I. Introduction
Jesus Christ commanded us to love our neighbors as well as God. If we want to follow the teachings of our Christ Jesus, we need to go by His words and practice His commands on the field of our missionary works. If a man does not respect a woman because of her gender, it means that he does not love his neighbor, a disobedience of the word of Jesus Christ who asks us to love our neighbors.
I have been working as an associate Pastor for an immigrant church in the United States of America since 2002. These days quite a large number of churches are training layman Christians to be spiritual leaders through education in belief. I firmly believe that the leadership training in our churches of late is not a mere trend as a fashion for a particular period of time; it is biblical and it is in fact the essence of the teachings of Jesus Christ, which are very much in demand in our time. In this belief, I have engaged in the leadership education of awakening women. Almost all churches produce various kinds of church leaders, such as pastoral district leaders under the male-centered system, and have them teach the church members, sometimes using them as trained leaders for church and community services.
Engaged in serving the Church, I have wondered why churches are not positively acting to use women leaders, well trained in leadership education, for the work of the Lord. Of course, teaching and social services are one of the church’s important activities, but the missionary work, I firmly believe, is the essence and core of the church activities. This lingering question has prompted me to do this study.
Almost all churches are male-centered. Only male mission workers are regarded as legitimate mission workers, and female saints are mostly considered as supplementary helping hands. There is a tendency in the church that the mission work by female mission workers is not usually encouraged. If this study would help to make the Southern Baptist...