Women Who Lead: A Guided Conversation on Shared Leadership and Mutuality
An Awaken Formation Resource focusing on women who lead.
About This Resource
Awaken supports and partners with the Church as women and men discern God’s call and lead together according to gifts and grace. This guide helps churches create spaces where mutuality is practiced, not debated—where listening, imagination, and courage grow quietly through faithful presence and shared discernment.
This is not a curriculum to master. It is a formation practice—an invitation to slow down, notice one another, and attend to God’s work among us.
Purpose
Create a hospitable, prayerful space where men and women can:
Share stories of leadership shaped by Scripture, history, and contemporary life
Listen across differences with humility and curiosity
Discern how God may be inviting the community toward deeper mutuality and shared leadership
Intended Context
Mixed-gender groups (8–20 participants)
Leadership teams, ministry teams, or intentional small groups
Churches seeking to cultivate equity, trust, and shared leadership over time
Recommended time: 60–90 minutes (adaptable)
The Role of the Facilitator
Facilitators are keepers of the space, not teachers or referees.
Your role is to:
Set a tone of curiosity and thoughtfulness
Protect the voices in the room
Hold silence without rushing resolution
Trust God’s work in unfinished conversations
Awaken encourages co-facilitation by a woman and a man, modeling shared leadership and mutual trust.
Preparing the Space
Prepare Your Own Posture
Spend time in prayer for attentiveness over outcomes
Release the need to manage agreement
Pray for courage shaped by love, not urgency
Prepare the Room
Arrange seating in a circle or around tables
Avoid podiums or hierarchical placement
Consider a simple center: Bible, candle, or printed Scripture
Opening the Gathering (10 minutes)
Welcome & Framing
Read or paraphrase:
“Tonight is not about arriving at conclusions or solving questions about leadership. It is about noticing—God at work, and the ways our different voices and stories shape leadership together. We are here to practice mutuality, imagination, and shared discernment.”
Establish a Shared Covenant
Invite participants to agree to:
Speak from personal experience (“I” statements)
Listen without interruption
Honor stories without needing consensus
Leave space for silence
Trust God’s work in ongoing formation
Pause for verbal or visible agreement.
Guiding the Conversation
1. Remembering Leadership Stories (15 minutes)
Formation Focus: Story before structure
Invite participants to reflect:
Who are women whose leadership has shaped your faith—Scripture, history, or today?
How have moments of shared leadership across gender, culture, or context revealed God at work?
Where have you first experienced leadership shaped by difference?
Facilitator Notes:
Encourage brief sharing (1–2 min per person)
Gently redirect teaching or generalizations
Affirm stories without evaluation
Highlight connections to mutuality and shared imagination
2. Naming What Shapes Leadership (15 minutes)
Formation Focus: Honoring difference and context
Invite reflection:
What influences—history, Scripture, culture, or experience—shape your approach to leadership differently from others?
Where do you notice tension between expectations and space for every voice?
How might intentionally noticing differences expand imagination for leadership?
Optional prompt:
Consider whose courage and faithfulness—past or present—have shaped your imagination for leadership.
Facilitator Notes:
Normalize tension, ambiguity, and mixed emotions
Acknowledge exclusion or pain without defending it
Encourage linking personal experience to communal imagination
3. Listening for God Together (15 minutes)
Formation Focus: Communal discernment
Invite the group to consider:
Where have we seen God at work when leadership is shared across difference?
What practices help us discern faithfully while giving room for every voice?
How might the Spirit be inviting us to notice new possibilities for leadership?
How can we cultivate imagination and mutuality without controlling difference?
Facilitator Notes:
Shift from individual stories to shared noticing
Encourage curiosity and wonder, not problem-solving
Invite listening for God’s invitation to growth, formation, and mutuality
Holding the Space Well
Tension: pause, breathe, re-center on faithful listening
Dominant voice: kindly invite quieter voices to share
Heavy silence: trust it—discernment often deepens there
Closing the Gathering (10–15 minutes)
Reflection:
Where might God invite deeper trust and shared courage?
How can I notice and make space for voices different from my own?
Closing Prayer or Blessing:
Imagination to see leadership differently
Courage to step into shared calling
Mutuality shaped by grace and love
End by thanking participants for their presence and attentiveness.
After the Conversation
Facilitators should debrief with co-facilitators, notice themes without rushing action, and share insights with leadership without naming individuals.
Mutuality is formed over time through faithful listening and shared obedience.
Women Who Lead: A Guided Conversation (PDF | Facilitator & Participant Guide)
Awaken partners with the Church to empower, equip, and engage women for leadership—cultivating communities where women and men lead together according to gifts and calling.