From Waiting to Leading: The Flourishing of Women at Revoice
I prayed for exactly zero people at Revoice22. As a prayer ministry volunteer, I stood and waited by the stage, but nobody approached me for prayer. My heart sank. I’d started dreaming about working for a ministry like Revoice, but maybe I wasn’t spiritual or mature enough.
“Do you think it’s a sign?” I asked my friend Anna Li. “Maybe this ministry isn’t for me.” She reassured me and said, "No, don’t take it as a sign."
A few months later, on a phone call with Revoice’s Conference Director, I tentatively shared some feedback about the conference. I suggested that prayer ministry should be more visible, and that there should be a moment when we pause to invite people to come up for prayer. He agreed with my suggestions and asked me to lead prayer ministry at Revoice23 (Acts 6, anyone?). I hesitantly agreed.
Praying for LGBTQ+/ SSA people at Revoice23 was a revelation. All of my passions and gifts converged in a way I’d never experienced before. I already knew I enjoyed prayer ministry; praying for my queer siblings felt even more meaningful. On top of that, I loved leading a team of prayer ministers to pastor and serve our community. At the end of the conference, I said to myself, “THIS is what I want to do long term!” I was deeply grateful for the ways in which the Revoice team trusted and empowered me as a leader. I was growing and flourishing.
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Over the past year, our staff team has been asking the question, “What does it look like for Revoice to be a space where LGBTQ+/ SSA women grow and flourish?” Here’s what I learned from surveying women in our community last year:
First, we needmore female representation. Seeing women on stage at our conference communicates to women: “This is a space for you too.”
As our staff team considered this for Revoice ‘25, we made intentional choices to prioritize having:
More female leadership on our conference team (including Emily Merrill, conference intern, and Catherine Mullaney, emcee)
Queer female keynote speaker, Anna Carter
Breakout session specifically for LGBTQ+/ SSA women, led by Elle Grace and me
Hangout for LGBTQ+/ SSA women
Affinity group lunch discussion for LGBTQ+/SSA women
To increase female representation, our staff team needs to become aware of the amazingly gifted women already in our midst. To that end, I created a second survey for LGBTQ+/ SSA women.
Now, if you’re like me, you may find it mildly (or deeply) uncomfortable to promote yourself. You’d rather have a leader notice you, pluck you from the crowd, and declare, “I think you’re amazing, and I choose you.” Don’t get me wrong, our staff team is definitely on the lookout for leaders. However, our capacity is limited, plus our community is growing quickly. If you enjoy preaching, teaching, and/or writing, I’m gently nudging you to fill out the survey. If there are other skills and gifts that you have, there is a question on the survey about that too.
Beyond the conference, we also need female representation in our Local Chapters. After reflecting on the initial survey results, we intentionally invited women to become Chapter Leads and Co-Leads. Over the past year, we’ve added 13 new women as Chapter and Online Community Leads and Co-Leads. Additionally, we’ve written in our Local Chapter and Online Community Vision & Guidelines that our strong preference is for a woman to serve in at least one of the roles of Chapter Lead and Co-Lead. Finally, we’re intentionally discussing how to be more inclusive of women in our quarterly Zooms for Leads and Co-Leads, New Chapter Orientations, and in our leader recruiting and onboarding process.
That said, some of our Local Chapters are still predominantly male. If your Local Chapter doesn’t have many women, here are a few suggestions that everyone can engage in:
Organize LGBTQ+/ SSA women-only hangouts, deepening the community women have with each other
Meet 1-on-1 with the LGBTQ+/ SSA women that you know; building trust helps women visit chapters for the first time and keep returning
Text women personally and encourage them to come
Pray for more women
Lastly, I have a few words of encouragement for my fellow queer gals. At our conference, I encourage you to open up your social circles. One survey respondent said, “I have noticed the women tend to have their own groups, and it can be difficult to enter into them.” Believe me, I understand how excited we are to reconnect with people we don’t see often. However, please don’t close yourself off to new friendships. Furthermore, I want to exhort us to make a special effort to connect with those of us who are married and/or older (40’s+). Another survey respondent said, “Where age and gender and sexual/marital history all overlap, I often feel like I don't quite belong.” It greatly saddens me to hear this. Would you join me in extending a hand of friendship?
Though many of us are single and younger, we need to acknowledge that there is a diversity of experiences among LGBTQ+/ SSA women and that all experiences are valid. Specifically, some LGBTQ+/SSA women are more femme and “straight-presenting.” A survey respondent said, “Challenges include feeling like I don't… fit in the queer community, specifically with the women. I feel more comfortable in male spaces when it comes to sexuality spaces because it feels less like 'I’m doing it wrong' or 'not gay enough’...”
Let’s not judge our fellow LGBTQ+/SSA women and make them feel pressured to look or act a certain way. Many of us have been on the receiving end of this, and we hate it.
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I’m so grateful for the many ways our staff team is pursuing the flourishing of LGBTQ+/ SSA women in our community. Don’t get me wrong, we still have work to do! However, we’re frequently looking through the lens of “Which woman can we empower?”
Four years ago, that woman was me, and God’s work has been immeasurably more than all I asked or imagined (Ephesians 3:20).
