The story of God and the woman

                                      
                                      
                                            

                             

                                

 Jerena Lee's pulpit 

Though their partnership has been steady since the beginning of creation, the story of God and the woman is often associated with negative narratives that portray it as unimportant in comparison to other relationships involving males. If there is one thing that all faiths have in common, it is the powerful and persistent negative narrative that marginalizes women. Many women have only dreamed of serving the Lord, and many have perished with that hope, while others have done everything in their power to fulfill the desire. 

One woman who saw to it that her dreams of becoming a preacher came true was Jerena Lee. Born in Cape May, New Jersey in the late 1700s, she began working as a domestic for a white family at the age of seven, a stage of life that would prepare her for the suffering and separation that her calling would bring. Jerena Lee was not raised in a Christian household; rather, she was introduced to the concept of salvation at the age of sixteen. That Sunday morning, she attended church and experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

While many things were unprecedented during this time, some things were simply not going to change. The church was not going to accept the change that came with Jerena. At the time, she had no desire to preach the word, but she became very involved in the church to the point where she fell in love with a pastor and married him. As she grew older, her desire for the pulpit also grew. 

Jerena accepted the call of the Lord to ministry, but she was not given the chance to preach by the clergy. Sister Girl was driven to become a preacher and, on her journey to the pulpit, she became aware of the tyranny of women everywhere and battled for their rights in the church and in other spheres of society.

 
Despite being a widow with two small children, Jerena was not deterred from her painful experience. She was blessed with the support of Rev. Richard Allen, who believed in her and gave her his pulpit, but the rest of the church did not, so she decided to become a traveling minister in order to keep the peace. Jerena traveled far and wide, preaching the word of God. This decision gained her a lot of popularity and her style of preaching captured many hearts. This extraordinary woman fought everything and everyone who stood in her way. She believed that God had given her the gift to preach, so she had to preach. 

Despite the fact that Jerena Lee became the first African American woman to preach on a Methodist church pulpit during a time when it was extremely taboo, the church must have felt, "We denied her the pulpit but we forgot the platform." Jerena was the hip pastor who made church enjoyable; you know, the life of the party, but in this case, rainbows and sunshine were far from this story. The men of the church, who were very traditional, never truly accepted her.

She believed God did not only call the men but the women too,  "for the man may preach because the Savior died for him, why not the woman? Seeing he died for her also. Is he not a whole Savior, instead of a half one? As those who hold it wrong for a woman to preach would seem to make it appear"

Yes to preacher girls like Jerena Lee, who paved the door for other women!