Women in Missions

Well, to be exact our question is more: Why are there more women than men in missions?

I have missioned to Romania since 2016. I have seen a total of 3 men on these teams with me. These trips were planned with several different people from all across the USA. My first trip there was a 10 person team and one was a guy, my next was an 11 person team, with a guy leader, and one other guy. The next team had the same guy leader, and one guy in a ten person team. The next team I saw was all girls. I also saw two single guys that wasn’t apart of any teams. We have also served a 70+ person team while in Romania a few times by helping our pastors wife, Ana in the kitchen. And of that I saw maybe 5-10 guys. The ratio is off.

When it was just Nicholas, Alyssa, and I there were opportunities for one of us to speak. Nicholas will tell you that he doesn’t quite care for being the voice. He loves to sit and watch, be observant, lend help when needed/asked. But he doesn’t want to be the one to speak in front of people. I have always had the tendency to be willing and enjoy speaking in front of people. I was really happy to pray over what I was talking about for Sunday school service and for it to end up being the same message as the morning service that quickly followed but using different verses. I was so in awe of God lining that up. When I mentioned it to someone high in authority there and whom I looked up to and she responded with “you shouldn’t have done this. Nicholas should have. If I was in a service where a man is there and he could have lead the service instead of the woman, I would walk out.” This devastated me. I know I’m called to preach. I know I’m called to Romania. So they have to coincide eventually.

In the Christian tradition it is a commonly held belief that only men are fit to be pastors. I find this to be extremely true in America and because of this belief if women wanted to be in a place of leadership that wasn’t the church equivalent of a preschool teacher or lead a women's only bible study, they would go into missions. The city where I live has 306 churches according to our chamber of commerce. I have only heard of one pastored by a woman.

I’m not here to argue whether or not women should be pastors, that’s a different conversation. One I’m completely willing to have. The fact of the matter is this, women are not allowed to hold leadership positions in the average American church so they go elsewhere. Personally, I don’t mind being under leadership, but I have felt stymied and shoved aside when trying to find a place to minister to people the way the Bible and Jesus tell us to. There is no outlet for me in the church, but there is one in missions.

I’m going to be frank, researching articles and statistics for this topic made me angry. There’s a long-running joke in the mission community that “two-thirds of missionaries are married couples, one third are single women and the rest are single men.” While this is a little out of proportion the real statistic is that somewhere between 80-85% of single missionaries are women and out of a ten-person team an average of 2 are men.

We’ve seen this echo when being involved with several different missions teams in Romania and the Balkans field. Every ten person team I’ve seen, normally has 1 man. Sometimes two, maybe. When World Race came through, a 70 person team, I saw maybe 10 men. Maybe. I’ve been able to do things that no “woman could” (like leadership, lead devotions, etc.) but when there was a man on my team and I still did the same thing, I was told that it wasn’t my place and the man on my team would have been better fit. How upsetting it was for me, to be called to a location and leadership and being told because of my sex I am already disqualified.

Before we go any further I need to preface my future thoughts by saying this, I do want more single men in missions. Often though in the search for more men, people will degrade the work of the women who came before them by saying things like ‘women can only be nurturing and compassionate and we need men to be “bold and passionate carriers of the gospel” as if women are simply incapable of doing that. We are ALL called to be fearless in our pursuit of love, truth, and justice. Men and women can absolutely complement one another on the mission field but it’s unfair to the majority of people actually doing the work (missionary women) to put them down so we can coddle more men into positions of leadership in missions.

We've seen articles that destroy women's acts on the missions field in order to show the need for men on it. This brings up another point, this type of approach to getting men in missions brings a spirit of offense into the church. Proverbs 18:19 says that “A brother who is offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and quarrels are like the bars of a citadel.” (The word brother here also means person or friend and isn’t limited to men.)

So to sum up, we need more men in missions and we should celebrate the women already doing the work.

Ask God to show you where you fit. To take down any barriers that you don't realize you have against certain genders or sex. Do some Bible deep dives into seeing culturally and periodically why the Bible says certain things for or against differing genders. Be open. If someone is of good character and anointed, listen to them. Listen to your community. Love your neighbor. Grow.

If you would like to study more into missions, we highly recommend reading the book: Helping without Hurting in Short-Term Missions.

Also, the authors assume that you have read Helping Without Hurting first. Which is also beyond helpful.

There's another super helpful Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence, which is also great for those involved in church and church leadership.

*Our posts occasionally have affiliate links attached. We utilize this money to assist us with our move, living expenses, and travel expenses as full time missionaries in Romania.*

If you would like to partner with us through funding for being full time missionaries in Romania you can visit our patreon page at www.patreon.com/thenationscall or you can visit our page How To Partner With Us. Thank you so much!

Here's the Podcast version. It's the same theme but it's not transcribed so there are various conversations we have on the blog vs on the podcast.