{"id":664,"date":"2014-06-30T08:16:36","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T13:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/?p=664"},"modified":"2014-06-30T08:18:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T13:18:39","slug":"so-you-say-youre-a-church-lady-my-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/2014\/06\/30\/so-you-say-youre-a-church-lady-my-response\/","title":{"rendered":"So You Say You’re a Church Lady: My Response"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m adding my own voice to the Church Lady series today\u2014not because I think I\u2019m a \u201cpowerhouse woman\u201d by any means, but because I love the church and wanted to share my heart for the church with you, my readers! The other women who I have interviewed so far have inspired and challenged me, and I am grateful for each one of them. I hope my thoughts can add even just a little more fuel to the fire of our passion for Jesus and His church!<\/p>\n

\"So<\/a><\/p>\n

—————————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0Tell us a little bit about the church that you\u2019re a part of.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My husband is the College\u00a0Pastor at Antioch Community Church in Wheaton<\/a>, a non-denominational church in the Chicago suburbs. Our local church is part of a larger church-planting organization (Antioch International Movement of Churches) that has multiple churches in the US and overseas!<\/p>\n

\u00a02.<\/strong>\u00a0What does it look like, in your life, to be an active part of your church?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even before Michael stepped in to full-time ministry, we were always actively involved in church. Now that he\u2019s a pastor, it is just a little more \u201cofficial.\u201d I help him lead the college ministry by discipling female leaders, hosting and helping lead small groups, and generally just being available for whatever our church needs, whether that is showing up for a meeting, helping with a retreat, or bringing food to an event!<\/p>\n

\"Swindell<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a03.<\/strong>\u00a0How are your unique gifts and abilities strengthened by being part of a local church?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The church is amazing because it\u2019s the place where a bunch of amateurs get to do meaningful, life-changing work. I say that with deep joy and love\u2014I\u2019m thankful that God uses amateurs! My gifts of developing and discipling other women flourish in the church even though I don\u2019t have any formal training in that area. But God has taught me through his word and through his presence and through his people how to love and lead others in the church.<\/p>\n

I went to school for many years in order to get the academic degrees that I have\u2014degrees that give me the credentials I need to teach at the college level and have access to impacting the lives of my students every week. But I don\u2019t have to hold a degree to impact others at church. My life and the fruit of my life are the things that matter within the walls of the church\u2014and I can impact others without having any fancy letters behind my name. We all can. That\u2019s a huge relief\u2014and a high calling.<\/p>\n

\u00a04.\u00a0How has being part of a church challenged and changed you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am an achiever, and I like being able to move from one task to another with purpose and clarity. Church doesn\u2019t work that way, because people don\u2019t work that way. People\u2014who the church is made up of\u2014need love, cultivation, guidance, accountability\u2026the list goes on. I need all of those things; you need all of those things. But we don\u2019t move from one plane of growth to another seamlessly. \u201cThrough many trials, thorns, and snares I have already come\u2026\u201d<\/em> Church is the place where we help one another through those trials and where we help one another continue to say yes to Jesus. It\u2019s difficult at times. Very difficult. People don\u2019t always respond well to pain or to challenge\u2014I sure don\u2019t 100 percent of the time! But as I continue to learn to love God\u2019s people, I continue to learn more about the boundless love of Christ. And that is what has both challenged and changed me. God\u2019s love is changing his people, and it\u2019s changing me as I learn to love them.<\/p>\n

\u00a05.\u00a0Why do you value church? What do you love about church?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I value Church because Jesus values Church\u2014if His bride was worth his life then it can certainly be worth mine. My time, my energy, my heart, my tears, my life\u2014it all belongs to Christ. If he spent all he had for the people of God, I want to give my life doing the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m adding my own voice to the Church Lady series today\u2014not because I think I\u2019m a \u201cpowerhouse woman\u201d by any means, but because I love the church and wanted to share my heart for the church with you, my readers! The other women who I have interviewed so far have inspired and challenged me, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,38],"tags":[51,56,48,52,53,25,54,26,55],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about","category-so-you-say-youre-a-church-lady-series","tag-church","tag-church-lady","tag-family","tag-jesus","tag-ministry-2","tag-pastor","tag-pastors-wife","tag-pastoring","tag-women-in-ministry","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Church-lady.logo_.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}