Every Advocate Needs an Advocate
These two things are true:
I love to advocate for others.
I’m less able to receive advocacy from others.
So, really, I’m trying to grow in both of these things. I want to be a better advocate, particularly for the women in my life. And, I want to receive someone else’s advocacy with grace.
In that spirt, I want to thank my friend and colleague Jessica Fick for her generosity in hosting me on her blog yesterday, with a post about…advocacy. And what’s in it for me.
I’d love it if you’d head over to Jessica’s blog here and take a look. To whet your appetite, here’s the few paragraphs:
Over the years, it has been my joy to advocate for women around me, both in my life and in my ministry context. Indeed, using the power, privilege and access that culture gives me because of my gender to advocate for women has been a transformational experience, both for me and the women around me.
For me, advocacy has meant empathizing when a colleague has been hurt because of negative gender stereotypes.
Advocacy has meant theological engagement with people who are asking women in my life and ministry to take back seat because of their gender. One time, I endured a 2 hour debate highlighted by me being repeatedly called a “false teacher” because of my position on the issue.
Advocacy has meant intentionally investing in women, mentoring them and developing their leadership gifts.
Advocacy has meant hiring women into leadership roles in my organization, leveraging my positional power to gain for them some measure of such power. For instance, when I started leading my current ministry team, there was one woman. Last Fall, during a meeting, I looked around and realized I was the only man in the room.
The bottom line, then, is that I see advocacy for the women around me as a key part of my ministerial calling. After all, advocacy is a Biblical idea. Proverbs 31:8 reads like this: “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, ensure justice for those being crushed.”
But here’s the thing…I’m no hero….
Click here to find out why!
Challenging Tertullian 