Stained-Glass Ceiling: Churches and Their Women Pastors

By Sally B. Purvis

Book Overview

As record numbers of women graduate from seminaries, they are increasingly filling positions once held exclusively by men. Sally Purvis documents what happened in the lives of two congregations that appointed women senior pastors and the impact these appointments had on all concerned. She carefully assesses the changes and discerns the significance of female leadership as opposed to male leadership in these two churches.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664256082
• ISBN13: 9780664256081
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 108 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Full of important insights

Susan Purvis has not attempted to write a book full of definitive study results. Rather, she has done an indepth look at two churches, both quite large in size and substantive in ministry scope, who have called women as senior pastor/head of staff. These churches are in different denominations, but both have many of the same needs and are impacted by the same human concerns as to power struggles, distribution of power, interaction by all levels of the congregation, etc. Most striking is the insight that both these pastors did their personal "homework" in building their own internal spiritual framework before attempting to build the external framework of the local church parish.