Editor’s Note: This panel discussion is from SOLA Conference 2021. Find more resources and videos here.
The treatment and reception of Asians in the broader American society has shaped the theological tendencies of Asian American Christians, ranging from very radical to very conservative theologies and all of these tendencies, even though often at odds with each other, share a common goal to gain a voice in mainstream Christianity.
Below is a transcript of the panel discussion. It has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the audio here.
Hannah Chao: Hello, welcome to our talk today where we’re going to be talking about how the church can support Asian American women. My name is Hannah, I am the editor at SOLA Digital, which is our website. I’m so excited to have today with me two sisters, who I work closely with now. I’ll have them introduce themselves. Can we start with Soojin?
Soojin Park: Thanks for having us, Hannah. My name is Soojin, and I serve as the youth ministry director at Christ Central Presbyterian Church in Centerville, Virginia.
Hannah Chao: And Heidi?
Heidi Wong: Hi, yeah. Thank you so much for having us here. My name is Heidi Wong, I’m the college ministry director at Exilic Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Hannah Chao: All of us are on the SOLA Editorial Board together, where we collaborate and write, and it’s been such a blessing. So we’re here to talk about how the church has been doing well, and maybe not so well, when it comes to Asian American women. We want to talk about our experiences as Asian American women in the church, but also challenge and encourage churches to think purposefully about women in the church, especially because as Asian American women, there can be extra challenges that come with that.
We really can’t ignore the context for this talk. We have, for example, the rise in anti-Asian violence that’s been happening across the country, and especially, the biggest thing was the killings in Atlanta. There was a lot of trauma and a lot of pain that kind of came out of that. That’s something that’s definitely been on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds in the church.
But we also want to bring into light the context of the fact that many women have felt marginalized or ignored in the church, whether that’s just from not being heard or not having a space to be heard and to speak. So we really want to cover both those things.
So the first thing to talk about is, how did you initially react to the violence that we saw in Atlanta? Heidi, why don’t we have you talk about it first?
Heidi Wong: Yeah, for me, I felt physically very heavy. My body literally felt like it was twice what it would have normally felt like. Another thing, too, is my mind felt very cloudy. I couldn’t think straight. I still had things I needed to do, but I felt like everything was taking so much more effort than it would have normally. So that was one major feeling.
The second thing I would say was I felt a bit of anger. When it felt like there were voices from parts of media, social media, in my network, who seemed to be arguing over definitions of what it was and what it wasn’t. And I was in a place where I just wanted people to take a moment, to pause, and to grieve. And I think that was a bit frustrating for me in that moment.
Hannah Chao: How about you, Soojin?
Soojin Park: I felt a lot of the same things that Heidi did. But on top of that, just being in an Asian American church network that I’m part of, I saw a lot of pastors react on social media, one after the other. And there came a certain point where I do think more pastors were commenting on the fact that this is particularly affecting Asian American women. But for some reason, I wasn’t feeling great. I was reading all these things that, to some degree, were encouraging, and I was glad they were talking about these things, and I appreciated it.
But there was a part of me that just didn’t feel settled with all the comments I was seeing. Internally, I felt like I’m being spoken over. This is, yes, about Asian American women, but instead of giving space for Asian American women to speak, I felt like more and more men were saying what it was for us.
To give a little example, I was in a conversation just a few days after Atlanta with one of the pastors at my church and another female staff. And we were talking about how we were feeling, and the other female staff, she said, “I was reading comments from the pastors, and I actually got angry.” She said she got angry because she wondered, “Where have you been this whole time? Why didn’t you care about these things before?” And when she said that it hit me, “Oh, I think that’s what I’m feeling too.”
It’s a complicated mix of really appreciating that the pastors are going out of their way to speak about this being a women’s issue, and yet at the same time, why did it take a tragedy for you to say these things? And at this moment, maybe more American women should be speaking up. So I think there are a lot of complicated emotions. It was super complex, particularly being an Asian American woman in the church.
Hannah Chao: I think for me at first, when the tragedy happened, I wanted to shut off. I felt like with this tragedy, there are going to be so many, like you said, definitions that people are going to be arguing over. There are going to be people who are taking, not necessarily taking sides, but trying to parse the issue or asking a lot of questions like, “How do I think about this?” And I already felt exhausted from having to think about that, especially helping people process women in general, and then adding this tragedy to it. I think it was a little bit daunting to me.
But I ended up with SOLA, drafting with Soojin and other people on our editorial board, a response. And that helped me initially to process. And I was thankful, actually, that at SOLA, we did have space where women could write and process their feelings. That was really important—to show that we were able to speak.
At the same time, it’s something that’s still lingering. This isn’t like, “It’s over, it happened a month ago, and we’re over it now.” I think there is a lot of lingering trauma and a lingering need to process, and I don’t know if there has been follow-up. There have been things that churches have been doing to make sure that women feel safe. Yeah, Heidi, why don’t you share about how you’re processing these days?
Heidi Wong: Yeah. So I live in Midtown Manhattan, and with the rise in anti-Asian sentiment, anti-Asian hate crimes, I’ve definitely adjusted my day-to-day. The times I’m outdoors when I’m running errands, being very conscious of the shoes I’m wearing, making sure that I’m mobile if I need to be a while, and also wearing hoodies so from the back you can’t tell I’m Asian. Maybe that’s overthinking things. But a lot of at least what happened in New York City happened in broad daylight, in generally busy areas. So that was quite daunting to know that it could really happen to anyone.
And not just for me, but when I think about the college students, for example, who have been in New York City finishing up the semester, thinking about them, worrying about them and their safety. Social schedules are definitely scheduled around safety now. So while before, if I wanted to go to Brooklyn or even Queens to visit a friend, it was just a matter of, do I have enough time to take the subway? Now it’s like, do I even want to take the subway? Can we figure out a different way to connect? So that’s been a new thing, and something I’m still working through—how do I live in this new reality without being in constant fear, yet at the same time, holding on to the promises of God? And when I’m walking down the street, and I’m scared, knowing that those promises are still true, and in the moment by moment, trusting him.
So I definitely think the Word has become so much more real, especially in times when I am afraid. And I have to honestly preach to myself and remind myself that God is with me. And it’s silly because sometimes, other people may say, “Oh, you’re overthinking it,” or “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think it is.” But when you’re an Asian American woman walking around in an urban area, and there’s a questionable person, or it’s at night, then you want to be wise in what you’re doing—so that’s where I’m at.
Hannah Chao: How about you Soojin? How are you processing these days?
Soojin Park: Yeah, like Heidi said, it’s an additional layer of fear in my everyday life, even though I’m not in an urban setting. So I think it’s a little different. I’m just being hyperaware of my surroundings. But internally—so right after Atlanta happened, I was actually given a chance to write about it. And I think writing about it in the moment forced me to process really quickly, to grieve for that moment, and to come to some conclusions. And the overwhelming response I got from other women from that article was, it helped them to start grieving because they didn’t know where to start. And I felt the same way.
But what’s interesting is, since I wrote that, I feel like I’ve been in the same place, meaning I haven’t actually processed any further; I haven’t actually grieved anymore. There have been no further conclusions in terms of—how do I deal with my own fears and my own pains?
And what’s interesting is that all three of us have written, and we’ve shared personal things before. I think sometimes when you can talk about something or you can write about something, there’s this assumption that you’re done with it. You’ve processed, you’re done, and you’re ready to share. But I shared really personal stuff in that article, and frankly, that’s stuff that I’m still dealing with—I still don’t know how to fully process those things. So I think there’s been a little bit of a burden of proof on Asian American women in the last month, to share more of your experiences and to prove that Asian women being targeted is a real thing.
But sharing those things comes with an emotional cost. And I don’t necessarily know that the church has been equipped to help us deal with that emotional cost. And I think even for myself, I’m trying to figure out what that looks like. So yeah, I think if I’m really honest, I did some processing in the beginning, but I’ve kind of stayed the same. And there’s still a lot of things lingering, while at the same time, I feel like the world is moving on. And that’s been a little bit of a disconnect in my own mind. And I do think, when I speak to other sisters, there’s similar sentiments. They haven’t fully grieved and properly processed, but it seems like the world is moving on. And internally, they haven’t been able to move on.
Hannah Chao: Yeah, what you talk about not knowing how to move on and grieve further, I think there is this space for us to ask: Has the church been helping people to think about and to look back? I think we’re very good at reacting to things right away. I don’t know if you guys know, but a lot of our churches were involved or are part of organizations that were involved in the rally that happened in support of Asian Americans. And yeah, that was great. That was reactive and important.
But are there resources that our churches have about counseling women past the initial trauma? And, the church is called to be the body of Christ, to support one another, and to bear one another’s burdens. And when it comes to dealing with issues that are a little more chronic, especially when it comes to women, the church has a role to play and needs to think even more purposefully about how to do it. Because I’m also thinking about, how, then—so let’s go to the question—how, then, can churches support women? I alluded to a couple of things. But why don’t we start with Soojin this time? What are some things that you think the church can do to support women?
Soojin Park: Two things have come to mind in light of how the church hasn’t responded to Atlanta, and from my interactions with other women. One, I think, is care, shepherding, discipleship—whatever you want to call it. And I say that because, again, I don’t want to generalize, but I’ve noticed that a lot of pastors don’t functionally shepherd the women in their churches. It’s often you shepherd the men, and then their wives are there. Or a lot of times, pastors may not recognize they’re not shepherding women, or they don’t know how to. So you have a lot of women that aren’t being directly shepherded or cared for by the pastors in the church.
So when events like this happen, there’s such a disconnect. All the personal things I shared in that article—I had a lot of pastors respond to me saying, “Thank you, that was really helpful,”—the reality is, those things were part of my life before Atlanta. But nobody asked me before. And I kept thinking, how wonderful would it have been if pastors had known these personal stories and the fact that Asian women deal with this on a daily basis, and they were better equipped to care when something like this happened? So I do think, not just in times of tragedy, but on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, I do think there needs to be more robust, more intentional shepherding, leading, caring for women from pastors directly, in whatever appropriate sense that is, within churches.
But on the flip side of that, in order to do that well, that means pastors need to have women—whether they’re lay staff or paid staff, whoever it is—trusted women who have regular access to them and can regularly give their perspective to them. Because we all have good intentions, but sometimes good intentions aren’t enough, meaning the pastor needs to hear, and male leaders in the church need to hear from women about how they can care for the women, how they can better shepherd the women. So whatever the staff structure is at your church, for pastors, I want to encourage you, if you don’t have women regularly speaking into situations and into you about the state of women in the church, my encouragement and challenge would be to change that. There needs to be some way for trusted women to have regular access to you so that they can offer perspective.
The second thing that comes to mind is, I think about all the women that I personally know, who when Atlanta happened, they had so many thoughts and emotions, but they didn’t know where or how to share those things. Because culturally, socially, Asian men and women are not used to speaking up and sharing in church settings. That’s just the reality of the situation. There’s one example—I have a sister at our church, we had a conversation maybe a week after Atlanta. And I was asking her, “Have you had any chance to process this with other Christians?” And she said, “Well, you know, I went to community group, which is co-ed, we talked about it. But I left feeling worse because it was only the men who were speaking.” And that’s the reality. When you have a co-ed setting, even if the women want to speak, they’re not accustomed to speaking unless they’re explicitly invited to speak. So I think it’s a tragedy that when a moment like this happened, when it’s so much about Asian American women, Asian American women didn’t know where or how to speak about what they’re feeling and going through.
So churches need to, on a regular basis, have places and spaces for women to speak up and to share, and when you have co-ed community groups, you need to train those community group leaders to be explicitly mindful of inviting women to speak. Or you need to have spaces in the church, where apart from only women’s groups, you need to have spaces where women can practice speaking and sharing.
And I know that for every church, an appropriate place for women to speak is going to be defined differently. And that’s totally fine. But I think what’s not fine is often pastors or male leaders, again, not intentionally in a harmful way, but I think sometimes it’s not viewed as a priority. It’s a secondary issue. We don’t need to deal with it. There are so many other things that come to you in ministry, and so they don’t take the time to properly define and carve out those spaces. But when you keep pushing it back, in the meantime, women don’t have spaces. Then when a tragedy like this happens, women are kept to themselves, and they don’t know where to share or speak up.
So I think it’s so important that women are given the space on a regular basis, and they’re encouraged and invited to do so. So that when these things happen, they will know that my church is a safe place for me to share, and vocalize and process within my community. So I think those are the two big things.
Hannah Chao: What about you, Heidi? How can the church support women at this time?
Heidi Wong: Soojin mentioned so many helpful things; I’m going to try to build off of that. I think one thing in general, sometimes pastors and by extension, their congregations, are culturally conditioned into seeing spaces where only women will serve. And while there is a place for, again, like Soojin mentioned, women leadership looking different at every church, it’s important for pastors to go out of their way to invest in the women of the church so that they can recognize their gifts.
Also, the second part of that is to encourage them to cultivate those gifts. There are so many gifted women in the church. And sometimes, someone might think that they have a hobby or something that they like to do on the side, but they don’t really see how that could actually serve the church at all. You know, pastors have that—they’re able to meet more people; they’re able to get to know more people. So for them to come alongside with the women of their church and say, “Hey, I think what you shared today was really impactful, I think you have a gift of teaching, and I would love to partner with you to continue to develop that gift.”
I think for some women, it doesn’t even cross their mind that they could serve in a different capacity than what they’ve been used to in the past or how they’ve seen other women serve in the past. So it’s helping women to see beyond the confined spaces that they’re used to.
As a personal anecdote, for me, part of the reason why I am here today is because of the men who recognized certain gifts in me and really challenged me to cultivate those, even when I was uncomfortable, knowing my personality and my temperament, coming alongside me and pushing me into spaces that they knew would be good for me in my development and I wasn’t really sure about. So I’m so thankful for my pastors and others who had to go out of their way to do that. It has been such a blessing for me personally, and also, I’m sure, for them as well.
Soojin Park: There’s a running joke between me and my senior pastor, Pastor Owen, where he always says, he’s the wind under my wings, meaning he’s always pushing me into things that I don’t want to be in and I don’t want to do because I’m just not comfortable. But he says, “These are your growth opportunities.” And to be honest, I wouldn’t be here where I am, doing the kind of ministry I am without him. And I always tell people, every female who wants to do ministry needs an Owen in their lives. Because I just know I give so much credit to him supporting me to do what I’m doing now. So it really does take pastors going out of their way to create opportunities and to encourage and challenge for women to be able to flourish within the church.
Hannah Chao: Yeah, and it’s really important to remember that even though, obviously, all churches look different, it’s important to remember that women make up a big part of a church. If you discount women in the church, you’re missing out on so many gifted and talented people.
Just thinking about SOLA Network, for example, I just looked at our demographics for our website. It used to be 50/50 split, but now, more than half of our readers are women. I have a contact at The Gospel Coalition, who said for them, 60% of their readers are women and 40% are men, which is crazy. You would think that male leaders are going to want to read these things.
Some of the things that we talked about with the editorial board was that maybe a reason why is that women may be feeling like, “Oh, I’m not getting the training or the teaching that I want from my local church, but I can go to these outside organizations to help me, whether that’s SOLA , The Gospel Coalition, other websites.” And I think that’s really sad if women feel like they can’t be led by their local church, especially because we all say we love the local church, we should be local church driven, that’s where our home is.
Another way that the churches can really support women is to go beyond your friends. I think with a lot of pastors, it’s very easy to stick with your friends. You went to the same seminary, you suffered together learning Greek and Hebrew—long, long nights, all that stuff. So it’s easy to ask your friends to come speak at your missions conference, or it’s easy to have a group of guys coming together. But I think there is such a missed opportunity in all the women in your lives, who—as you mentioned too earlier, Soojin—where women should speak into the life of a church and speak into the life of a ministry. So it calls on pastors to look beyond just your friends and see the greater scope of the church and how Christ can lead. So one of the greatest ways to church and support women is to ask them for help.
Heidi Wong: The one last thing I would mention, Hannah, is not only pastors recognizing spaces for women to lead in the week-to-week, but also in the planning for the ministry year. And that’s a huge opportunity to be intentional about having women voices. And as a woman, when my pastor, leader of my church asked me to lead something, knowing that they were intentional about that thought and that decision is encouraging. And knowing that it wasn’t just because none of the guys were available that they’re asking me can be uplifting to women as well, knowing that they’re intentionally being thought of in the program planning for the church.
Soojin Park: A framework that’s helped our church to think about things is, the church is a family—you have mother figures, and you have father figures. But to be honest, there’s been a deficit of mother figures. And I think that’s also why you have more younger people who are not happy with complementarianism—because they’ve only seen father figures and no women figures going into those roles. But a church can be healthy and have robust complementarianism when you have both father figures doing their roles and mother figures playing their roles as well. And that’s the space we need to be intentionally carved out in the church.
Hannah Chao: Yeah, and “intentionality” is such a big word for us. Assuming that a women’s ministry or women can flourish—that it’ll just happen—is such a common thing. Like, “The women will figure it out.” The pastor says, “Okay, do your thing. I’ll be over there. Here’s some money.”
But if they’re not intentionally a part of the planning of the church, if it’s not intentional that these resources are for women—and again, not just, “you figure it out,” but that the pastor has a vision for women in the church—if it’s not there, it really does feel like, “Here’s a Saturday morning, go for it.” And I think women can feel that. That can be why women’s ministry can feel so weak. It’s because there’s no wind beneath its wings.
Okay. We’ve talked a lot about the church and church leadership, but I know there are probably a lot of women watching this. So maybe there’s a lot of yeses and agreements, but can we all just go around and share encouragement to the sisters?
I’ll go first, since I’m already talking. The biggest encouragement that I would give to sisters is: “demand more.” And I’ll say “demand.” I’ll use a strong word because we can be so passive, so take it how you will.
But as women, I think we should ask for and receive more opportunities, especially to be equipped. I think that’s the biggest thing that women always say when we ask them to serve is, “Oh, but I don’t feel equipped. I don’t feel like I’ve been trained.” And the truth is, you know what, they probably are right, especially if the church has been a lot more focused on male leadership, either accidentally or (hopefully not) purposefully. But I want for churches to encourage women who want to be biblically trained to go to seminary. There’s local ones, you can do online programs, and then the church can support them by providing scholarships, providing funds, things like that, matching funds.
But seminary isn’t for everyone—it’s a lot of work, it’s graduate classes. So, then the church then can provide Bible study classes or theology classes, within the church that are rigorous—maybe there’s homework. But we women shouldn’t be afraid to have to ask to be trained. Because it’s like a vicious cycle, “Oh, I’m not trained; I can’t serve.” But then we can fix the training part so that you can serve. Heidi, do you want to take that next?
Heidi Wong: Yeah. For me, my encouragement to the sisters would be to diversify your spiritual heroes. In our somewhat small reformed circle, and then smaller with the Asian American church, I can’t think of women who look like us that is my go-to, look up to, older sister figure. And because of that, obviously, women will look elsewhere. There sometimes can be a disconnect between me as an Asian American woman at my church and maybe my spiritual hero is this person on Twitter, or even my local pastor, which is great. But I do think, in the local church, for older women to not be afraid of investing in younger women, even if you don’t feel like your life is together, or you’re going through the things, that’s okay. And just to walk alongside a younger woman can be a huge blessing for the both of you.
Likewise, for younger women to seek out those mentors and relationships and just sit in life together. It looks different at every church, and it looks different probably in the urban setting than in the suburbs, sometimes with commutes and jobs and all of that, but I have been so personally blessed.
Soojin and I had the same spiritual mentor when we were in college. And because of her, I feel like that’s a big part of why we’re here today. All the time that she poured into us, with no real tangible benefit to herself, other than her loving God and loving others, and living that out every day. And because of my relationship with her, I’ve carried that with me, post-grad into now, and make that an intentional part of my life. So that would be my greatest encouragement—to look at the local church and not just see your pastors and maybe your community group, but soon, other sisters that you could get to know and have a Christ-centered relationship with.
Hannah Chao: Let me add to that really quick. As a mom of two kids, it is really hard to carve out time to try to disciple women, but I will say as an encouragement, some of the best things that younger women can do for me is to just come over and hang out. They play with my kids—if you just give them 15 minutes of attention, then they’ll run off—and then we can have a conversation. We can do things together. And obviously, when I was younger, I would go over to older women’s houses.
It doesn’t have to be super formal all the time. There’s time for formality. But there’s also time for figuring out that, “Hey, grown-up life can look like this.” And there’s so much to be said about knowing that as a woman, our lives might look more different, especially with childcare and things like that, but there’s so much learning that happens at the same time. Why don’t you go ahead, Soojin. What are some encouragements you have?
Soojin Park: I think mine’s an encouragement slash challenge, also. I know we’ve talked a lot about what pastors can do, but it really goes both ways. Meaning, for some reason, particularly Asian American women are afraid to talk to their pastors. And I know a lot of women who have a lot of desires and thoughts about what they want their church experience to be, but they’re afraid to go to their pastor and say it. So a lot of women don’t engage their pastors. So my challenge and encouragement is: You also have to go, and you have to be willing to graciously, kindly, respectfully, speak truth to your pastors about your own experiences and what you desire. Because, frankly, they’re not going to know if you don’t tell them, and it’s unfair to expect them to know just from watching.
I’ve had some really tough conversations with my pastors. There’s been some tears shed, and there’s been some hard moments, but they’ve all been really worth it because now we understand each other better. Now they know my experience, and they know my perspective. That’s why I can say I have pastors who support me, love me, and will encourage me. So don’t be afraid. They’re your pastors; it’s their job to shepherd you and to care for you. You are just as much a member, and you are one of the sheep, and so go and build a relationship with your pastor. Be honest.
It also helps us as women to give our pastors more benefit of the doubt when we know them personally. Because it is really easy for us women, when we don’t see the things that we want in our churches, to criticize pastors. And that’s unfair, too. So women have to be willing to meet their pastors halfway.
And as I’m thinking through all of our encouragement—go be trained and equipped. Go find mentors; go speak to your pastors. I feel like all of that is—this is a word that Heidi used the other day—part of a renewed vision for what it looks like to be a woman flourishing in the church. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I know so many women, particularly Asian American women, who are not satisfied with their experience in church. They’re unhappy; they have mediocre Christian lives in some sense. Their local church context isn’t fulfilling them—and it breaks my heart. It can be better, right? It can be better because women are not second-class citizens. Women are uniquely but also similarly made in the image of God. We women are coheirs of the inheritance of the kingdom. We have just as much privilege and honor and right to claim promises, and those promises many times come through the local church.
I want women to flourish in the church and have amazing experiences growing and serving through the church. But it has to be both ways. Women have to be willing to go out and seek it, but also, pastors have to come alongside and support and encourage. And I just want to say, if you’re disgruntled or unhappy with your experience in your local church, don’t be satisfied with that. Jesus didn’t go to all great lengths to die for us just so we can have disgruntled experiences in his local body. Instead of sitting and complaining or accepting that for what it is, I think there can be more flourishing in the church. It’s going to take a team effort, but I want it to be like that. I don’t know if you guys resonate with me when I say that.
Heidi Wong: 100%.
Hannah Chao: Yeah. Even when it comes to us three, just talking about our experiences, sharing so many of them, the thing that I do get out of this is hope. Like we do see, there are places where Asian American women in the local church are given opportunities to speak, to talk, and to share. All of our pastors have been very enthusiastic about having us serve at SOLA and at other events. There are some Asian American women who are older as well who we can look up to.
But it’s so important right now, especially as the big wave of Asian American immigrants in the 1960’s, 70s—we’re the children of those immigrants. And we’re continuing to figure out what it means to flourish as Asian Americans here. So it’s important that the church thinks about it because if we’re not thinking about it now, then we’re not going to have Asian American leaders for the next generation. This is going to be a pervasive problem when it’s a problem that already has a solution, which is love women the way Jesus loves women. Do you have any other thoughts to add?
Heidi Wong: The only thing I would add, it’s echoing what Soojin just shared. This renewed vision of what it could be like to be an Asian American woman in the church and to have a flourishing Christian life doesn’t mean our lives are free of suffering, or issues, or challenges. But it’s through those things that we lean in to the local church to support us. Even as we serve, we are supported by our communities. And that’s such a greater witness as well, to be in a place where you could be going through something really difficult, yet be in a loving community with your church in a place that supports you, not just because you’re a member or a woman, but just because it’s a family. And for people who are not part of the family of God yet—to see that and to be curious about who is this God? Who is this Jesus? How can this person have such joy in the midst of such struggle? So to also remember that it’s also part of Christian witness to desire, to want to have a flourishing Christian life.
Soojin Park: Yeah, we’re not making this up. You read Genesis, Revelation—God wants the flourishing of women. And it’s always been revolutionary the way that Jesus loves women, the way that he taught women and discipled them. So it’s a more accurate witness to the world of our God when women are flourishing in the church.
Hannah Chao: I think that’s good—women flourishing in the church. I like it. I hope that this talk was encouraging, also challenging, and maybe a little uncomfortable. But remembering, focusing, and being purposeful about the flourishing of women in our churches will ultimately be for the glory of the kingdom. Thank you so much for tuning in.
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