Playing by the Rules

“I highly recommend Playing by the Rules to every male who has a leadership role in an evangelical mission organization. While the monograph meticulously describes and explains women’s leadership experiences in evangelical mission organizations, it also makes crystal clear the key to freeing female mission leaders to realize their full potential. Male leaders must work steadily and intentionally to change their organizations’ patriarchal cultures. The underutilization of women in missional leadership, apart from issues of injustice, is just bad stewardship.”


—Rich Starcher, Professor of Intercultural Education & Missiology, Biola University, and Editor-in-Chief of Missiology: An International Review





“Sexist organizations are broken organizations, missing out on the leadership gifts of half of humanity. Dr. Dzubinski’s research reveals the often subtle ways in which women’s leadership is undermined in the unique world of mission organizations. Her work shows that ultimately, ‘playing by the rules’ means losing the game. For those willing to listen, this book will provide insights to equip the church to more effectively fulfill its mission in an increasingly diverse world.”


—Elizabeth Lewis Hall, Professor of Psychology, Biola University





“This book comes out of the author’s deep love for the evangelical missions community and her conviction that we are limping due to an unseen injury that has been crippling the body of Christ for too long. We can’t fix what we don’t see. Leanne’s discoveries provide a critical path into redemptive, honest partnerships that will bless our God and the world as we take hold of them!” —Wendy Wilson, Mission Advisor for Development of Women, Missio Nexus





“This early yet provocative contribution to the fields of leadership studies and missions represents an important benchmark study that portrays how women leaders in evangelical organizations navigated their leadership journey and made meaning of their leadership experiences. Times have changed, and more change is coming, yet the lessons learned through interviews with the twelve participants in Dzubinski’s research have ongoing value in identifying common obstacles and pitfalls that women encounter, and pointing out ways that organizations—far beyond evangelical missions agencies—can ensure support for women leaders to effectively contribute in the roles for which they have been gifted and called.”


—Karen A. Longman, PhD Program Director and Professor, Department of Higher Education, Azusa Pacific University





“As a woman who served as a missionary overseas for seventeen years, I know well the burden of fulfilling a call to missions in Jesus’s name. With that burden also go the restrictions under which many women missionaries must work simply because they are women. Dr. Dzubinski has made an important contribution to understanding the ‘dance’ many Christian women engage as they attempt to do God’s work in mission contexts that limit their ministry because of their sex.”


—Alice Mathews, retired Professor of Educational Ministries and Women’s Ministries, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary