Could Focusing on Marriage and Family at Church Actually Hurt Discipleship?

I answer this question from the perspective of a married woman who has been married for more than 25 years. In many ways, I have an enviable family. But I also write from the perspective of a woman who has found it difficult to actually be a disciple in the church. Too often, when a woman comes to church wanting to be invested in and to contribute with reciprocity in the church’s theological, intellectual, and creative vitality — as a disciple would — she is sidelined to women’s ministries that concentrate on her value-ascribed roles as a wife and mother, ignored, or worse, treated as a threat who needs to be managed. She is too often not seen as a sister. We’ve lost the status by which the apostle Paul most refers to the people of God — spiritual siblings. This is detrimental to the church because we are losing sight…