Women Pastors Writing New Chapters in Our Story

by Jeff Finley

The Free Methodist Church USA has a powerful story of women in ministry that includes both inspiring and challenging chapters. The story remains unfinished although there’s growing anticipation about exciting chapters to come.

Many evangelical denominations have very different stories, but several have similar beginnings or plot points. In fact, every two years, Free Methodist women pastors meet with likeminded leaders from the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) and Wesleyan Church for the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy (WHWC) conference.

This year’s gathering, E2022:[Her]Story, drew more than 600 women along with a few men (including this journalist) to a hotel in Grapevine, Texas. Before the interdenominational March 10–12 conference officially began, approximately 150 Free Methodist women met at the same hotel for the two-day Our Story gathering.

“The Free Methodist pre-gathering was the single most valuable resource that I, as a woman leader, have experienced in my life as a Free Methodist, and I have been a Free Methodist all of my life,” said Kathryn Martin, an elder in The River Conference.

Leading the Way

While Our Story was just for women, Free Methodists met again during E2022:[Her]Story for a March 11 denominational gathering that included women clergy along with some men who serve in denominational roles.

The three FMCUSA bishops shared about the five core values of The Free Methodist Way. They discussed how these values — life-giving holiness, love-driven justice, Christ-compelled multiplication, cross-cultural collaboration, and God-given revelation — reflect the denomination’s support of women in ministry.

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“I feel totally like a full partner. I feel respected. My voice is heard. We are in it together.”

– Bishop Linda Adams

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“We wanted to make sure you understand that we believe this plurality of leadership is a good idea and that the men and women working together are doing it well,” said Bishop Linda Adams, who reflected on her experiences as a woman working closely with two men. She recalled telling Bishops Keith Cowart and Matt Whitehead, “I feel totally like a full partner. I feel respected. My voice is heard. We are in it together.” She then told the women clergy, “We just thought you’d like to know that, because it’s the truth.”

She noted that she was questioned about The Free Methodist Way while in Latin America, where nine of the 17 national Free Methodist leaders are women. The Latin American Free Methodists asked her, “Why isn’t the fact that we believe in leadership of women one of our five values?”

She explained, “Actually, we come at that value of men and women leading together through all five of the values.” Regarding life-giving holiness, she noted that God calls both women and men as reflected in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost when “the Holy Spirit was poured out, and ‘your sons and daughters will prophesy even on My servants, both men and women.’ How much more explicit could Dr. Luke have been on the Day of Pentecost, and he’s coming from Joel? … The gifts of the Spirit are never tied to gender in the New Testament.”

Whitehead linked love-driven justice with “our support for women in ministry and our understanding that that is a critical value to who we are as a people.” He emphasized the commitment of the bishops and superintendents “to live out this value in the context of our work in appointments and MEG [Ministerial Education and Guidance] boards. It’s critical in not only understanding who we are today but where we’re headed as a people, and that commitment is a commitment that’s grounded in the reality of who God is, the good news of the gospel, and our ability as a people to speak truth to power — to recognize that we have a prophetic voice in society and the world, and, by God’s grace, we’ll continue to do that.”

While discussing Christ-compelled multiplication, Cowart told the women clergy, “It is incredibly exciting to see this particular group of people. We’ve been talking a whole lot about our concern about the dearth in our leadership pipeline. We don’t have a lot of young people in our leadership pipeline. I’m telling you, in this room, there’s a lot of young people! We are really encouraged, not just by the young people but by the quality and depth of these young people.”

Cowart thanked the longtime women pastors “who came first. You’re beginning to see the fruit of what you’ve been doing now for decades.” He added, “For those who are young here, you’ve got to keep it going with more and more multiplication. We want to multiply what God is doing.” He said that the bishops and members of the Executive Leadership Team (XLT) each have “at least three people we’re mentoring, and we’ve said, ‘We’re placing a priority on women and people of color in all of those roles where we are mentoring.’”

Adams added that Free Methodist founder “B.T. Roberts’ primary motivation, according to how he argued why women ought to be leading in the church, was multiplication. He wanted all hands on deck.” She shared this Roberts quote: “If only the brothers would stop wasting their energy pushing the sisters off the scaffold and get busy building up the house of God.

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“There really is no question about the fact that God fully calls and empowers both men and women into ministry and into service.” 

– Bishop Matt Whitehead

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She then discussed the value of cross-cultural collaboration. “The truth is we need a greater variety of voices at the table, and that has to do with gender. That has to do with race, language, culture, and that’s not only for the rest of the world. That’s here,” Adams said. “The Free Methodist Church is far more diverse in many other places than it is here [in the United States], and we have a long way to go on this. But we trust the Lord has good work for us to do, and we’re in the process of moving in the right direction.”

In discussing God-given revelation, Whitehead said that when considering “the role of women in the church, the Bible is clear. Some of our brothers and sisters in the evangelical world don’t necessarily believe that, but as Free Methodists, the Bible is clear. There really is no question about the fact that God fully calls and empowers both men and women into ministry and into service.”

After sharing about The Free Methodist Way, the bishops hosted a time of questions and comments. Several pastors noted that this year’s conference attracted a younger and more diverse group of women clergy.

“I am one of those younger generations. I am Hispanic,” said Priscilla Poettker, the executive pastor of McPherson Revolution Church in Kansas. “Getting to see my mom ordained as I was growing up — and now I’m in that process — has just been really cool.”

Poettker expressed appreciation for the E2022:[Her]Story conference helping her “see how much more I have to look forward to, how much more network I have, and how crazy it is to have such a huge family” of women clergy.

Gateway Conference Elder Deborah Somerville said that when she and other retired women pastors had lunch together during E2022:[Her]Story, they discussed “how impressed we are by the quality of the women who are coming along behind us. It’s mind-blowing. I can count on one hand and maybe two fingers the number of women that I had as role models, and now you ladies are multiplying.”

Somerville advised the younger pastors that the retired pastors will be praying for them as they “are going to be up against things we never had to face in parish ministry — the culture, the social issues, the things you are going to have to be standing up to and standing up for, and you will not be standing alone.”

In response to a question about diversity in key leadership posts, Adams said progress is being made while additional diversity remains a need. She noted that our denomination’s “Board of Administration is by far the most diverse it’s even been” with “about a third people of color and about a third women, and the chair of the BOA [Susan Agel] is a woman.” She said the XLT includes Strategic Catalyst for Justice Fraser Venter, who is biracial and “has embodied the complexity of the racial challenge in our country from birth,” and Co-Strategic Catalyst for Multiplication Deb Walkemeyer. Adams said, “Part of Deb’s leadership development focus is going to be on women especially.”

A few minutes later, the women clergy heard a message from Walkemeyer, who shared from John 4 about a Samaritan woman whose “story intersected with God’s story, and her story continues to intersect with our story over 2,000 years later.”

This woman at the well accepts Jesus’ offer to rewrite her story.

“Obviously, she’s been impacted because then we see her leave her jar. She gets up and runs back to her village, and what she did is she began the first evangelistic ministry,” said Walkemeyer, who noted that verse 39 states that the woman’s testimony caused many people from her town to believe. “Women and men of God, we are called to the same gospel story, and as Free Methodists, this is a part of our story, because we’re free people who free people, and anything else is off script.”

Walkemeyer said she is saddened that we don’t know the Samaritan woman’s name, “but what’s so great is we get to insert our name into this story, and that’s God’s story, and He wants to intersect His story with each and every one of our stories.”

The evening closed with a liturgy written by Pam Cowart (Bishop Cowart’s wife) and read by Marianne Pena Martinez — a pastor of New Vision Church in Hialeah, Florida — followed by prayer from Vanilda Reyes de Noyes — a pastor of CrossPointe Community in Westlake, Ohio, and the new Free Methodist representative on the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy Board of Directors.

Statements in the liturgy included: “You have written our next chapter; therefore we trust steadily in You. You have written our next chapter; therefore we hope unswervingly. You have written our next chapter; therefore we love extravagantly. You have written our next chapter and it’s all about Jesus.”

Reyes de Noyes prayed in both English and Spanish. She thanked God for the blessing of the women clergy being together and noted, “Lord, You have written each one of our stories, and You have weaved them together in this place.”

FM Speakers

Free Methodists were well-represented among the E2022:[Her]Story speakers. Soo Ji Alvarez — the lead pastor of The Avenue in Riverside, California — spoke multiple times from the main stage along with other WHWC board members.

Alvarez moderated a March 10 main session featuring the Women’s Leadership Panel, which included River Conference Superintendent Amelia Cleveland-Traylor. Other conference speakers said they feel like they’re being forced to play musical chairs to compete for positions. Cleveland-Traylor said, “I haven’t been asked to play any games of musical chairs, but I would say the problem I’ve experienced more often is people wanting to pigeonhole me to get in a particular chair. There have been many times when there’s an opportunity but women wanting — or even men wanting — to relegate us to a particular women’s ministry that is just weird or fluffy.”

The next day’s schedule included the Men’s Leadership Panel with two Free Methodist panelists — Pacific Northwest Conference Superintendent Michael Forney and former Bishop Kevin Mannoia. Forney said he has learned that “if you lean into your capacity, you’ll always be less than what God wants you to be. He sees your capacity. He created you with that capacity, but what He sees in you is beyond your capacity. It’s His Spirit in and through you that creates a multitude of more fruitfulness.”

When asked about women who’ve influenced him, Mannoia said he had been impacted by many of the women at the conference, but “to pick one out at a formative age, I would say a teacher of mine by the name of Lois Kingsley. She and her husband were strong leaders in the Free Methodist Church, and she formed me at an early age with the image of a woman who was a compassionate, strong leader and pulled the best in my thinking.”

Free Methodists also were well-represented among workshop leaders.

Alvarez led a workshop on “Faith and Politics: Can we talk about it?” Oregon Conference Elder Trisha Welstad, the director of The Leadership Center, led a workshop on “Coaching Vocational Discernment & Practice.” Greenville University Admissions Coordinator Deedra Mager and alumna Megan Hall taught about the “Enneagram and Spiritual Formation.” Tapestry Church Co-Lead Pastor Heather Baker Utley, who also works for Light + Life as a web designer and serves as the WHWC communications coordinator, led the “Digital Disciples: Building Your Ministry’s Presence and Participation in Online Spaces” workshop.

The Set Free Movement’s Emily Hlavka Freed and Abby Fritzgerald led a workshop on “Reducing Vulnerability to Human Trafficking and Creating New Futures Through Community-Based Action.” Other Free Methodists shared their wisdom during the Set Free workshop including Bishop Adams, Camille Pook of First Free Methodist Church in Seattle, and missionary Tanya Rosado.

Click here to watch main sessions and some workshops on the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy YouTube channel. +