Transformational Discipleship as Empowerment: A Narrative Inquiry of the Experience of Women’s Empowerment

What does women empowerment mean? How does it translate into a better understanding of what the experience of that empowerment entails? Exploring the experiences of women in empowerment and the meaning of the aforementioned is essential when attempting to gain insight on how to develop women and improve empowerment initiatives for those who are impoverished in one way or another. Narrative inquiry is used in this dissertation to tell the story of women empowerment from social, biblical and personal perspectives.
These are women who have gone through transformational discipleship relationships. Ultimately, my own journey of transformational discipleship and understanding of the social, biblical and personal viewpoints, dictate the story of empowerment presented in this narrative. It provides transformational leaders with an opportunity to better understand what it means for a woman to be impoverished, why individual women seek empowerment through transformational discipleship relationships, what women living in the context of transformational discipleship make of this experience, and what can happen when these women are called upon to be transformational leaders who multiply their experiences by working for the wellbeing of other women and cities.
What is revealed through these personal stories suggest the need for an older Christian woman in a transformational discipleship relationship. The older woman in this narrative represents respite, security, and a life on life discipleship that helps the women pursue reconciling relationships between the women and other people, the women and God, and the women and their environment. In addition, they cultivate a willingness to seek the transformation and empowerment of other women and ultimately for some, a platform to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. A transformational discipleship relationship with an older Christian woman represents a model for the forty women participants in this study to empower more women and the city. It is during this experience of transformational discipleship with an older Christian woman that the participants come to “achieve, multiply and expand the accepted norm” of what it means for women to be empowered.
A safe relationship with an older Christian woman emerges as a key theme from the personal stories, but the act of retelling the stories becomes the catalyst for a new thinking about how participants view their empowering circumstances and life experiences. That re-telling proves to be an invitation to a re-examination of a woman’s personal story of empowerment, and an invitation for me to consider a different kind of transformational discipleship. It is in this narrative, the beginning of an alternative model for transformational discipleship, where the older Christian woman provides godly affection, intercession, and instruction as key needs for participants in this study. In addition, a proposed transformational discipleship with an older Christian woman is presented, where traditional program models and advocacy are still offered, but with a caveat of developing these women to be transformational leaders, who multiply the empowering experiences and seek the peace and prosperity of cities.