six women leaders to avoid

8/7/2019 Six Women Leaders to Avoid

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A popular female evangelist arrived at an airport and was escorted to the baggage claim area. After she retrieved her luggage she was taken to the passenger pickup lounge where she met her hosts from a local church, who planned totake her in a comfortable van to a nearby hotel so she could rest before speaking at an evening service.

The members of the welcoming team were not prepared for this woman's icy response to their greeting. When theyopened the door to the van, she told them bluntly: "I will not ride in that." Then she stormed back into the airport withher entourage. After making inquiries, one of the church staff was informed by the woman's assistant that Her

Highness must be transported in a certain type of vehicle.

The stated choices were a Bentley, a Mercedes-Benz or a Lincoln Town Car! Nevermind that Jesus Christ rode intoJerusalem on a donkey. This regal woman of God insisted on arriving in luxury.

When I heard this story I didn't know whether to start a petition drive or just vomit on the spot. I was outraged,bewildered and nauseated.

For the last seven years I have given my life to help empower and release women leaders in the church. I havededicated my life to ending gender discrimination-especially when it limits women's spiritual gifts and callings.

Yet when I hear of poor examples of women pastors and preachers, I must confess I fight discouragement. Yes, weneed many more trained women church leaders-but we don't need any more bad examples!

In my travels I have observed all kinds of women leaders, some who are stellar role models and others who would dous all a favor if they pursued different careers. If you have aspirations to pursue leadership in ministry at any level, Ipray you will avoid becoming like the ones I am about to describe.

1. THE DIVA To this woman, ministry is all about her. She is the star. Surely she started out with genuine passion for God, but today her message is not defined by her unseen prayer life but by what people see on stage. Greed andpride have deceptively lured her into compromise.

She knows how to move a crowd. There is obviously a strong anointing on her life, but it has been subtly fused with acarnal agenda. She can inspire people to success and wow them with her own accomplishments, but there is nothingin her sermon that brings true repentance or brokenness. Her message may be loud, and it can elicit shouts at thealtar. But the people don't realize they've been drugged with a spiritual form of cocaine that triggers a religious highbut can't bring them closer to Jesus.

The diva is known for her demands. Someone must carry her Bible, her water bottle, her purse and her cell phone.Those who ask her to preach in their church soon learn that she is "high maintenance." She will require the priciesthotel rooms and the biggest offerings-which she will collect with plenty of manipulative arm-twisting.

Her Christian values were once admirable. But the holy fire that burned in her heart a few years ago has beenquenched by greed and an addiction to the crowd's approval. She stopped studying the Bible and now focuses moreon what she plans to wear at her conferences. She stopped spending time in God's presence and began craving theglow of television lights.

The diva loves grand entrances. She comes into the meeting late and is whisked off the stage as soon as she hasdelivered her sermon. She doesn't associate with common folks or spend too much time praying for them. A strangeatmosphere surrounds her: A mixture of the Holy Spirit's irrevocable gifting and a disturbing aura of self-importance.Only those who are discerning can recognize the difference.

2. THE CONTROL FREAK If you saw the movie The Devil Wears Prada you know the type of leader I am talking

about. Unfortunately the main character of that film, the fearsome fashion publisher Miranda Priestly, has a fewcounterparts in the religious world.

Beware of this woman if she is in any church leadership position. She rules with an iron fist and leaves a trail of wounded bodies behind her. Somehow she missed the elementary Leadership 101 class, which teaches that everyChristian leader must learn to serve. To her, authority is about dominating people.

This woman does not know how to delegate. She is not a team player. The control freak believes she knows all theanswers, and therefore she must sign off on all decisions, no matter how petty. People line up outside her door night



and day to get her approval, and anyone who needs an appointment is first advised to obtain a "weather report" onher shifting moods.

Somehow this woman never took care of her anger issues when she was a young Christian. Now that she has aposition of power, no one is brave enough to challenge her ungodly behavior. She surrounds herself with yes-menand yes-women who dislike her authoritarianism but are too intimidated to admit that her ruthless temper is a sin.

The control freak has no peers and doesn't have a relational style. She may claim to have an older mentor (whousually lives in a distant city) but she doesn't open up her life to those who work with her. They are her subjects, andshe demands obedience and long hours of work to prove loyalty. Her employees usually resign on a regular basisbecause of her harsh criticism and abusive words.

3. THE FLIRT I recently took a pastor friend of mine to a conference to hear a visiting woman preacher from another state. Imagine my horror when this lady walked to the podium wearing a dress that looked like it had been sprayedon.

Every curve and crevice on this woman's body was visible to the ogling eyes in the audience. Some of the guys, totheir credit, began looking at the floor toward the end of her sermon so they would not commit adultery in their thoughts. I wanted to run to the podium, grab one of those "modesty cloths" they use during prayer times and wrap itaround Sister Shapely before anyone else stumbled.

This woman obviously missed the memo about adopting a "professional and sensible dress code" for ministry. Or perhaps she simply ignored the memo because of her own unresolved sexual issues. Somebody should have yankedher off the platform and sent her back to the new believer's class, where godly women teach other women why it'swrong to use their femininity as a sexual weapon.

The flirt disregards sexual boundaries. She hangs around with men alone in the church office, and might evencounsel men alone. She may even use sexually charged language or veiled vulgarity in her sermons. (Note: Justbecause male leaders engage in this behavior does not make it acceptable.)

Women in ministry do not have to wear their hair in a bun or don ankle-length flannel dresses in order to be modest.There's nothing wrong with looking your best. My favorite women leaders usually wear smart pantsuits, tasteful

jewelry and comfortable shoes when they preach. They dress like respectable businesswomen-and they commandrespect from their churches because of it.

4. THE FLAKE God knows we need leaders today who understand the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But whenever there arerevivals of Pentecostal power, the devil always lures some people to unbalanced and unhealthy extremes. In themodern charismatic movement, leaders who misuse the gifts of prophecy or other supernatural phenomena havedeceived or irreparably wounded many people.



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Comments

1234

#39 nathan J 2010-07-30 22:42

Brother Lee, Why don't you name names of frauds like this.

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#38 Rickd 2010-07-30 15:45

I can see AC's point. First, I think its strange that someone says 99% of Lees comments are usually addressed to

men leaders and 1% to women?! Can't be true, but that is supposed to make this article all right? There is no male or

female in Christ...most of these traits mentioned belong to both sexes and to pitch them only at women seems

stereotyped and a little misogynist. I like Lee, he wrote a great book on women's ministry, but this seems to appeal to

all the stereotypes about women leaders.

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#37 Lizanne McNally 2010-07-30 13:52

I think there are many "DIVO" men who are also a disgrace to the name of Jesus Christ who walk in pride and

arrogance without LOVE!!!!!

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#36 King Priest 2010-07-30 09:51

Makes me want to stay in the wilderness til all my "junk" is ironed out. God uses weak & imperfect people. And are

you talking about Juanita Bynum? Paula White for "Miss Shapely"?

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#35 pollybmc 2010-07-30 09:33

Sadly, there are people on here fighting about his words...the fact is, the world sees these behaviors in the Church

and doesn't want to have anything to do with it...and as a Christian myself, I struggle with being around any of the 6

personalities listed above (be they men or women as he noted in his last section).

I just want to see as many people come into the Kingdom of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit as possible...remember,

there are wolves in sheep's clothing...we've been warned.

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#34 AC 2010-07-30 06:25

Quoting Big Pickle:

I don't understand why you seem to be taking this personally.



Well, I'm nowhere near the vicinity of a leadership position but I am a woman, and given that the article speaks about

women's behavior, it does pertain me personally on some level, as it does to the other female readers.

When I read something, I form opinions, and I was under the impression that I was allowed to post my opinion in the

comments section. But it seems to me that anything less than positive doesn't quite sit well with people, just like

church, so yeah, I think I'm in the wrong place, once again.

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#33 AC 2010-07-30 06:16

Quoting Big Pickle:

Women should not get offended and cry sexist...

If women actually followed that, there wouldn't be any women's rights today.

If Christian male leaders are all too often criticized in the media, it's probably because the church is a patriarchal

institution where the leaders are predominantly men. If they have a problem with it, they have every right to speak up.

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#32 Big Pickle 2010-07-30 06:13

AC

Grady has addressed men in most of his articles and has been tough , hard and convicting. This one time he is

writing an article to female leaders in the Spirit lead Women emagazine so of course he is speaking to female leaders

that was the whole point.

If he is writing to children's leaders then he would warn them about the dangers of bad leadership involving kids.

I don't understand why you seem to be taking this personally.

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#31 AC 2010-07-30 06:06

@Big Pickle

The author made the article about gender when he chose women as the subject. So really, gender issues are

relevant.

I do see the reason for the article, which is why I believe that focusing on one gender undermines that purpose. The

quality of leadership today is having a devastating effect on the church. The behaviors of many leaders are damaging

people, who consequently walk away from the church and walk away from God. These leaders are both men and



women.

My second qualm about the article is its tone, which I found to be passive aggressive and tongue-in-cheek (eg. the

"Ms. Shapely" reference). While you may be fine with it, I did not care for it.

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#30 Ivan Rule 2010-07-30 05:46

We have them woman on this side of the world also .

new the 4 all in 1

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