Melody, your comments resonate with me, too. There are many women asking the same questions and struggling with the same dilemmas. How do I remain in a community of Christ followers that doesn't believe in my value before God? How will this community of Christ followers ever change if women like me leave? I spent years as a bi-vocational minister. During that time, I experienced more acceptance as a woman with a voice worth hearing from my secular colleagues than from my fellow Christ-followers. I had to ask myself shouldn't the reverse be true? After a two-year hiatus from ministry, I'm just now putting my toe back in the water of church involvement, and that's because I believe so strongly that the voice of the feminine must be part of our Christ-following communities.