3 Comments

  1. Mick Mc

    Hey Cheryl;
    I’ve been away so I’m just catching up with cyberstuff. Great article. I grew up in the conservative Catholic culture, & whilst part of me will always be grateful for being brought up in a culture that embraced faith, I am happy to have evolved sufficiently for denominationalism to mean less to me than it ever has. I currently serve in a Church of Christ flavour which was a church plant out of Careforce church in Mt Evelyn. It was my 5 years at careforce that your article reminded me of. Coming out of the male dominated theology of the Catholic church, I found myself serving on the Creative Arts team under the wonderful leadership of Helena McNeill. For the first few years she regularly wrestled with /tolerated/ challenged/ goaded/ & put up with my less than fervent recognition of her leadership. One day, she sat me down & simply said; “Mick, you are clearly a gifted leader, but I am the appointed leader of this team, & even when you don’t agree with my leadership calls, you have to let let me lead.” It was a powerful, life changing moment for me. It was as if the scales were removed & all of a sudden I could see how bigoted I had allowed myself to become. Me??!!!
    What grew from there was a beautiful relationship that taught me much about the breadth of character a leader needed to have. I believe that the depth of collegiate relationship that evolved expressed itself in the many beautiful moments that we were able to create as we lead the worship services in that wonderful church. I learned so much from her, but only when I allowed myself to do so. There were many times that I disagreed with her calls, but I had to learn how to let her lead, (& she had to learn how to lead someone like me!!)
    BTW, Careforce have also appointed Cheryl Osment as the executive pastor of the church. There are many women in key leadership roles within their structure & as a church plant out of Careforce, we have inherited that DNA
    MM

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