(Ardis D Stenbakken - Women’s Ministries Director
Lynnetta Hamstra - Associate)
A “Women in Leadership” initiative was announced at an Adventist World Session news conference on Monday, July 3. Ardis Stenbakken, director of Women’s Ministries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, described plans for a taskforce aimed at finding ways to increase the participation and representation of women in the church.
“During the coming months, a taskforce will be created to discover new and creative ways of including women in the church and its leadership structure,” Stenbakken said, adding that the initiative had the support of Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist Church. Stenbakken cited tradition and current church structure as having made it slow and difficult for women to achieve leadership positions. “The taskforce will look at ways to make paths and opportunities, beginning at the local church level and proceeding through all levels of administration.”
Currently, church leadership positions held by women account for only 10 percent of the total in the church. “According to the church constitution, only the position of president requires ordination. Everything else is open to women,” said Stenbakken, who hopes that the taskforce will “find a way around barriers, educate, and overcome barriers faced by women.”
“Only 15 percent of the delegates at this General Conference Session are women, but this is a 5 percent increase from the previous session,” said Stenbakken. “We’re not happy with that, but at least we’re heading in the right direction.” She cited the leadership taskforce, education and mentoring as the primary means Women’s Ministries plans to use in the next five years to address the issues faced by women. Stenbakken also noted that many delegates are chosen because of their position of leadership. Consequently, in order to increase the number of female delegates, it may be necessary for some of these people and/or their perceptions to be changed, she said. “Some of the committees listed on the agenda do not have any women on them.”
Scholarships will continue to be used by Women’s Ministries to address the lack of mentoring and leadership training available to women in the Adventist Church, said Lynnetta Hamstra, associate director for Women’s Ministries at the General Conference, noting that a total of 452 scholarships have been given to different Divisions since 1983. “We want to send Seventh-day Adventist women to Seventh-day Adventist Colleges, so they can serve in our church, and serve all people,” said Hamstra. “The Women’s Ministries director for the Euro-Asia Division was a recipient of one of these scholarships, which are funded from the sale of a devotional book produced by our department.”
When Women’s Ministries was reorganized in 1990, it conducted a survey that highlighted six issues which particularly challenged women–illiteracy, abuse, poverty, health risks, work loads, and lack of mentoring and leadership training. “These issues affect women in the church, out of the church, in first world countries and third-world countries,” said Stenbakken.
“In the past, neither society nor the church--including our church--has paid much attention to the needs of women. This for me is a problem, especially since 70 percent of the church are women,” said Stenbakken. “Therefore it is imperative that we as a church, society, and the press look at women’s issues whenever possible, not to say ‘woe is me’ but to correct whatever inequities or injustices there may be.”
As well as the taskforce and scholarship initiatives, Women’s Ministries is also compiling a database of “professionals” which can be used in reference to career openings. This will particularly be used in draw women from the church who work in non-traditional roles and present them as candidates for leadership positions.
“I’m particularly proud of the fact that Women’s Ministries is a needs-based ministry. We suggest that women find out what women need–our mandate is to train women for this ministry.” Stenbakken emphasized the importance of Women’s Ministries being a bible-based ministry, and used Micah 6:8 (the Lord requires to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God) and Proverbs 31:8 (the need to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.) “The biblical mandate of Titus 3 - this encourages older women to teach younger women. Everyone is older than someone else.” |
