This summer, Grace Chapel, a mega-church in the Boston area, voted by a large margin to allow women to serve as elders, removing the final hurdle for women leaders at this church. All other roles — including preaching — were already open to women. I visited a satellite campus of Grace Chapel to witness this small historic change that is part of a larger cultural shift within the evangelical church.
As a member of the Women in Leadership National Study research team that is studying gender parity in evangelical organizations, I had been following the debate at Grace Chapel. I had been in conversations with members and pastors at Grace Chapel who I knew wanted full inclusion of women. This had been a long-time discussion within the congregation that involved votes in the past.
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