The task force she pioneered with her husband Steve and a large national team helped 100+ church planters in the US and other countries prepare, launch, and make it through the wild waters of the first years of a new plant.
About her early Vineyard years, Cindy says, âOur church was a wild place to be, with around 300 people, mostly college students, young professionals, and young families, plus a few grannies and grandpas who prayed for all of us, God bless them. Most of the women in our church at that point could not get into the room, simply because of their stage of life. Something started stirring up in me where I really wanted women to get to Jesus, to learn all this stuff, and start moving in it. Nobody was saying âthe women canât comeâ, but it was all the little things that just werenât always orchestrated well, like providing childcare or rooms for nursing. The thought that stirred inside me was âThere has to be a different way to do this so that everyone really gets to play.â
As churches began planting out of ours, two of my dear friends and I started doing weekend conferences where we could all learn together, and not just on topics particular to women; they were the same conferences that everyone was doing, but with all of the worship and ministry time led by women, and all female speakers. Weâd expand the circle each time so that more women in the movement had access to the things they saw Jesus doing.
It has been such an incredible privilege to be in the room when God is breaking shame, condemnation, and the voices in womenâs heads that say âYou canât, you mustnât, youâre not good enough, old enough, whatever enough to do what Iâm calling you to do.â It has been a complete and utter joy to see the women in the movement be able to recognize their gifts, get their hands on mentoring, and step into the right places for their gifts to flourish. When we started, there were so few opportunities for that to happen, and now there are opportunities everywhere I look!
One thing that is true for women who are just now stepping into leadership is that there are examples, mentors, and coaches that didnât exist before. You can see women who are like you and be mentored by them, and there are also way more men in the movement now who are comfortable mentoring women. My encouragement is to pay attention to what the Womenâs Association and Multiply Vineyard are offering as far as mentoring and coaching. Iâd also encourage finding a circle of women either locally or virtually who are pursuing what Jesus is calling you to. You encourage each other, challenge each other, and in prayer you pull the arrows out of each other’s backs when stuff happens.â
Cindy spent her final years of local church ministry as assistant pastor of the Evanston Vineyard in Illinois tending the intercessors and ministry prayer teams. She devotes her spare time to enjoying their eight gorgeous grandchildren, digging in her garden, writing, and playing piano.
She grew up in a ministry family, running around Young Life camps and believing she could be part of things God was up to in the world. âI experienced Jesus at Young Life in an outpouring, rich way, but in the church I grew up in I was very disconnected and just did the things I had to do. Young Life is where I felt my faith in action.
My house was full of hooligans who had met Jesus, and their lives were changed. The fruit of that ministry was alive and tangible, which was so different from my church where I had to go to handbells class but got kicked out because I was trying to make it a little more lively. I saw a lot of behavioral policing but no real fruit.
I remember a moment at church in 10th grade when I heard someone say for the first time that women werenât allowed to lead, and then I started seeing it everywhere. I had a conscious thought of âthereâs a ceiling here.â I went into the lobby and sobbed with my dad. It started a decade-long journey for me in discovering what the bible really said about women and the Vineyard is really how I settled that debate in my own heart and soul. At the Maryville Vineyard, I realized I had cultivated this theology that said women were limited in leadership, and then I had this Sharon (McCarter) who was saying women can do anything. She was very patient with me. Then a few years later, the Maryville Vineyard decided to plant more churches, and Sharon asked me to pastor one. All my life, the church was a separate thing that didnât have much to do with my faith, but that really shifted in my 20s, so much that Iâve now given my life to it.
The work of the pioneer women of the Vineyard was to carve out the question âCan we?â Theyâve done a phenomenal job of this, and I canât speak for every woman in the Vineyard, but I have never once been met with someone telling me Iâm not allowed to lead. I think the work of the current Womenâs National Team is answering the question âHow do we do it?â
Weâre looking at how to empower women on their own, and also how men and women can best work together. There are a lot of magical planning moments that happen in the car on the way to a meeting, or at a dinner after the conference, and there are decisions being made casually that women are not included in because they arenât in these situations with the men. I would encourage men to have eyes to see rooms where conversations are happening where women are not included. Today in the Vineyard, this isnât board rooms or full-day staff meetings; itâs those moments grabbing coffee before a meeting or at dinner after a conference where there is no set agenda and thereâs just time to talk and brainstorm and be friends. There have to be appropriate boundaries but itâs important to find ways to include women in one-on-one intentional spaces where you can start to hear and know the voice of your female leaders.
My dad was called to be a missionary/pastor with the Southern Baptists in Hawaii when I was 8. My mom was not recognized as a pastor, but I watched her serve faithfully alongside my dad. I felt Godâs call to ministry when I was 16, but I had seen too much of the bad and ugly as a kid. I never wanted to marry a pastor or be one.
While in college in CA in 1985, a friend invited me to visit the Anaheim Vineyard and Iâve been in the Vineyard since then. My first experience was John Wimber saying âCome, Holy Spiritâ and literally feeling wind blowing. I also received prayer from a woman who âread my mailâ. It was strange, but I felt at home.
In 1991, my husband and I were part of a church planting team for a Vineyard church in Oahu, Hawaii. We also help plant Vineyard churches in Yakima and Puyallup, Washington. In 2006 we moved to Kansas where my husband was a Worship Arts and Executive Pastor. We served there for 13 years. We moved back to WA to co-pastor the Seattle Vineyard six months before COVID.
In my previous church experience, there were no avenues for healing from the hurts of life. This changed in the Vineyard, where I received lots of prayer ministry. When I found a therapist with whom I could process my church trauma, I began to engage with the church differently. I found myself serving in worship, prayer, and womenâs ministries â this was especially meaningful because of the lack of opportunity for women leaders in the Baptist church. As I continued healing and surrendering everything I had said no to in my life, the Lord opened the doors to co-pastor with my husband.
Perhaps because of my years in the Vineyard, my role this season seems to be bridging the gap between what was and what could be. As I have conversations with the next generation, I see the need for authenticity and patience. This is slow work. Listening to them deeply, giving them opportunities to serve in capacities beyond what they think they can do, and encouraging their gifting is a joy for me. Iâm so grateful for the opportunities given to me in the Vineyard, but I believe my ceiling is the next generationâs floor. The door is wide open for my daughter to be a senior pastor in the future if she is called to it. Iâm also in conversations with older women who never had the opportunity to lead, and I encourage them to stay in the room and play.
I encourage all who want to journey alongside others in the transforming work of Christ to ask the Lord for patience, love, and grace. Live a life of humility. See people through the eyes of the Lord, as they are on a phase of their journey that may be different from you or me. I am continually learning to walk this out as a pastor who desires followers of Jesus to know His love and own their faith when life is difficult. Living and serving in this time is challenging, but God is good!
While living in Los Angeles, they were invited to visit Cincinnati, which was experiencing an influx of immigration from Guatemala, Mynorâs country of origin. They fell in love with the people and decided to plant a Viña church.
âWhen I was 12 years old, my parents were separated and my mom was in Mexico while my dad was in Los Angeles. My mom took me to visit him for a month, and I went to a church where I met Jesus. I moved to LA when I was 17, and I attended a Baptist church with my father. I met my husband there, and we were married in 1990. We started attending a Viña church where we were small group leaders and multiplied 3-4 times. Thatâs when we were asked to go to Cincinnati, and we became pastors as we planted La Viña Cincinnati.
The most joyful thing about pastoring is seeing the lives of many families change. Having a front-row seat to see people grow spiritually and marriages and relationships restored is a privilege. The hardest part at the beginning of our church plant was that people would show up who had bad encounters with their previous church. Theyâd be at our church for 6-8 months, have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, and then go back to their previous church! I told God, âYou want us to do this, but once they come here, they leave?â And he said to me clearly, âItâs my church, not yours. Theyâre my people and I know what Iâm doing with them.â We were a place for people to come and revitalize and then go back to their church where God wanted them to be. Some of them are now pastors, pillars in their churches. I said, âOk God, for now, I rest.â But we miss them! A friend told us âpeople might leave, but donât let them take your heart with you. There are people here who still need you.â So we release them and bless them.
Our church is bilingual; my husband teaches in Spanish and someone translates into English. We saw that there were a lot of couples where one partner spoke English and one Spanish, but no churches where both partners could hear the same message and understand, and serve together. Weâve been doing bilingual services since 2009, and itâs not fit for everyone but God keeps bringing more people. I really like to work with women. I love that being part of the Womenâs Association allows me to see more women in leadership. I really like that we are able to reach more women for Jesus and offer mentorship for developing leaders. Iâm also excited to meet more women and learn from them, so we can help each other grow. Iâm willing to keep growing in the ministry, and I want to empower women to work in ministry and in their community.â
The task force she pioneered with her husband Steve and a large national team helped 100+ church planters in the US and other countries prepare, launch, and make it through the wild waters of the first years of a new plant.
About her early Vineyard years, Cindy says, âOur church was a wild place to be, with around 300 people, mostly college students, young professionals, and young families, plus a few grannies and grandpas who prayed for all of us, God bless them. Most of the women in our church at that point could not get into the room, simply because of their stage of life. Something started stirring up in me where I really wanted women to get to Jesus, to learn all this stuff, and start moving in it. Nobody was saying âthe women canât comeâ, but it was all the little things that just werenât always orchestrated well, like providing childcare or rooms for nursing. The thought that stirred inside me was âThere has to be a different way to do this so that everyone really gets to play.â
As churches began planting out of ours, two of my dear friends and I started doing weekend conferences where we could all learn together, and not just on topics particular to women; they were the same conferences that everyone was doing, but with all of the worship and ministry time led by women, and all female speakers. Weâd expand the circle each time so that more women in the movement had access to the things they saw Jesus doing.
It has been such an incredible privilege to be in the room when God is breaking shame, condemnation, and the voices in womenâs heads that say âYou canât, you mustnât, youâre not good enough, old enough, whatever enough to do what Iâm calling you to do.â It has been a complete and utter joy to see the women in the movement be able to recognize their gifts, get their hands on mentoring, and step into the right places for their gifts to flourish. When we started, there were so few opportunities for that to happen, and now there are opportunities everywhere I look!
One thing that is true for women who are just now stepping into leadership is that there are examples, mentors, and coaches that didnât exist before. You can see women who are like you and be mentored by them, and there are also way more men in the movement now who are comfortable mentoring women. My encouragement is to pay attention to what the Womenâs Association and Multiply Vineyard are offering as far as mentoring and coaching. Iâd also encourage finding a circle of women either locally or virtually who are pursuing what Jesus is calling you to. You encourage each other, challenge each other, and in prayer you pull the arrows out of each other’s backs when stuff happens.â
Cindy spent her final years of local church ministry as assistant pastor of the Evanston Vineyard in Illinois tending the intercessors and ministry prayer teams. She devotes her spare time to enjoying their eight gorgeous grandchildren, digging in her garden, writing, and playing piano.
History is the story of humanity, lived and passed on from generation to generation through the oral traditions of song, poetry, art, and storytelling, some of which are recorded and preserved in history books.
Our histories ground us in an identity larger than our individual lives, filling us with wisdom, inspiration, perspective, and caution from those who have walked this earth before us.
Unfortunately, women have been largely absent from the recorded historical narrative, de-centering the collective wisdom and unique contributions that women have made to civilization and societies since the dawn of time. This âhistorical invisibilityâ has made it harder for women to place themselves in the narrative arc of history, robbing the world of the perspective and value women have embodied over generations.
Beginning in the 19th Century, a movement of women worldwide began to advocate for equality in all the spaces they inhabit. We see female suffragettes demanding to have their voices heard in voting, and we see marches protesting the abominable working conditions of women, calling for equal pay for equal work.
In 1909, National Womenâs Day was unofficially celebrated for the first time in America, paving the way for nations around the world to set aside one day a year to celebrate the accomplishments of women and continue to call for equality.
In 1975, Sonoma County educators hosted their first ever âWomenâs History Weekâ to coincide with International Womenâs Day on March 8. Other school districts followed suit, causing President Jimmy Carter to enact the first-ever National Womenâs History Week from March 2-8th,1980.
By 1987, Congress passed a joint resolution declaring the entire month of March as Womenâs History Month.
Learn more about the Vineyard USA’s Women’s Association
Kat Armas
Rev. Dr. Renita Weems
Ahmi Lee
Carmen Joy Imes
Lucy Peppiatt
Sandra Richter
Long before any laws were enacted to acknowledge the vital role of women in history, Christians have been relying on the testimony and prophetic witness of dozens of women in scripture whose very lives have been instrumental in our understanding of God.
Sarah, Hagar, Leah, Rachel, Tamar, Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Delilah, Hannah, Bathsheba, Naomi, Ruth, Esther, Elisabeth, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, Pricilla, and Lydia are just a sampling of real women spanning generations, who found themselves caught up in the story of God. They were diverse in culture, economic status, and social standing, and the testimony of their lives lived thousands of years ago still speaks to us today.
Women have been integral to the development of the church over the last 2000 years. We see women serving as missionaries and nuns, running abbeys, nursing, teaching, leading, defending their nations, and mentoring their children in the ways of God. We see women funding the building of cathedrals, prophesying, and writing personal accounts full of Holy Spirit wisdom, tender truths, and honest struggles.
We see women as catalysts for renewal and revival, empowered with gifts of healing and miracles, evangelism, and social justice. We see women in the sciences, founding churches, and advocating for the abolition of slavery and child labor laws. All of these things, and many more, happened despite the prevailing cultural norms of society and church culture that attempted to sideline or minimize the voice of women.
The faithful witness of women in Christianity is something to be celebrated as evidence of Godâs prevailing love and desire that women be equal partakers in the grace of God and the gift of local church expression.
When set against the backdrop of more than 2000 years of Christianity, our 41 years as the Vineyard movement might seem like a tiny minnow in an ocean of church history. Vineyard has, however, played a significant role in seeing women released to pastor and lead at all levels of church leadership and governance.
Women such as Dianne Leman, Cindy Nicholson, and Rose Madrid-Swetman, along with many others, found themselves commissioned by the Holy Spirit to pray, lead and advocate for the freedom that female pastors in the Vineyard now experience.
This was no easy task, as these new Vineyard pastors came from many different streams of Christianity, bound together in this new movement through a simple, but powerful prayer: âCome, Holy Spiritâ. The common denominator of belonging in the Vineyard was a desire for the Holy Spirit and the signs that follow, but it took decades before a clear, discernible path was developed for women to pastor alongside men.
Thanks to advocates such as Bert Waggoner, Rich Nathan, and others, in 2006 the Vineyard USA Board of Directors released (in part) the following statement; âIn response to the message of the Kingdom, the leadership of the Vineyard movement will encourage, train, and empower women at all levels of leadership, both local and trans-local. The movement as a whole welcomes the participation of women in leadership in all areas of ministryâ.
In the subsequent years, we have seen women respond to the calling of God to lead, pastor, and plant churches all over the world. According to the latest VUSA Census, 22.3% of Senior Pastors and 48.4% of church leadership in Vineyard USA are women.
It is also important for us to remember and honor the sacrifices of the first generation of male and female pastors in the Vineyard that enabled us to live out this Kingdom vision of âonenessâ. We do not want to take for granted the mandate we have been given in the Vineyard for men and women to co-labor together to see the Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
We see women as catalysts for renewal and revival, empowered with gifts of healing and miracles, evangelism, and social justice."
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