Women Growing as Leaders in God’s Mission

Across the global church, women are deeply engaged in faith, discipleship, and ministry. In many regions, they make up the majority of active participants in Christian life and often express a stronger sense of religious commitment than men do. Yet this reality sits alongside a persistent tension. Lausanne’s State of the Great Commission Report¹ highlights that while women are highly involved in church life, leadership remains disproportionately male.

At the same time, Lausanne’s wider research points to a different reality already unfolding. Mary Ho’s 2023 Global Analysis² notes that women have always functioned as ‘grassroots leaders’ and are now increasingly emerging as global leaders shaping mission and discipleship, particularly as Christianity grows across the Majority World.

“Women are now increasingly emerging as global leaders shaping mission and discipleship.”

Lausanne’s Male and Female as Full Gospel Partners³ further frames this as a matter of faithful mission: God has gifted both women and men by his Spirit and calls them to serve together in the work of evangelisation and disciple-making. When women are not fully recognised and released as leaders, the church is not operating in the fullness of this shared calling.

This raises a critical question for the global church today: if women are already central to the life and growth of the church, how can their leadership be more fully recognised and developed for God’s mission?

The stories of Christine Faber, Carolina Ruiz de Chamorro, and Marli Marcandali offer a glimpse of this kind of leadership formation. Each of these women responded to God’s call in their own context. Each was shaped through different seasons of growth. And each is now multiplying that same formation in others: equipping women to know, love, and trust Christ, and to step into leadership in their own communities.

leadership that begins in trust, is formed through transformation in God’s Word, and grows into multiplication as others are equipped and sent.

Together, their stories trace a pattern: leadership that begins in trust, is formed through transformation in God’s Word, and grows into multiplication as others are equipped and sent.

From Trust to Taking Flight

What does it look like when women are not only participating in the life of the church but are intentionally formed, equipped, and released as leaders?

Often, it does not begin with position, visibility, or recognition. Instead, it begins in the same way for many leaders — through small steps of obedience, a deepening trust in God, and a willingness to follow his voice, even when the path is unclear.

Trusting the Call

Christine Faber | Germany

Several years ago, Christine Faber asked, ‘Lord, do you have anything to say to me?’ He did, and he told her to start a global Bible study and training program for women to experience the true love of God — Power Ladies.

Though she had little training, little vision, and even little desire to minister to women, Christine was obedient to God. However, while feeling called, she recognised she was unequipped, and often turned to the Lord in prayer with uncertainty, doubts, and even excuses. But she took step after step of faith, constantly asking God to lead her forward.

God not only calls us, he also enables us.

At times, things moved slowly, but Christine persevered with an expectancy that God would continue to work, remaining obedient to build Power Ladies, and trusting the Lord with its fruit. And she has seen great fruit in women experiencing the transformative love and grace of God. Even her own need for mentorship and wisdom was met in the most unexpected way. At the Fourth Lausanne Congress, Christine met a Canadian leader involved in a similar ministry. Daily, on the bus to and from the Congress, the two spoke, encouraged, and learnt from one another — a beautiful, organic answer to prayer. A testimony to the fact that ‘God not only calls us, he also enables us.’

As she recalls the early days, Christine knows she’s not the only one who has felt called but unequipped, and she has a simple word to share with others: ‘If you think that God is calling you to something and you do not feel qualified for it, I just encourage you. Go ahead and start. God will equip you on the way!’

Transformation by the Word

Carolina Ruiz de Chamorro | Guatemala

Nicaraguan Carolina Ruiz de Chamorro serves in Guatemala alongside her Chilean husband, where they minister in theological education. Carolina is especially passionate about teaching women to study the Word of the Lord with depth and dedication because she knows the power of knowing the Bible.

Carolina sees the study of Scripture as a tool for generational transformation and kingdom redemption. ‘The Lord wants to use us. He wants to use us where we are, and he wants to use us with what we have — faithful witnesses of his love, of his goodness, of his mercy, but also of his transforming power.’ So she faithfully teaches other women to delight in studying the Word, to understand it, and to be transformed by it. 

Carolina knows the power of a woman who knows the Word of God and who is unashamed about her testimony. Her vision is one of beautiful, worldwide transformation. ‘I hope the Lord has spoken to your heart and motivated you to also study his word . . . and that in 2050 we will have more women studying the word of the Lord with commitment and depth.’

Taking Flight Through Surrender

Marli Marcandali | Brazil

Brazilian Marli Marcandali also deeply understands the power of transformation. She serves with Love Unveiled, a US-based ministry that brings hope and transformation to women around the world. Love Unveiled uses the image of a butterfly to show women the power of surrendering their lives and being transformed by Christ, and Marli loves teaching women about how to find true freedom and hope in the Lord. 

She shares, ‘Women were not meant to crawl, but to fly. In order to fly, they need to surrender to the cocoon . . . the place where we die to ourselves and we give our life to Jesus. We ask him to transform us, and out of the cocoon, out of the struggle, out of the suffering, out of the surrender, God creates our wings, and then we are able to fly.’ 

Discipleship is a key aspect of Marli’s ministry, and she is passionate about teaching and equipping the women around her to go, serve, and reach out, too. Though she sees the great need (‘I want to go everywhere!’), she recognises the work can only be accomplished through multiplication. So she prays, ‘God, take me to wherever you want me to go, but help us to raise leaders, so others can go too.’ Like a butterfly, Marli has found her own wings — and is committed to developing other women to take flight with their faith, too.

Formed to Lead in God’s Mission

These stories do more than inspire — they reveal how God forms leaders.

Leadership does not begin with qualification, but with trust: a willingness to say yes to God, even when we feel unprepared. It is shaped through transformation: a deep and ongoing encounter with God through his Word. And it grows into multiplication: a commitment to equip others so that they, too, can go, serve, and lead.

developing women as leaders is not an optional addition to mission — it is essential to it.

This, then, becomes the invitation to the global church. If women are already central to the life and growth of the church, then developing women as leaders is not an optional addition to mission — it is essential to it. To fully participate in God’s mission, the church must more intentionally recognise, form, and release women as co-labourers in the gospel.

And this begins with formation:

• creating space for women to respond to God’s call, even when they feel unqualified
• equipping women to engage deeply with Scripture
• and cultivating a culture of multiplication, where women are discipling and raising up other leaders.

The invitation is both personal and collective.

Where is God calling you to take a step of trust, even if it feels small?
How is he inviting you to be shaped more deeply through his Word?
And who might he be calling you to equip, so that others can go?

As the church embraces this calling (men and women serving together as full partners in the gospel) it will more fully reflect the beauty of God’s design and more faithfully participate in his mission to the world.

Endnotes

1. Participation of Women
2. Growing Global Women Leaders from the Majority World
3. Authors: Mimi Haddad, Leslie Segraves, Terran Williams & Anne Zaki