by unSeminary: Thanks for joining for this week’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. We have Kadi Cole, who serves as a church consultant, with us today.
Kadi has served in full-time ministry for about 20 years and worked with her Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. During a period of intense church growth, Kadi was appointed to research multi-site in its early days and gathered the information needed to help her church launch their first campus. She now works to help churches with leadership development.
Kadi is with us today to talk about what she’s been learning regarding women leading in the church.
Stained glass ceiling. // A big challenge to think about regarding women or any minority in leadership roles is the stained glass ceiling. These are invisible barriers that are structural or cultural that women run into as they are trying to advance in leadership.Find the discrepancies. // One of the easiest steps to take is to look at how you are paying and giving titles to everyone on your team. There may be a lot of pay and title discrepancies in your church, without your realizing it. Consider a man and a woman who may have the same role targeted in slightly different ways. Are they being paid equally? Do they have the same titles with the same authority and weight in the church?Sticky floor. // The opposite of the glass ceiling is the “sticky floor” and a lot of women run into this problem. The sticky floor is when women hold themselves back because of internal mindsets and biases they have against their own gender based on things they can or cannot do or where they belong. You can do a real service to the women in your whole church body when you approach them and help them see themselves as leaders.Take two for development. // Kadi recommends to always take two people with you when working on mentoring or leadership development. Leadership development often includes meetings or traveling out together to places such as the hospital to visit with people. But instead of taking just one person with you on these trips, take two—a male and female, two males, two females. It prevents the being alone situation and gives more people the chance to learn leadership development. Develop female leaders. // Kadi’s book Developing Female Leaders: Navigate the Minefields and Release the Potential of Women in Your Church gives male pastors and leaders an inside look into how women are thinking and how they can leverage their great leadership potential in your church. Churches are 61% women, but leadership roles are less than 10% women. There is a lot that can be done to develop women that are leading in ministry and Kadi’s book provides tips for how to work on this in your church.
You can learn more about Kadi at her website www.KadiCole.com and learn more about the book at www.developingfemaleleadersbook.com.
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Source: Developing Leaders (Regardless of Gender) at Your Church with Kadi Cole