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Dr. Amy Reynolds
After over ten years’ involvement with gender equity efforts in Christian nonprofits, mostly in the United States, I was very excited to be part of a conversation around women in leadership at Micah Global. I went to Cape Town eager to learn from female church and faith leaders who have been persistent in their activism for justice and shalom in their communities. My experience with these women exceeded my expectations. A central takeaway for me was the humble relational practices of many Christian women leaders. And their Spirit-led persistence. Both of these challenged me to think how I might live differently.
Learning from Global Women Leaders
Many of the women I learned from have amazing resumes – marching with Desmond Tutu, helping lead democracy movements, serving as official leads of the evangelical community in their country, political leadership in international creation care dialogues. They are helping Christians think about issues of faith and justice, and as one leader, Carol Ng’ang’a noted, often providing a space for people seen as too radical for Church or too Christian for activist spaces.
These women, among so many others, are humble leaders who make time for other people. It was clear in the day that we spent together that these leaders are asking how to support younger leaders; how to allow themselves to be challenged; how to work cooperatively with others. They make dinner for their friends. They listen to the story of a new acquaintance. They pray for shared justice work.
Their humility is part of what is tied to their ability to invest deeply in relationships. Dr. Melba Maggay, for example, shared how Micah Global came together because of the conversations and commitments of friends. People, who across continents and other demographics, were united in their desire to live out a holistic Gospel, and who recognized their need for one another in that process. She notes that they didn’t come together to change the world – but to pray for one another, to strategize, to be a sounding board for one another. It reminded me of the importance of friends praying together, scheming together, dreaming together, and how most statements or organizations start with such engagement.
They have persisted in radically following Jesus. They are questioning the structural sin around them that all too often Christians ignore. I participated in the activist (or advocacy) track during my time at Micah Global and recognized anew that many working for shalom and against exploitation or dehumanization have been doing it for decades. They are showing up for their communities over time, with partners, and refusing to give up on the call to be the people Jesus calls them to be. They do this despite obstacles and even when change seems unlikely by human standards.
They are guided by and united in the Holy Spirit, which I think is tied to the incarnational way that most of these women live. They are doing life together in ways that are costly but that are no less than what following Jesus requires. Some of them spend hours a day in Scripture. One session we discussed what it looks like to read the Bible with a different lens – with one that’s seeing the ways Jesus engaged with power and structures, a lens that too infrequently is viewed as suspect. They read the Bible with other people, and they read it alongside social analysis.
The Importance of Remembering History
I am thankful for the witness of so many of these women and am humbled by the ways they have and continue to open themselves up to others, including myself. I recognize that everyone’s journey looks a little different, and I have been thinking about what it looks like for me to grow in humility and persistence and a radical discipleship of Jesus. One charge I am left with, specific to my role as a social scientist, is the importance of remembering history, and of facilitating that remembrance, repentance, and eventual change within my community and nation.
During a day trip at Micah Global, the activist (or advocacy) track visited the District Six Museum, a trip hosted in part by Rev. René August, who has long been involved in faith efforts to promote true justice in South Africa. This museum is meant to honor the District Six community that was bulldozed by the government (mostly in the 1970s) in part for its living of interracial community during apartheid. In the museum, among other historical artifacts, you see the names of people who lived on specific streets before their presence there was erased. In the United States, we live in a time where people want to erase historical narratives of injustice because it makes (white) people uncomfortable. We have seen museum exhibits closed, curriculum changes and book bans, the tearing down of public historical displays, and downgrading of certain holidays, largely connected to the history of racial inequality and injustice in the US.
Ironically, the District Six museum is housed in a church because the Apartheid government that bulldozed the community left the churches alone – because the government was a “Christian” government. The Methodist Church donated its space to see this museum become a reality. The public telling of history is necessary for repentance and true change. I pray that I may be a part of a faithful community, alongside other women and men, also committed to telling stories that others prefer to be erased.
Sociology
Reflection Written as part of Stott Fellows 2025