Empowering Women in Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches in Russia for Leadership in Transforming the Culture of Relationships in the Church and Family

This project addresses the need of women in Evangelical Christian Baptist (ECB) churches in Russia for empowerment in transforming the culture of the relationships in the church and family affected by gender bias implications. The project analyzes the perceptions and a real-time state of the problems by male Baptist leaders, pastors, NGO leaders, female leaders and women not in leadership – members of the ECB Churches in Moscow and Moscow region. The tools for gathering data included a qualitative phenomenology approach in the questionnaires completed by 27 respondents of both genders. An ethnography method was utilized for three interviews with women who faced gender discrimination in the ECB Church and family. Also, a seminar and a focus group were utilized as intervention strategies and were used for identifying ways to empower women and transform the culture of relations affected by gender bias in the ECB Church and family. The principal result of this project was the start of a conversation that openly admits the problem of distortions in relationships affected by gender bias by the male Baptist leaders. The research has inspired a dialogue on ways to transform the culture of gender relationships amongst Baptist leaders and individuals. Suggestions were proposed for the creation of new educational programs on spiritual formation at ECB Churches. The study promoted the collaboration of the ECB women and the leaders in Moscow and Moscow region in creating new educational programs that will empower women by using BGU’s Transformational Leadership Perspectives.