Women in CPM (Survey & Discovery Studies)
written by a colleague (Joy)
How are women involved in CPM? What things have worked? What are some of the challenges facing
women? What are some ideas for me
personally to be involved?
1. First, let’s
consider some Bible passages about women in the ministry of Jesus:
In pairs, look up these verses and discuss answers to the
questions below: Matthew 27:55-61, Luke
8:1-3, Luke 10:38-42, Acts 1:13-14, Acts 12:11-17; 18:1-2, 18-19, 24-28; 1 Cor
16:19; 2 Tim 4:19; Rom 16:3
·
- Did Jesus permit women to be involved in ministry?
- How were women involved in Jesus’ ministry?
- Who was the first person to see Jesus after He rose from the dead?
- Is it significant that she was a woman?
Then look up the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Read aloud in groups then discuss:
· Does the GC apply to everyone, or just men?
· Who, ladies, are you discipling now? How are you discipling them?
· How is your team/ministry group/family trying to
specifically reach women?
“I like this summary of Jesus’ view of women by Nancy Groom.
(Married Without Masks, p. 33-34)
“In a culture accustomed to keeping women in
their place, Jesus gave women a new and wonderful place. (They were not educated then). In sharp
contrast, Jesus never discouraged women from using their minds; He encouraged
them to listen to and learn from Him (like with Mary and Martha). Jesus
affirmed women’s individual value and contributions by allowing several well to
do Jewish women to follow Him and use their gifts (financial and otherwise) for
serving Him. Jesus never devalued women, not even outcast women. Rather He
taught that in God’s economy women as well as men are worth His time, His touch,
His esteem, and His gifts. ”
Discuss: If this is true, how do you think women
should be involved in CPM?
2. All through the
Bible we see the influence of Women—whether good or bad.
In Numbers 31, there’s one of those stories in the OT where
the Israelites were told to go in a kill all the women and children. But this time there’s an explanation for a
reason WHY this must happen.
Read, Numbers 31:16, “They were the one who followed
Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord
in what happened at Peor...”
So the Midianite women (non-believing women) had a negative
influence on the Israelite community.
In Deuteronomy 7:3-4, the Israelites are commanded
specifically not to intermarry with the other nations around them, “for they
will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods.” Another example of negative influence of ungodly
women.
But there are good examples of women’s influence in
the Bible too…
We’ve already looked at Priscilla. She ended up being the most notable (=
influential) in the pair. What examples of positive influence from women
in the OT can you think of?
a.
Esther – wow, what an impact!
b.
Deborah – a Judge (almost like a King before
Israel had kings)
c.
Miriam (sister of Moses) – Ex 2:7-9; Ex
15:20-21; Micah 6:4
d.
Hannah
e.
Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba – all women of
ill-repute appear in Jesus’ genealogy!
Can you think of any examples of female
PoPs? [Look at these passages as a large
group.]
a.
Acts 16:11-15 – what was her oikos? Only her family?
b.
John 4:4-42 – many people say that “PoPs” either
have a strong good or bad reputation. Though this woman may have had a bad rap,
she used the influence she had for good—and what a powerful impact she had!
Conclusion: In the
Bible there are many women of influence.
Don’t count yourself out because you’re a woman, wife or single
female! You may have more influence than
you think you have!
We
all have influence – the Question is how are we using
it?!?
If
you’re not doing anything, you are in fact communicating a message about what
you value.
3. Muslim women’s influence
Surprisingly, Muslim women have strong influence in their
communities too. In fact, David Watson
says in an interesting article called The
War on Terror that, “The primary person for passing the worldview within
the family is the mother!”
Watson thinks that Muslim women need to be reached in order
to change the Muslim families. Once mothers
start studying the Word of God and teaching their children to obey God that
will be the way to deal with injustices in the world, political problems including
terrorism.
4. Research on Roles of Women in CPM
I did some research on women in CPM and found the following
list of roles they played.
Answers from surveys with people involved
in CPMs about the Roles played by Women
- “every role”
- “all capacities”
- “Witnessing, teaching, vision casting, training, discipling, shepherding.”
- “Coaching rapidly multiplying streams of reproducing churches.”
- “Spreader of the gospel”
- “Leader of Discovery Groups”
- “Teacher of stories”
- “Preacher”
- “Searcher of People of Peace”
- “Finder of Pops”
- “Starting groups”
- “Material/resource preparation”
- “Organizational/logistical pieces”
- “Teaching groups to facilitate themselves”
- “Training and equipping leaders”
- “our best church planter is a woman!” (Re: a single grandmother in her 50’s among Latinos)
- “Developing generational streams”
- “Encouragers”
- “Baptizer of women”
- “Pray-er for other women”
- “Strategizer, organizer”
- “Leader of a significant CP organization in South Asia is led by women”
Roles women played in Miraculous Movements book;
Prayer warrior (organized prayer camp, preparing
new areas, began intercessory teams, known as prayer warriors)
Ø
coach
Ø
mentor
Ø
disciple-maker
Ø
evangelist
Ø
church planter
Ø
PoP (women can bring gospel into their
communities like Samaritan woman)
Ø
Story teller
Ø
Being raised from the dead! (A chief’s wife who
had died)
Other important nuggets from my surveys:
- · Husband and Wife teams that work together make a strong contribution to CPM. (The husband has to support his wife in being involved. One example of a woman that was very involved as a single but then when she got married she stopped being involved and focuses on the home).
- · The Lord is using various types of teams: Husband-Wife, teams of 2 men, teams of 2 women (single or married).
- · There are very effective single women in CPM (both expat and national).
- · Expats need to be involved (we will model something, why not model obedience based disciple making!). It depends on your context how much they can be directly involved. In Africa, among Fulani: One expat woman was very involved when she was single (she led a Fulani man to faith and disciple him and he led hundreds of Fulani to faith and there are hundreds of churches.)
·
Most places expats—male or female—play important
roles in vision casting, training and coaching
·
The way an expat woman is involved correlates to
her gifts as well as the cultural context.
·
Globally almost always more women come to faith
than men.
·
Key qualities in effective CP-ers: vision, call, faith, faithfulness,
exhortation & hospitality.
·
Families
that are effective CPers are marked by these qualities:
o
mutual understanding of the Lords unique wiring
of each person.
o
mutual support to allow each one to get out
o
encouragement for women to be involved in
strategy talk (if desired)
o
culture in family of giving each other grace
o
the expectation that God wants to use both
people
o
including and integrating kids them into
ministry in creative ways. (DW says “if you want your children to hate
Christian work, then don’t involve them in you ministry. The m’s who involve their children in the
work are more likely to produce well- adjusted adult children.”
·
Recognizing that there are seasons in a woman’s
life: singleness, early marriage, child rearing stage, empty nest.
·
“A key to CPM growth in Cambodia has been the
women. Most of the evangelists and
church planters are women. Women do much
of the teaching as well. Men like to
lead but women tend to be harder workers, more consistent...women are very open
to the gospel here.”
·
“Men and women complement one another...only
together in Christ do we represent more accurately His body as we work together
shoulder to shoulder. Women have access
to many places where men cannot go. Women bring intuition, spiritual eyes and
ears in ways a bit different from most men—there is a special nurturing,
mothering, gestating that women bring to spiritual endeavours that is intended
by God to harmonize and synchronize with our male brothers. Scripture depicts women working alongside
Jesus and the other disciples in integral ways and I believe that He intends
that in these days as well.” For the full article please contact carmichaeltrotter@gmail.com
