March 7, 2010
Translated by Lydia Ma

In one of the hymns found in our new hymn book, there is a hymn that speaks about the complexity of God's image. The second verse of this hymn highlights God's female attributes. As we celebrate Women's Sunday this week, it's worth spending some time reflecting on this issue to help us build a diverse and creative church.

In the past, churches always viewed God as masculine and evaluated church ministries from a man's point of view. Though women may have participated in ministries, they would always play a secondary or supportive role in this male-dominated setting. Because of this phenomenon, women's creativity and uniqueness could never be fully manifested. Though churches may promote gender equality by advocating 50-50 participation ratio, at the end of the day, many are only playing a charade.

Knowing God's more feminine attributes or roles helps women recover their true image and self-confidence instilled by God at the beginning of creation. It is only when they are thus awakened, that women can create ministries that fit them. This process also helps ministries in the PCT to be more diverse and successfully meet the challenges of evangelism in the 21st century.

By focusing on God's feminine attributes, this hymn offers us a few clues on how feminine qualities support women's ministries. First, women are very hard-working and excel in time management. Though humans aren't like God who needs no rest, women portray God's resourcefulness through their excellent time management skills and sense of responsibility.

Second, women's creativity and leadership skills reflect God's wisdom and creativity at the creation of the universe. We discover that creativity and leadership do not belong exclusively to men as tradition would have us think. In fact, according to a survey by Cultural Creativity Association, 70% of creative cultural ideas were invented by women. Women get creativity from interpersonal relationships, their own sensitivity, and their lively imagination. All of these attributes are what present church ministries need to ward off rigidity and boredom.

Finally, women excel in making everything equal, fair, and balanced and this makes them very suitable and necessary in administration. Women are more likely to participate in public affairs or administration with the goal of furthering justice and reconciliation. Women are also more understanding and other-oriented – something they must have learned from managing their own homes. Such tendencies are reflective of God's desire to reconcile the world through Christ, save the world, and extend grace.

When we emphasize on the feminine or motherly qualities of God, we are simultaneously pointing out that God also has another fatherly side that is equally important. The creation of man and woman and their respective attributes was intended to foster cooperation, not competition or enmity, between individuals. Such cooperation is how we actualize what God had in mind for all of creation.

There can only be one Truth, but how we portray this Truth in real life can be very creative and lively. This is a new goal women in the church can set when responding to God's call.

Taiwan Church News