Board Work

Well, I go off the church board next week, and I leave with mixed emotions. When they asked me to join it three years ago, I told them that church eldership was never anything I ever sought — in fact, was something I rather dreaded. They wanted me anyway. I suppose an organization would rather have people who don’t particularly like running the show and who work well with others than people who are eager to put their individual stamps all over every corner of it.

There are people who like running the show and telling others what to do. I’ve never understood why they like doing that, especially forcing “oughts” on other people. And since churches major in “oughts,” more than other organizations, church boards can be particularly trying if the individuals on the boards operate like little fiefdom despots, battling every issue for private gain or individual ego preening. But if board members work for the greater shared good, getting behind a shared mission, the rewards of doing some real good can be one of the greatest things one does in life. I’d have to say on the whole, against my expectations, my experience with church boards has been positive.

It’s that sense of accomplishment that everyone with the gifts and talents to do the work of leadership and board service should have the opportunity to experience. So it really feels disgustingly wrong when one gender is kept from experiencing the joys of such service simply because of gender. It feels even more wrong, even horrifyingly evil, when the cultural institution that is supposed to lead in things moral, to lead in rightly defining the “oughts” of life, is still dragging its heels and blaming God for ordaining such sickness.

Most of my church board work felt normal, but when it came to experiencing the normal involvement of women, I’ve had to serve on secular boards to get that same sense of normality.