Over the last decade, I have studied and researched the role of women in church leadership, specifically in the Pentecostal tradition, and even more specifically, women in the Assemblies of God.

While writing and speaking on women like Blanche Brittain and Mae Eleanor Frey, I have marveled at how God used these women in a cultural and social context that was not friendly or accommodating to their calling and work. Yet, as I trace our groundbreaking history as Pentecostals with regard to women’s leadership in the Church, there is a recurring argument and challenge to women who lead that is frustrating and confusing.

It is not a theological or biblical challenge, but a challenge rooted in scarcity of opportunity. The argument is this: If women rise up as leaders and ministers, it will decrease opportunity and positions for men.

Along with this imagined lack of ministry opportunity, some people worry about a so-called feminization of the church. And that supposedly leads to an emasculation of men who no longer have a place in ministry as women take their place. Plainly, there are limited means for ministry work, and while God can call and empower women, encouraging them to respond means men will be left behind.

According to a recent report from Barna Group, women are leaving the church in greater numbers than men. The lack of opportunity for women to lead and the ensuing lack of representation are having a detrimental effect. Women are often the driving force in families who attend church. If we lose women in the church, we lose entire families.

We need women, not only in our pews, but also on our platforms. As we again prepare to gather together as a Fellowship, I want to challenge this faulty notion and encourage us to rethink how we talk about men and women in ministry.

First, the work of the Great Commission is not a pie. God doesn’t limit Kingdom opportunities to a certain number of pieces. Those answering the call to ministry don’t have to clamor to get a piece of the pie before it disappears. The work of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ as Savior and soon-coming King is vast and limitless.

There are still parts of the globe that remain unreached with the saving knowledge of Jesus. Here at home, some statistics suggest the Church is losing ground rather than gaining it. If anything, the opportunity for ministry is as great as it has ever been, and there is plenty of work yet to be done.

Second, we need all hands on deck. We need missionaries, church planters and revitalizers, rural pastors, urban pastors, chaplains, and people serving the mission of God in ways we have yet to consider. As long as there are people who do not know Christ or who have walked away from His Church, there is a need for us to rise up and do the work of sharing Jesus.

The work of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ as Savior and soon-coming King is vast and limitless.

Scripture tells us that the harvest is ready and the workers are few! Let us not spend our time bickering among ourselves about who should minister. Rather, let’s turn our attention to training and empowering those who desire to lead with the resources they need to get the job done.

Third, we must rise up and take back our Charismatic moment. We are living in tumultuous and uncertain times. Pentecostalism is a reconciliation movement where the Spirit of God came to rest upon those the world had never considered.

Those demarcations that threaten to divide the body of Christ, such as race, gender and socio-economic status, were washed away as the Spirit fell upon whomever He wished and empowered them for service to the kingdom of God.

The world is desperate for answers, and we have that answer: His name is Jesus. This is the story of Pentecost, and it is our story. As a movement, we must reclaim the message that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is for service — service to one another and service to the kingdom of God!

Let me remind you that women rising to become ministers of the gospel does not mean that men have to sit down. A rising tide lifts all boats. As women step into their calling and lead, men will come to know Christ and receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The time for laying aside our fears about who can and should serve in the mission of the Church is now. The question is not who can and who should, but rather who will.

Sociologist Margaret Poloma once argued that the modern “rights” movements may not have been necessary had the Pentecostal movement not sacrificed its charismatic moment by diminishing the role of women and people of color from within its ranks. The movement that is Pentecostalism is not a movement based on rights, but rather a movement based on power — Holy Spirit Power — the power that raised Jesus himself from the dead.

We are the heirs to that power, and it is time we take up the mantle and show a lost and dying world that the power of Jesus is here and available for them. He wants to rescue us from a belief that there is a scarcity of resources for the work of the Kingdom to a place of abundance.

Let us rise up — together! There is work to be done, and the power is here to accomplish it!