Home       About Us       News & Events       Get Involved


Why a women’s organization in the 21st century?

Why would the women in my church participate?
by Doris Sparks

If you have not asked those questions yourself, someone probably has asked them of you, or someone you know is thinking them. You might find it interesting that a clergy woman is writing an article about the importance of women meeting together, but I want to tell my story and, in doing so, offer my thoughts on the answers to those questions.

I went to seminary in 2000. I was 50 at the time. My journey to seminary and to ordination was facilitated by many women who had first gone to the women’s missionary society meetings with their mothers.

In the 1970s, I was one of the young women in my women’s group, the kind who are still longed for in women’s groups throughout the ELCA today. The women I met when I was a young adult nurtured me, mentored me, and helped me through raising three children, moving, depression, and all of life’s struggles. I never had a sister, but I continue to have many sisters in Christ.

There are not many things in the church or in the women’s organization that I have not done: council meetings, newsletters, janitorial duties, visiting the sick, Bible studies, kitchen duties, Sunday school, vacation Bible school (and that’s before seminary!). I found that true heart-to-heart sharing usually only occurred when I was with small groups of women.

When I was young, grandmothers lived near or with their families. There was built in help and support for both the significant and the daily challenges of life, from birthing to the first gray hair. By contrast, my children live in three different states, and this is the norm, not the exception. Add to the mix women who grew up in dysfunctional families and never had loving support, and you have the status of many, many women today: lacking the basic support of other women.

You can be in a meeting with men for days and know nothing about them, but if you spend two hours with a group of women, you’ll know all about all sorts of intimate details. (You’re smiling, aren’t you?) This level of trust and sharing does not occur in our corporate or professional lives, where the challenges of life are seen as weaknesses or obstacles rather than the normal rhythms of life. And sharing outside the faith community gets us pop psychology.

In our sophistication and modernity, we have become isolated. The remedy to that is Women of the ELCA: “a community of women.”
We are more isolated than ever before. Women need connections to others, older and younger, in order to pass on and receive shared wisdom and life stories, and to learn from one another’s faith walks. In this way, we become strong, vibrant women.

The mission of Women of the ELCA is “to mobilize women to act boldly on their faith in Jesus Christ.” Women have always banded together to do things. Women don’t just talk about things, we act. That is how we got the vote and how so many other things get done.

The purpose statement spells out what we are about. Where else do we hold up such lofty goals for young women, for working women, for seniors—for all women? At every age, we should be seeking the things that are the reason for this organization. Every woman is “called to discipleship in Jesus Christ.” Most women lament that they don’t have enough time for everything, but this organization provides help for the challenges of life and support on our journeys. If the women of your congregation are doing all that is in the purpose statement without sharing with the larger community of women, they have let the rest of us down by not sharing. Invite all the women to come and share with others those things they do well, so that we might all be better disciples. All the women in the ELCA need to participate in the organization that so clearly defines who they are and what they are about.

I am passionate about this organization because I know many women who have had their gifts affirmed here and have gone on to be businesswomen, mothers, grandmothers, pastors, and every other walk of life. They were strong in faith, they encouraged others, and they shared the gospel with others. There is a place here for you, your friend, your neighbor, your daughter, and your mother.

The greatest invitation ever offered was “come and see.” I invite you to invite others to “come and see” what Women of the ELCA is all about.

Doris Sparks is a member of the board of the Southeast Michigan Synodical Women’s Organization and pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Chelsea, Michigan. This article first appeared in her SWO newsletter “The Loom.”