‘Youth Pastor of the Year’ — But Her Own Church Couldn’t Accept Her
Celebrated in Public, Rejected in Private: The Struggle of Women in Ministry
Back when I was a youth pastor, I had an intern who was the church’s next rising star. She was celebrated by everyone — everyone, that is, except her own parents.
Why?
Simply because she was a woman in ministry.
Don’t get me wrong. Her parents loved her deeply, of course, but the idea of their daughter taking the pulpit was, in their view, going too far. They were the kind of believers who saw certain boundaries between men and women in ministry as sacred. For them, a woman behind the pulpit wasn’t just breaking tradition; it was crossing a line they believed God himself had drawn.
But she wasn’t about to let that stop her.
She poured herself into her work, connecting with the youth in ways that many of us could only dream of. She was magnetic, a natural leader, and someone who could preach up a storm. And as her mentor, I saw it first-hand — the spark, the passion, the calling.
Then, one night, she won the “Youth Minister of the Year” award at a prestigious ceremony put on by our denomination. It was a big deal for our smallish congregation — the kind…
