A few random thoughts that don't fit under any neat kind of a heading!

At yesterday's Women in Ministry Day, three of our women RMs were sharing some of their thoughts on their roles.  It was interesting, but what struck me was how much we all seem to feel the need to justify not being some perceived stereotype of cuddly, motherly, nurturing types.  Whilst most women ministers are married and many of those are mothers, it doesn't automatically follow that our gifts and skills in the church are reflective of that.  It seemed to be fairly normative experience that churches expect their women ministers to be nice (which I, for one, don't 'do'), maybe a bit of a doormat, certainly willing to double as her own wife and attend the ladies meetings and so on.  For all that, most of us have had other professions/roles before being ministers, and many of us have good leadership, administrative and organisational skills, but it can be difficult to find these valued by churches.  Lack of confidence seemed to abound - one very gifted RM spoke, half jokingly, of her fear of being 'found out.'  We talked about why women (in general, not just in ministry) don't apply for 'senior' positions and concluded it was probably because we look at job descriptions and won't consider ourselves good enough unless we can tick all (or at least most) of the boxes, whilst at least some male colleagues will apply if they can tick one or two.  I'm not sure how true that is generally for men - because I haven't asked any, and I don't know how much it is generational or churchified, but it is interesting.  When I think back to the Baptist (and other traditions) deaconesses, I am pretty sure they weren't cuddly, nice people, because they were thrust into some pretty scary situations where they'd have needed to live on their wits.  This being the case, where did we get our nice cuddly 'lady minister' idea from?  Possibly the equally stereotypical minister's wife...?

Another thought that has been floating around my mind is on the topic of 'branding' in churchified things.  Yesterday we had a session on Godly Play - which is great stuff, but it is also big business, lots of books and places producing the props you need to tell the stories their way: parables have to go in golden boxes and so on.  The Fresh Expressions movement - which is great - has spawned a whole set of branded products.  Messy Church which was one church doing stuff that anyone could do has suddenly become a formula complete with books and logos.  Stuff in pubs has found a brand name and so on.  I'm not quite sure what to think about any/all of this.  My guess is that Alpha has worked wonderfully as a branded evangelism package (even if I prefer Emmaus) and gives people some sense of confidence in attempting to use it.  At the same time, the kind of 'instant outreach model' just add prayer/faith troubles me a bit because it potentially stifles human creativity and, dare I suggest it, even God's spirit.  I have shelves of resource books, some so old they are funny, though the basic ideas remain useful, and I am not anti-branding (afer all I am a Baptistminister), I just wonder if we sometimes rush too quickly to the 'ready meal' when we would be so much more satisfied if we got fresh ingredients and created our own menu?  Maybe it is a symptom of our Post Modern (etc etc) world that despite all our talk of freedom and individuality every church experience, like every high street and shopping centre, feels much the same as any other?

Now if I was clever, I would work out how to relate the two strands of thought above.  I guess the reality is that I'm a fairly creative person - in a broad sense of the word - who also needs order, so whilst I value the prepackaged schemes as starting points, I don't want to be constrained by them.  Perhaps that is why I like working with children who don't yet know all the pat answers - their responses require me to think on my feet and to be willing to explore avenues I hadn't considered.  Structure with flexibility perhaps?  And if that's a girlie thing, well I reckon it is so much better than 'nice'!