sisters aren't doin' it for themselves

I really love this song. The video makes me love it more.

But I had a sudden thought yesterday on the way home from church with my girls, listening to my girl power playlist and singing along with the chorus.

That's not what gender justice in the church is about. In the church, sisters are not doin' it for themselves.

We're doing it (seeking justice) for ourselves because we're doing it for everyone: us, them, you, all. It's not about seeking independence or autonomy, or individual rights--it's about recognizing our interdependence, our connectedness, our need of each other. It's about wanting to give everything we have; it's about wanting to serve the whole church.

When you listen to women discuss their ministries, you hear them express a desire to serve. And yet, when you listen to those who insist that women must be silent and bereft of authority, you hear a consistent suspicion that women are seeking power or attention or acting out of selfish ambition or jealousy. That they're just doing it for themselves.

That's one reason the Half the Church podcasts are so powerful. It's difficult--I want to even say impossible--to listen to these women talk about the desire to serve and characterize them as self-serving.

Go on: I dare you. Listen. And really ask yourself: are these sisters "doin' it for themselves?"