Beth Moore is a leader who has massive influence. To be honest, I had not given her much thought until recently I read an article (Green 2018) about her published in the Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/). It talks about her various achievements, the rise to the influential leader she is today and current challenges she is facing. Green writes, “Moore’s success was possible because she spent her career carefully mapping the boundaries of acceptability for female evangelical leaders. … For decades, Moore never broke stride. In the past few years, however, she has felt out of step with the evangelical community” (2018). This last line is what inspired me to follow Beth Moore.
Moore leads a ministry in Houston, Texas called Living Proof Ministries. “Living Proof Ministries is dedicated to encourage people to come to know and love Jesus Christ through the study of Scripture” (Living Proof Ministries, 2015). Living Proof Ministries has a Facebook page, Moore has a personal Facebook profile that is limited in scope as it is not public, and she also has an Instagram account, however, I found her ideas most clearly articulated on Twitter. What appears to be her personal Facebook page seems inconsistent with everything else she posts and since I am not sure it is legitimately her I did not take it into account.
Moore emphasizes obedience to Jesus (2018c). As a leader it can be easy to get distracted by my own ideas and opinions, rather than seeking God for His will. I have learned that when I fail to seek God’s will I tend to hurt people, make bad decisions and fail to point people to Jesus. As a leader in full time Christian ministry, my goal is to draw people closer to Jesus. I know that I am only successful in this when I am obedient to Him. Therefore, obedience is foundational to my work as a leader.
(Moore, 2018c)
Moore advocates for people to exemplify Jesus. She says that we are “Called to live as Christ lived, love as Christ loved, serve as Christ served, die to ourselves as Christ died for us” (Moore, 2018b). In my work as a leader I have to remember this call, in order to represent Jesus well and point people to Him. Failure to do so results in people having misconceptions about who Jesus is, about what He is like, and about what following Him looks like. Since my ultimate goal is to encourage people to follow Jesus and exemplify Him, I must model this.
(Moore, 2018b)
Based on the aforementioned ideas Moore espouses, I would say that many of her foundational values about leadership align with mine. She values continual growth and wants to grow in grace, love, mercy and humbly serving (Moore, 2018c). As a leader I want to continue to improve, therefore I have to value my personal and professional growth, and work at it. Specifically I want to grow more as a servant leader, which means that like Moore I have to value grace, love, mercy and service. I would propose that these attributes are key components in several of the characteristics Northouse lists as “central to the development of servant leadership” (2016, p. 227): listening, empathy, healing, stewardship and commitment to the growth of people (Northouse, 2016, pp. 227-228).
Moore also values investing in younger generations. This is demonstrated in her “plea to my beloved fellow Jesus followers in our 50s through 80s” (Moore, 2018a) to be godly leaders until the end. As a leader she wants to set an example for generations coming after her; she wants to help them succeed. The ministry I lead works primarily with teenagers. It is a deep desire of mine as a leader to equip them so that they might go further in creating positive change than I have.
(Moore 2018a)
My advice to Moore in regards to extending her influence would be to utilize Facebook more. Younger generations do not use Facebook as much as Instagram and Twitter, however, I think if Moore linked her Twitter account to a Facebook account she would reach a larger audience and perhaps a different demographic. This would not require any work on her part other than the initial set up of linking the accounts.
Moore seems to use Twitter predominantly for sharing leadership and ministry related thoughts, while she uses Instagram for sharing about her life. I would suggest that more overlap between the two might draw in a larger audience. As an example, more posts related to leadership on her Instagram page, linking back to her Twitter page, may draw in people who are not interested in pictures of her life but may be interested in what she has to say regarding leadership. This would expand her influence. By expanding her influence, Moore would be able to encourage more people to exemplify Jesus well.
References:
Green, Emma. (2018). The tiny blond bible teacher taking on the evangelical political machine. The Atlantic, October 2018. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/beth-moore-bible-study/568288/.
Living Proof Ministries. (2015). About. Retrieved from https://www.lproof.org/about
Moore, Beth. [bethmoorelpm] (2018a, April 12). A plea to my beloved fellow Jesus followers in our 50s through 80s. We still have time and enormous opportunity to serve upcoming generations. Oh, let’s do it. [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BheRAXFgv2j/?taken-by=bethmoorelpm
Moore, Beth. [BethMooreLPM] (2018b, September 19). Called to live as Christ lived, love as Christ loved, serve as Christ served, die to ourselves as Christ died for us. We are His witnesses in this era. This is our charge. This is the only chance we’ll get to do the gospel good in a hostile world. It’ll go in a flash. Do the thing. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BethMooreLPM/status/1042376320833990657
Moore, Beth. [BethMooreLPM] (2018c, September 24). I guess what I’m trying to say this morning to my fellow older servants is that we must take great care over our own souls that we do not age out of obedience. Scares me to death. Let’s grow lavishly in love & grace & mercy, serving all humbly. But let’s not age out of obedience! [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BethMooreLPM/status/1044215335669379072
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
September 30, 2018 at 5:27 pm
Hey B,
Thanks you for your post about Beth Moore! She is a leader I am also personally inspired by, especially as a women in ministry. I read that Atlantic article on her awhile ago and grew to appreciate her even more.
I can relate to her (though I am sure it was harder in her time) on her struggle with wanting to teach God’s Word, but being held back and struggling with her calling, because she is a woman. This article also made me appreciate her perseverance and it is incredible the impact of her ministry, considering all the obstacles.
I found it interesting that Ed Stetzer, referred to her as “a category by herself” in the Atlantic article. In my research on this topic, this is usually the case with strong female leaders, Evangelicals make them the “exception to the rule” and not “the rule.” Also a women leading so powerfully never seems to encourage more empowerment of women in churches, the response usually is “oh, that’s nice, God is using a women powerfully.” Not, “wow, we need more women doing this and it’s not happening, why?” This article mentioned “gender superiority” and how women are often not treated as equal in the church and I see some of this in the comment on the “category in herself.” It likely was a well intentioned comment, but I think it also reinforces that “exception to the rule” mentality.
I pray that God would continue to embolden her to be a voice to male Evangelical theologians and church leaders, as she has gained trust and credibility as a Bible teacher and both women and men look up to her. She would be risking a lot, but if she continued to speak-out and share her struggle and journey as a woman in ministry and emphasize the need for equal empowerment of women in ministry, it would be amazing! Empowering women like Jesus did, instead of hindering women and treating them as less of a person in the church, because of their gender. I think if women were empowered in the church like Jesus did in His time, we would see many more Beth Moore’s and other types of women leaders in Christian ministry.
Monica
October 15, 2018 at 12:05 pm
What an inspiring conversation! As leaders, we have so many opportunities to use our influence to empower others to leadership, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, ability, and all the other aspects of our identity that surely allow us to embody the love of Christ in diverse and meaningful ways.
— Leadership Prof