Wel­come to my Fri­day col­umn which I have dubbed, HERetic of the Week. Every Fri­day I shine the spot­light on some­one who is liv­ing a life out of step with the patri­ar­chal teach­ing of the church con­cern­ing women. This is a grow­ing tribe (yay!) and I am deter­mined to tell the faith world about them. For some, the idea of women being held in roles of sub­ju­ga­tion is unfa­mil­iar; but for many churches, Chris­tian­ized sex­ism is all-​​too-​​common and the mis­treat­ment of women accepted as nor­mal and even biblical.

It is for this rea­son that I wrote my first book, Unla­dy­like: Resist­ing the Injus­tice of Inequal­ity in the Church. And it is for this rea­son that I have cre­ated this weekly HERetic of the Week. If you know some­one you’d like to nom­i­nate, shoot me an email!

Deb­o­rah Loyd speak­ing to an attendee at last spring’s Women’s The­ol­ogy Camp — photo credit by Diana Det­twyler of www​.dianal​izdet​twyler​.com

Meet Deb­o­rah Loyd. who teaches Pas­toral Stud­ies and Mis­sion at George Fox Sem­i­nary, is a cofounder of Women’s Con­ver­gence, is also a pro­found speaker as well as a wise men­tor to many, and is a wife, mom and grand­mother… AND she is this week’s HERetic of the Week!

When I first met Deb­o­rah, she was copas­tor­ing a church with her hus­band that they planted here in Port­land. The Bridge was the first (and only) church I’ve ever been a part of where women are esteemed along side with their broth­ers. They mod­eled a true Co-​​pastoral lead­er­ship model that I found intrigu­ing as well as refresh­ing. In fact, when Ken left The Bridge to begin a church among Portland’s home­less, Deb­o­rah stayed on announc­ing, “No, Ken and I are not get­ting a divorce. He’s fol­low­ing what God has called him to do and I’m doing what God would have me do and that is pas­tor at The Bridge.”

Her call­ing was def­i­nitely not to be a side­kick to her hus­band and fol­low him wher­ever he went. Some women and men might have a hard time with that, but Deb­o­rah and Ken have built a mar­riage of part­ner­ship and equality.Women can cre­ate our own par­a­digms, our own sto­ries and experiences.

Deb­o­rah has been fre­quent attendee at my Women’s Lis­ten­ing Par­ties and was also one of the fea­tured the­olo­gians at a Women’s The­ol­ogy Camp I orga­nized last spring. Her voice is like a light­house to the women I bring together who are try­ing to unravel their iden­ti­ties from the con­di­tion­ing of patri­ar­chal Christianity.

“We’re not wait­ing for per­mis­sion any­more,” said Deb­o­rah one evening to the group of women crowded together in my liv­ing room for a lis­ten­ing party. “Women can cre­ate our own par­a­digms, our own sto­ries and expe­ri­ences. We don’t need to wait for any­one to give us per­mis­sion to do or be what God has meant for us.”

“It means we have to get cre­ative,” con­tin­ued Deb­o­rah, her dread­locks sway­ing as she turned her head to see each woman around the room. “We get to be in charge of what we want our story to look like.”

Deb­o­rah spoke from expe­ri­ence. She over­came gen­der inequal­ity when she made the bold deci­sion to enroll at a sem­i­nary in pas­toral stud­ies that was not sup­port­ive of women being pastors.

“Why did you do that?” I asked her at one of our fre­quent cof­fee meet-​​ups.

“Because I wanted to learn how to defend women and how to teach this to my com­mu­nity,” she replied. “What bet­ter place than a sem­i­nary? Even though they didn’t believe in women being pas­tors, they were happy to have me, and I learned a lot there,” says Deb­o­rah with char­ac­ter­is­tic graciousness.

Being in a the­o­log­i­cal atmos­phere where her gift­ing was chal­lenged forced Deb­o­rah to study even harder. She learned how to go deep into Scrip­ture and read­ily dis­cov­ered that the Bible is not com­ple­men­tar­ian as some sem­i­nar­ies teach it to be.

Deborah’s fierce com­mit­ment to affirm­ing the full imago dei of God in each woman makes her a cham­pion for women’s equal­ity. She influ­ences many women (and men) to pur­sue the story that God is writ­ing for their lives. The Holy Spirit dis­trib­utes gift­ing based on call­ing, not gen­der, affirms Deborah.

I once recounted to her about a pop­u­lar church here in Port­land that had announced it’s posi­tion about women : banned from lead­er­ship posi­tions that exert author­ity over men. “I am sad for the women of that com­mu­nity today,” responded Deb­o­rah. We spoke at length about the affect such a hard stance would have on half that church. I would have stayed camped on anger towards the patri­ar­chal spirit there, but being with Deb­o­rah helped me remem­ber my sis­ters in that church who would be most affected. That’s how Deb­o­rah rolls.

I am hon­ored to have her pres­ence in my life. She is one of the savvi­est HERetics that I know. If you ever have an oppor­tu­nity to meet her or hear her speak (or need a speaker for your event!) she is a voice to be reck­oned with!

***To learn more about Deb­o­rah, be sure to check out her newly launched video blog.

What do you think about copas­tor­ing between men and women? Have you ever expe­ri­enced this model of lead­er­ship? I wanna hear your thoughts!