Celebrating the Gifts Women Bring to Weekly Worship

CBMW just featured a really helpful piece on ten ways for women to serve the church in weekly worship. It’s a joint post for CBMW by Boyce College professor Scott Connell and his wife, Mary. I encourage you to read it, chew on it, and think it over in your own church.

Toward that end, here are three of the Connell’s points:

Read: Any text can be read, but some texts of the Word of God have a unique weight when heard in a woman’s voice. It’s a blessing to hear the heartfelt proclamation of worship found in Mary’s Magnificat by a woman’s voice (Luke 1:47-55).  Imagine the many other biblical narratives that feature the thoughts and actions of women.

Testify: Sharing the personal experience of the difference Christ has made in her life is a powerful way to express gratefulness for the gospel in the life of the church. Women help others understand God’s love for them in distinctive ways (Isaiah 49:15, 54:5).

Model: The passion and emotion of a woman as part of the worship team is a compelling model for all worshipers to see.  Her affection and enthusiasm for God will direct many to Him in worship (Ex. 15:20-21, Mark 14:1-9).

Read the whole thing.

I’m eager to feature much more of this kind of constructive thinking at CBMW. Our goal is think richly and freshly about all of life and worship in fidelity to Christ and his Word. We are eager to celebrate the many gifts women offer to the church. Congregations will thrive when all members are engaged and serving the body. As evangelicals, we don’t always think hard about weekly worship–we can just go through the motions–but we very much need to do so.