Can a Woman Lead Your Men's Ministry?

For years our men’s ministry struggled to gain any momentum or consistency. Whether or not you believe a men’s ministry is necessary in a church, the reality is there were men in our church who wanted to connect with other men in an intentional fashion and under the umbrella of the church.

The men saw the women in our church regularly running women’s events and their own outreaches and Bible studies and coveted some of the same opportunities for fellowship.

But we couldn’t find any consistent leadership for our men’s ministry. Sure, I oversaw a couple of men’s breakfasts or work days here and there, and they were nice but were sparsely attended. No one afterward was necessarily saying “this was awesome, we need more of this!”

None of the other male pastors or leaders on our staff seemed to have a vision or burden for the men’s ministry despite regularly hearing from men in our church that they desired spiritual connection.

"if your men’s ministry is struggling, perhaps it’s because you’re not considering all your potential leadership options" 

The turning point was when one of our female pastors decided to take the lead. She felt a grace from the Lord to step out and at least temporarily lead the men’s ministry, and as she did so, we watched as the Lord equipped her and empowered her to lead and gave her vision for it.

She gathered a team of men, met with them, brainstormed with them, set dates for events, recruited volunteers, and got things going.

Previously our men’s events had about 15-20 men. Since a woman started leading, we’re regularly having over 50 men come out and expecting as many as 75 this weekend. We began hearing from men that these were some of the best men's events they've been to and that they wanted even more.

Eventually the men’s ministry leadership was delegated to a group of volunteer men who emerged as leaders under the guidance of initial female pastoral oversight and leadership, and they are now doing a great job.

A few takeaways and reflections:

1) I must give the men in our church a lot of credit, especially the eventual leadership group that emerged, who humbly submitted themselves to the leadership of a woman. Of course, ideally (and biblically) we know this should be the norm, but we also know it is not, and so I applaud the men of our church for being different. There were brainstorming meetings about men’s ministry where it was all men with the meeting led/chaired by a woman, and there never seemed to be an issue.

2) A woman leading our men’s ministry wasn’t intended to make a statement. We didn’t intentionally set out to do it to be different or make a point. It’s simply the way an egalitarian church should function, namely, the knowledge that God can call anyone regardless of gender to be the leader of any ministry.

3) There was never a sense that because a woman was leading the men’s ministry that it was because none of the men were “stepping up,” as if a woman leading is an unfortunate concession. This is a common complementarian view, which interprets women in leadership as a sign that men aren’t answering the call. The only reason we now have men mainly leading the ministry is that the female leadership did such a great job equipping and empowering them to lead, which is how the church should function according to Ephesians 4:11-13. The pastor’s job ultimately is to step aside and allow others to lead after equipping them to do so.

So, if your men’s ministry is struggling, perhaps it’s because you’re not considering all your potential leadership options.

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