The Bible is full of stories of God using Missional Girls and Women to serve as prophets, political leaders, and business owners to bring justice, peace, love, truth, and freedom in a broken world. With those biblical models, it was no surprise that my Mother and Grandmother were a part of a core church plant team. They assisted in planting what would become Redeemer Missionary Baptist Church. This church began in a small meeting room of a hotel in downtown Minneapolis and eventually overflowed to a permanent home in the South Minneapolis community where I grew up. This was the church where I learned to sing, serve, and preach, and it was started because two women in my family had a passion and vision for a new church community in their city.
Years later I found myself as a third generation church planter, serving alongside a group of 20 people, planting Sanctuary Covenant Church. I was blessed to become Senior Pastor of this urban, evangelical, multi-ethnic, and fast-growing congregation for eight years. During that time we were blessed to have a young woman named Nicole Bullock come on our staff as a church planter in residence. The goal was for her to serve on staff for 6 to 8 months, gain as much experience as she could, and then be released with her own core team to plant a church. Today, she is the lead pastor of Blue Oaks Covenant Church just North of Minneapolis. I have been fortunate to be around Missional Women whom God has used to start and grow churches for the transformation of lives and communities.
At World Impact where I serve today, women have made a tremendous contribution to urban missions for over 40 years. Missions domestically and globally owe much to the Missional Women of God who have been a fruitful witness to the testimony of incarnational ministry. A significant sign of the fruit of missions is the raising up of church planters, the planting of healthy churches, and the releasing of indigenous leaders who make disciples and impact their communities. Without the incarnational missional efforts of women, I would hate to think about what the state of the church would be in this nation and around the world.
Women were visible following Christ as he walked the earth and in the development of the first Christian communities. Still today at World Impact and beyond God is using Missional Women as teachers, camp directors, inner-city missionaries, prison chaplains, and church planters for the empowerment of the unreached urban poor. I have personally been impacted by these faithful acts of obedience all my life. I am excited for the next generation of Missional Women to serve as prophets, political leaders, and business owners that will follow in the biblical tradition of bringing justice, peace, love, truth, and freedom into under-resourced communities across America.
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