Part of a series of interactions with God’s Yes to Women: Why the Bible’s Vision of Partnership Is Good News for Us All.
Because I want to say a big yes to women in vocational gospel ministry, I want to understand what empowers women, what weighs them down and what their other legitimate priorities are. Laura Rademaker begins her chapter “Unpacking the Backpack” in God’s Yes to Women with a helpful picture. Whenever we come to the Bible, she suggests, we come carrying a backpack full of all sorts of things—our upbringing, churches, culture, experiences and the people who have shaped us. These should not determine how we read Scripture, but they can certainly influence what feels comfortable, familiar or “normal”.[1] None of us reads the Bible without a history. Rademaker’s account of women’s ordination in Australia reminds us that theological debates are not simply ideas argued on paper and screens. They involve real people and, at times, deep hurt. Her particular concern is the history of debates around women’s ordination, especially within Sydney Anglicanism. She argues that the events of the late twentieth century, and particularly the early 1990s, have left a heavy backpack when it comes to conversations about women and ministry.
I do not want to dismiss the pain and complexities that persist because of this history. But over the past few years, in my national role with Ministry Training Strategy (MTS), I have discovered that there is more in the backpack than our ecclesiastical history.
What I’ve Heard Around Australia
MTS itself appears in Rademaker’s history. She connects its growth with the Sydney evangelical world shaped by Phillip Jensen, REPA (the Reformed Evangelical Protestant Association) and the strengthening of complementarian convictions in the years that followed. That makes what I have seen working for MTS particularly interesting. During my first year in the role, I spent a lot of time travelling around Australia, meeting with women and men in churches and other ministries and listening to them talk about ministry training, ministry pathways and women entering vocational gospel work. Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, independent evangelicals, Reformed, Churches of Christ and others. Different states. Different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Complementarian and egalitarian contexts. I asked what was helping women step into ministry training and vocational ministry, and what was getting in the way.
Of course, church structures and theology came up. What does faithful partnership between women and men in gospel ministry actually look like? How do we recognise and develop the gifts of both? How do women and men train and serve alongside one another well? Are women’s voices and perspectives genuinely contributing to ministry thinking? Are there meaningful pathways for women not only to be trained, but to use that training and, in turn, train others?
But two other themes came up again and again: confidence and season of life. I kept hearing about gifted women who were hesitant to put themselves forward. Trainers and ministry leaders would tell me about women they could clearly see had gifts for ministry, but who needed considerable encouragement before they would consider doing an apprenticeship, undertaking theological study or stepping into greater responsibility. I also kept hearing about life stage: marriage, singleness, children, caring responsibilities, a spouse’s work, theological study returning to paid work, or simply not knowing what the next five years might hold. These issues were not confined to one denomination or one theological position. That does not make ecclesiology unimportant, but it has made me cautious about assuming that every difference we see between men and women in ministry can be explained by ecclesiology alone.
More Than One Tap on the Shoulder
There is some research suggesting that, in particular settings, women can be less likely to promote themselves or assess their performance as highly as men of equal capability. That does not mean women are universally less confident. It does suggest that confidence, self-perception and encouragement can shape whether someone puts themselves forward for an opportunity.[2] This research resonated with what I heard in my travels.
A woman may not be shut out of ministry. Sometimes she simply has not imagined herself doing it. Sometimes no one has ever said to her, “Have you thought about this? I think you could do it.” That is reinforced MTS’s own research. In 2023, 82% of MTS apprentices said another gospel worker was the biggest influence in their decision to undertake ministry training.[3] MTS often calls this the “tap on the shoulder”—someone notices someone’s potential and encourages them to consider training.
But perhaps even a tap on the shoulder is too simple a picture. In my experience, it is often several taps over time: intentional conversations within an ongoing discipling relationship. Someone notices your gifts, gives you an opportunity to try, asks how it went, encourages you to keep growing, helps you learn from failure and then, some time later, asks whether you have considered taking another step. This is not simply recruitment, it is discipleship. An open door is not always enough. Sometimes you need someone to walk towards it alongside you.
Different Seasons of Life
An older spiritual formation model associated with Richard Rohr first gave me some language for this. There is an obvious reason to be cautious here: Rohr is a man telling us something about the formation of women. What would he know? Also, his theological framework is very different from my own. Yet his conclusions come from careful observation, and he offers them cautiously rather than suggesting every woman follows an identical path. And from what I can tell, his conclusions are not indelibly imprinted with assumptions drawn from his theology. In my own experience, I think his observation is quite astute. Rohr describes women’s adult formation as being shaped through ordinary experiences of friendship, marriage, children, career, struggle, failure, success, loss and letting go.[4] Of course, those things do not look the same for every woman. Singleness, marriage, motherhood, infertility, career, caring responsibilities and countless other experiences shape our journeys differently. We should be wary of turning female distinctives into stereotypes. But we should be equally wary of pretending those distinctives do not exist.
Perhaps the answer is not to make women fit a ministry pathway designed around a different trajectory, more suited, in general, to men. We can notice more characteristically female distinctives, value them and make good use of them in ministry and training.
Ministry formation is not always linear. One woman may have clear ministry gifts in her twenties but not yet have the confidence to recognise them. Another may be well trained and highly capable but move into a season where her wider ministry capacity is limited by young children or caring responsibilities. Another may reach her forties or fifties with a depth of wisdom, resilience and confidence that makes those years some of her most fruitful for broader ministry activity. A pause at twenty-five does not tell us what someone will be doing at thirty-five, forty-five or fifty-five. Different trajectories do not mean different value, giftedness or commitment. Furthermore, difference in outcome at one point in time does not necessarily tell us why that difference exists.
Women Going into Ministry from MTS Apprenticeships
MTS has historically operated largely within evangelical churches and ministries that hold a complementarian understanding of women and men. The picture painted by the MTS data is not one of women’s absence from ministry training. Across the life of the MTS movement, approximately 3 850 men and women have completed an MTS ministry apprenticeship. Around 1 733 of them (45%) have been women.[5] That is not a small number. By 2008, women already made up 483 of 1 177 recorded MTS graduates (41%).[6] The recent picture continues to show strong participation by women. In 2021, 77 of 169 active apprentices were women (46%). In 2022, women made up 87 of 202 apprentices (43%), in 2023, it was 79 of 205 (39%), and in 2024, there were 108 women among 220 active apprentices.[7]
The longer-term vocational figures do show a difference. Of approximately 1 250 former MTS apprentices currently identified in vocational gospel ministry, around 400 are women (32%), compared with 850 men.[8] What is the explanation of this gap? Historical MTS data shows that among those women who had gone directly on to college, a substantial majority were subsequently known to be in gospel work.[9] Yet the data also shows women were less likely than men to move directly from apprenticeship into theological college. In the 2008 analysis, 40.8% of female apprenticeship graduates had gone on to college, compared with 69.9% of men. A good explanation for this difference is that for many women, the apprenticeship-to-college transition falls right in the years when marriage, children and caring responsibilities can significantly change their immediate capacity.
One woman may have encountered an unnecessary theological restriction to moving into paid Chrisitan ministry. Another may have lacked a suitable paid role. Another may have chosen to prioritise raising children for a season. Still another may be serving substantially without holding a formal position. Many may intend to re-engage later. When we look at who is in vocational ministry at one point in time, we need to be careful about what we assume.
Women and Men Training Together
Within the MTS movement women are increasingly training the next generation. In 2022, MTS recorded 34 female trainers among 134 trainers with apprentices. In 2024, there were 39 female trainers among 170, increasing to 49 in 2025.[10] Those are good numbers, even if they are still lower than I would like to see. Women are not simply being trained for paid ministry, they are becoming trainers and gospel entrusters.
This is not manifested only in a separate female apprentice training stream, where women train women while men train men. Increasingly, we are seeing women and men sharing responsibility for the formation of cohorts of both male and female apprentices. Women bring their theological understanding, ministry experience, wisdom and perspective to the formation of the whole cohort. They are not quarantined from the training of male apprentices, any more than male trainers are absent from the training of female apprentices. This is an powerful picture of complementarian partnership.
There will rightly be aspects of ministry formation where a male or female apprentice needs an older man or woman, in particular, walking closely alongside them. But training the next generation for gospel ministry is something women and men can share. We need both voices, both perspectives and both experiences contributing to the formation of gospel workers.
MTS is also becoming more flexible in how we support this. There are now more flexible study and training pathways for apprentices in different seasons of life. Trainers are being supported through formation pathways, training days and the Women’s Guild.[11] These are designed to build confidence, community and capacity so women can contribute meaningfully to this shared work of raising and training others.
The question is no longer simply, “Are women allowed to train and serve in ministry?” A better question is,
Are we creating a ministry culture where women and men are intentionally raised, trained and entrusted to work alongside one another, and together take responsibility for raising the next generation of women and men for gospel ministry?
Ecclesiology Still Matters
None of this means that ecclesiology and the wise application of the roles of men and women in church leadership do not matter. A thin version of complementarianism might seem like it is fixated on asking, “What can’t a woman do?” Healthier complementarianism energetically asks a much more positive question:
Within the pattern God has given us in Scripture, how can we make full and faithful use of the gifts he has given both women and men for the building up of his church?
That changes the conversation. It means identifying and encouraging women with ministry potential rather than waiting for them to put themselves forward. It means women and men learning, training and serving alongside one another. It means encouraging theological education and meaningful ministry training. It means giving women substantial ministry responsibility and hearing their wisdom in appropriate leadership and strategic ministry conversations. It means recognising that raising the next generation of gospel workers is shared work.
This is not complementarianism disappearing, it is complementarian churches thinking more carefully, faithfully and creatively about what gospel partnership should actually look like.
Keep Unpacking the Backpack
Rademaker is right that we should unpack our backpacks. Where women have been treated as less valuable, we should repent. Where complementarianism has been used to impose restrictions Scripture does not require, we should think again. Where gifted women have gone unnoticed because nobody thought to encourage them, we should do better. But history and ecclesiology are not the only things in the backpack. Confidence matters. Relationships matter. Our bodies and responsibilities matter. Life stage matters. Opportunity matters. And God works through all of these things as he shapes us.
I am encouraged by what I see happening on the ground. Women are being trained. Women are studying theology. Women are stepping into vocational gospel work. Women are becoming trainers themselves. Increasingly, women and men are sharing responsibility for raising and training the next generation of gospel workers. In many complementarian churches and ministries, we are thinking more intentionally about what it means not simply to make space for women, but for women and men to partner together for the sake of the gospel.
Perhaps the backpack we hand to the next generation can be lighter than the one we inherited, carrying fewer unnecessary burdens and more stories of women and men using the gifts Christ has given them to equip his people for works of service, building up his body until together we reach maturity in him (Eph 4:11–13).
[1] Laura Rademaker, “Unpacking the Backpack: A Story of Women’s Ordination in Australia,” in God’s Yes to Women: Why the Bible’s Vision of Partnership Is Good News for Us All, ed. Anna Boxwell, Amy J. Erickson and Laura Rademaker (Wipf & Stock, 2026), 111–120.
[2] Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler, “The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 137, no. 3 (2022): 1345–1381.
[3] Ministry Training Strategy, Impact Report 2023, 5.
[4] Richard Rohr, “The Journey of Spiritual Transformation,” listener resource accompanying audio resources A6940 and A6950. The women’s journey section highlights the formative role of friendship, marriage, children, career, struggle, failure, success, loss and letting go.
[5] Ministry Training Strategy, internal historical data, current to 2026.
[6] Ministry Training Strategy, “Analysis of MTS Apprenticeship Data,” snapshot at 15 June 2008.
[7] Ministry Training Strategy, Impact Report 2021, 3; Impact Report 2022, 3; Impact Report 2023, 3; Impact Report 2024, 6.
[8] Ministry Training Strategy, internal historical data, current to 2026.
[9] Ministry Training Strategy, “Analysis of MTS Apprenticeship Data,” snapshot at 15 June 2008.
[10] Ministry Training Strategy, Impact Report 2022, 8; Impact Report 2024, 10; MTS 2025 Trainer data.
[11] Ministry Training Strategy, Impact Report 2025, 21. Recent MTS initiatives include more flexible training and development pathways alongside mentoring, training opportunities and the Women’s Guild, designed to strengthen the confidence, community and capacity of female Trainers.
