Lead Bold champions female pastors to live in the full expression of their calling for maximum impact in the church.
Lead Bold has some big news to share about our next chapter.
A Letter from our Director
To my Lead Bold Community ~
About seven years back, we had this idea for Lead Bold: to create a space for women in ministry, something we just weren't seeing out there. Our heart was to open wide the gates for all women leading in any ministry context to be empowered to their full potential. Eight conferences later, we’ve empowered female leaders and have seen some beautiful fruit from this community!
After the pandemic we felt a strong pull to offer ongoing, intimate-sized cohorts as a supplemental experience to our conferences. And as we launched our first one, I felt a particularly clear sense that it should be for pastors. (Here is where I usually put a * after the word pastor to denote that when I say pastor, I mean any woman in vocational, pastoral ministry on a church staff whether or not her church gives her the title of pastor.) Anyway…I felt God was leading me to concentrate our efforts on pastors. Now, we are in our fourth year of offering an annual cohort, and I’m more convinced than ever that this is a needed space for these pastors.
If I could back up a bit…I grew up in a conservative church setting in which I always knew I was a leader but was taught that there were Biblical limits to that leadership. And I accepted that. One of my adult leaders told me that someday I would “make a great youth pastor’s wife”…and I took that as the highest compliment! (Which I now feel a mix of sadness and indignation over, but alas, my 15-year-old self simply didn’t have a category for anything different.) In fact, even when I started full-time seminary almost a decade later, I wasn’t looking to become a pastor as much as I was simply trying to equip myself to lead in the church, regardless of my title. It so happens that I did become a pastor, serving at a church that puts no limits on my leadership.
That’s my story. Just one story.
I share it because in my role as Executive Director of Lead Bold, I’ve gotten to hear many, many…many of your stories. But the ones that lie heaviest on my heart are those of women who are pastors. Some have come to their role reluctantly, some have forged their path with pure grit, some have been raised with full support but hit the wall of resistance once they actually stepped into the pulpit, and some–like me–have had to deconstruct and reconstruct their own theology to embrace the name “pastor” at all.
But no matter how a female pastor got where she is, her leadership in the church holds some added-on challenges simply by nature of being a “she.” When I’ve gathered with other women who are pastors, and these vulnerabilities are voiced, it truly is a sacred space.
These past few months as I, along with our Lead Bold Board, have been paying particular attention to God’s invitation in this season, there has been real clarity that we need to pivot the mission and vision of Lead Bold to focus solely on women pastors*.
We’ve had one cheek on the seat of activating female pastors. Now we sense God’s urging us to sit with both cheeks!
A few conferences ago, one of our speakers Barb Roose gave a great visual for leadership: She said that so often as women we are invited to lead–to sit in the seat at the table–and we do. But for a myriad of reasons, we sit with only one “cheek” on the seat! (See…I told you it was a great visual!) She challenged us to sit with both cheeks, confident that this was a seat God made for you.
That image kept coming back to me as we thought about Lead Bold’s future. We’ve had one cheek on the seat of activating female pastors. Now we sense God’s urging us to sit with both cheeks!
And we’re saying yes!
So what does all this mean? Well…what I’d ask from you for now, is simply to stay tuned. We’re committed to transitioning our mission thoughtfully and that means we will…
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Re-direct those of you in the Lead Bold community who are not pastors to other trusted ministries, organizations and leaders to support you in your ministry leadership. We are committed to ensuring a healthy transition and will actively help you find these new connections.
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Re-engage those of you who are pastors so you don’t miss upcoming resources and events, tailored to support your unique church leadership experience.
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Re-envision a curated, in-person gathering for female pastors in place of the larger conferences we have been offering. We will not be holding our regular fall conference.
I speak on behalf of our leadership team and board when I say that we are so thankful for the work we have gotten to do with and for you! And we look ahead to this next chapter of Lead Bold, hopeful that God will use us to galvanize and multiply the contributions that women pastors are making to both their local church and the “Big C” Church!
Continuing to Lead Boldly With You,
Andrea Coli
Executive Director
“I was given tools to improve my life, leadership and ministry.”
“Lead Bold ignited my spiritual hunger for more!”
