So my wife Erin had a Venue women’s zoom call on the topic of Warrior Women and decided some of the gals should go tribal and paint their faces for it. 
I came home from something and Erin materializes in front of me with wild hair, face painted all crazy, and a hunting gleam in her eye. 
It was pretty hot, but a little scary. Also she normally doesn’t push her face into my personal space and stare at me a whole lot, but maybe the war paint does something to a psyche by way of unnerving “the enemy” or whatever. 
The topics from the story of Deborah in the Bible were along the lines of “choosing obedience over personal glory, humility over pride, and truth spoken with grace”. I love that my oldest daughter is also in on these things now at church. 
It was reported to me that she went out in the backyard and yelled “Who runs the world???” super loud (answer: GIRLS) and freaked out some bystanding neighbourhood kids quietly trying to play with each other out of sight of the covid police. 
Man, paint on a face does something to people eh? IE Roughrider fans. Maybe she’ll go for a watermelon next… 
I’m all about girls being warriors and whatnot, mostly because I live with five in my home and am scared of them, but I also love having a church full of female fighters unless they get mad at me about something. 
It’s always tricky to write about something like this because I’m a man and every now and again I’ll be accused of being “awful”, normally before someone actually reads what I write and I remind them of their dad who happened to also be a man, and “your poor daughters” etc etc, but one conversation with my girls or wife and you might change your mind, or have it changed for you if they’re wearing paint. 
My mom is an Irish warrior and taught me the fear of God alright. She is a whopping five feet tall but instilled a sense of fight in me that I have relied on my entire life.
She taught me that if I can only learn from men I’d be half what I could be (or whatever percentage the population is), and she showed my by having the humility to listen to whomever could help her get better, even if that was a man. 
I think society is less when we’re in competition with each other rather than complementing each other. I also don’t want my girls to grow up in a world where each of them is expected to be something that they’re not to succeed. I don’t like that some industries are difficult for women to work in, but I also don’t want them to have a victim mentality or they’ll never be able to right wrongs in the face of the odds. 
My mom taught me that. I had impossible odds to face too. 
Our marriage is an interesting study because I tend to be outspoken and am on stage more often, though it should be noted my first time on stage was singing a duet with my mom at church when I was a child where she turned the mic to me when it was my part, I turned it back and refused to sing. 
My dad was a preacher for thirty years, but a reluctant one at the start because he was scared to death of public speaking. My mom wouldn’t let him quit and it probably is a main reason why I’m preaching now. 
Back in the day my mom would be on stage often as well, which was unusual in church circles of the day and every now and again when I was bored I’d say “But mom, should women be allowed to speak in church?” and then run for the hills before she could kill me. 
She wouldn’t actually kill me I think, but I never ran slow enough to find out. 
Women leading in church is a silly, old argument in my mind, and not a very scriptural one when you study Paul’s words in context of culture and consider how many female leaders he appointed, but sometimes early church history does not become later church tradition. 
Whatever the case may be, we have loads of women (and men) leaders at Venue, and my wife is often the reluctant one. 
I told her she was preaching on Mothers Day in a few weeks, which was verbally cheered by others in the room, and she tried the old “I’ll pray about it”. 
“Sweetheart, you don’t need to pray about something you’ve been voluntold to do!” I said with a smile. 
This may offend the female population caught in between “Wait, is he forcing her to do something she doesn’t want to do?” and “Wait, but he wants her on stage and online preaching to everyone and that’s good?”. 
And both would be right:)
Of course Erin’s personality would prefer being behind the scenes, but sometimes it’s good to be pushed forward when it’s uncomfortable. 
My job as the pastor is to help everyone reach their destiny in this world and I won’t let being a man stop me from helping women the same way I trained my daughters that being a girl doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for helping men or women. 
Pre marriage couples are sometimes afraid of counselling sessions with me, but I always laugh and tell them they should really be afraid of Pastor Erin. She’ll smile nicely and say “You said ____, why did you use that word? What did you mean by that? Do you suppose it’s really a bit selfish of you?” 
Somehow when she corrects people they come out feeling all loved and stuff, which is why she does more counselling than I do. I suppose I could prove that I’m technically in charge and take it over, but it is super nice to be able to lean on Erin’s gifts because I find that sort of thing exhausting and she finds it energizing. 
I think it’s worth the struggle because we’re multiples stronger together than we are apart, and it keeps us humble to have to rely on someone else, 
and maybe humility helps us push people forward…