This year the Evangelical Covenant Church celebrates fifty years of ordaining women. As I reflect on this moment, I find myself thinking about the long, faithful work of God—often unnoticed—that shapes a life of following Jesus.
I did not grow up seeing women in the pulpit or serving in paid “pastoral” roles. But I was formed—deeply formed—by women who loved Jesus and loved me. Women who taught Scripture, who prayed, who showed up with steady faith. My mother was among them, faithfully showing me what it looks like to follow Jesus in the everyday moments of life. Whether or not their calling was formally named, I was pastored by women at every stage of my life.
I came across a verse in my Bible reading that has stayed with me: “The Lord announces the word, and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng” (Psalm 68:11).
That truth is woven into my own story as well. After what I often describe as a “parenthesis” in my walk with Jesus, I returned to the Lord and to the church with a renewed sense of faith, and a hunger to know Jesus more deeply. In that vulnerable season, as I was re-entering life in the local church, I experienced rejection in the very place I had hoped to find belonging.
It was in that moment that I sensed the Lord speak clearly to my heart: “You can feel sorry for yourself, or you can make sure this does not happen to anyone else who comes to my church.”
That word marked the beginning of my call to ministry. I began to pay attention—to who was new, who might feel unseen, who might be wondering if they belonged. I introduced myself, invited people into my home, and made space at the table, extending that same welcome beyond the walls of the church. In those simple, intentional acts of welcome, something deeper was taking shape.
My journey of saying yes to Jesus continued in small steps. A yes to joining a Bible study. A yes to leading one. A yes to speaking. And eventually, a yes that required more than I could have imagined—moving my family to Chicago to study at North Park Theological Seminary.
After seminary, I was ready to serve in pastoral ministry, but the process of receiving a call was not immediate. I heard many no’s before I heard a yes. It was a season that required trust and perseverance, and I know many women in ministry have walked a similar path.
I still love to say yes to Jesus. It is not without challenge, but I have come to trust his faithfulness. Again and again, he has shown me that following him leads me where I need to be to best serve him—and where I most want to be.
As we celebrate fifty years of the ordination of women, we do so with gratitude—for those who came before us, for those who serve alongside us, and for those who will come after us.
Our Covenant theme this year, “One Another,” reminds us of the many places in Scripture where we are called to love, serve, encourage, and bear with one another. We cannot do this work alone and were never meant to.
The church is at its best when we make space—when we notice who is missing, who is new, who may be wondering if they belong—and we respond with the welcome of Christ.
We live in the tension of the “now and the not yet”—grateful for what God has done and expectant for what he will continue to do. As the Evangelical Covenant Church, we seek to be a prayerful, intergenerational, and multiethnic growing movement of churches, with women and men together following Jesus and loving others as he loves us.
For God’s glory and our neighbor’s good.
This article was first published in the Covenant Companion Summer 2026 issue, the official magazine of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
