Call for gifted women to be recognised

Gifted women should be more widely recognised in FIEC churches, a key figure in the network says.

Elisabeth Smyth recently retired after more than 20 years of service with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

She latterly transformed their work amongst women in ministry as the first Women’s Ministry Co-ordinator. Phil Topham recently caught up with Elisabeth and writes:

‘Elisabeth’s first role was serving as PA to Bev Savage, appointed FIEC General Secretary in 1999. It was six years later that Bev retired from his role, but Elisabeth believes the prayers of those years laid the foundations for what FIEC would become.

‘She says: “Looking back over those first six years, my clearest memories are of praying at every staff and committee meeting that the Lord would raise up a new generation of men for ministry. I see the fruit of those prayers at every leaders’ conference today, but, wonderfully, I also see it at Thrive – our annual conference for women in ministry.

‘“We didn’t pray for a new generation of women for ministry, but God has given more than we asked!”

‘It was a time of rapid change for FIEC, as Elisabeth recalls: “In many ways, FIEC – its office and staff, its profile of churches, the breadth and depth of its ministry – is all unrecognisable from early 1999. But the Lord Jesus is the same Saviour we served then, His gospel has the same unique power to transform lives, the need of a dying nation is still the same.”

‘Elisabeth was appointed to her role as Women’s Ministry Co-ordinator in 2014, establishing a relational group of women who are set aside by their churches for pastoral ministry among women:

‘Elisabeth continued: “There became much more of a willingness to see women as key workers in ministry. I remember Richard Underwood saying that complementarianism shouldn’t be about what women can’t do, but what they can do.

‘“But there is still work to do. I would like to see a more intentional discipleship of women for appropriate leadership roles within the church, so that the gifted women God has given to our churches see their gifts recognised, nurtured and released into service.”

‘She concluded: “The team, the vision, the work and ministry, and the perception of FIEC in the eyes of our churches has just grown and grown. But the foundations of FIEC were solid from the outset so, as one generation gives way to the next, there has always been great ground to build on. God has been utterly faithful.”’