, and more so, what it would look like to be a female in ministry.

A few years ago I sat down at a dinner at the annual Bible academic conferences. I happen to be sitting right in-between two amazing sisters named Kathy and Micki. They shared about their lives, how Kathy had been the first woman to preach at Brookline and I believe the first woman in Churches of Christ to get a PhD in religious studies, and how after that Micki went on to be a minister and preach regularly there. To know Kathy and Micki is to know women who encourage other women in ministry and in academia. I had no idea what a gift it would be to get to know them that night.

Then, just this past year I joined a preaching cohort through Pepperdine University. It is a yearlong cohort, meant to encourage us as preachers. One new friend in my cohort was Candace. Candace is the minister at, of course, Brookline Church of Christ. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and talk with her about preaching. This morning, she graciously opened her pulpit to me to preach at Brookline Church of Christ. This year the academic conferences are in Boston, so not only were Candace and Bob there, but Kathy and Micki. What a full circle moment!

I felt the tangible encouragement of so many women that have gone before me, literally in this very congregation. I also felt the tangible encouragement of Bob and the many years and conversations it must have taken to get Brookline to a place of fully affirming women. And last, I felt the deep encouragement from my own dad, a Church of Christ preacher who encouraged me to press on and keep pursing what I felt God calling me towards. He’s been fully with Jesus now for 5 years. This morning, I could imagine him at the back of the auditorium doing his regular fist pump in the air and giving a big ole whoop as I was introduced. For a moment, I got choked up, just thinking about this great cloud of witnesses, who were in the room.

I immediately thought about my dad and the words from his doctoral dissertation in 1986 arguing for the gifts of the Spirit to be open for all. As he said in his own words, “The candidate can no longer completely defend the status quo which restricts vocal, active leadership roles for women in the church. It is now difficult to believe that God may bestow a gift of ministry upon a woman and then forbid her to use it in the life and ministry of the church.

It would seem apparent that the church cannot grow, mature, or provide viable ministry to its members and to a hurting world while depriving itself of the ministry expertise of at least half of its constituency. The candidate now is convinced that the Churches of Christ must make the best use of the ministry gifts of its spiritually gifted women. In addition, an effort must be made to heal the hurts caused by the deprivation and judgmental attitudes of the past.”

I’m happy to say there was some healing today in my own heart, as I stood on the shoulders of men like him and Bob, as well as women like Kathy, Micki and Candace. Often the road for a woman in ministry is a bumpy ride with many twists and turns; I am grateful to have this experience today after so many men and women paved the way ahead of me. The interconnectedness of the Churches of Christ is a wonder, and a stark reminder of how the Spirit is constantly at work in our lives, even when we aren’t aware. As I preached this morning on Psalm 46, infused with my own dad’s words to “pay attention” and “remember who you belong to” I couldn’t help but think of paying attention to the Spirit moving in my own life, and belonging to this great big family of followers of King Jesus.