Interview: Pastor Dorcas George (Part 1)
Dorcas George is the pastor of Jubilee Assembly of God in New Holstein Wisconsin. She is a blogger, a historical reenactor, and a grandmother in training. She has graciously agreed to be interviewed for The CBE Scroll.
What in your religious upbringing prepared you to be a woman in church leadership?
I grew up with a father who was adamant that when it came to church, we would attend, give and participate faithfully. We did not wake up on Sunday morning and decide whether to attend church or sleep in. We learned to serve in whatever way we could. We learned to give cheerfully and generously. I learned to love the Church of Jesus Christ, “warts and all.” Following my dad’s example, I also learned to study the written word of God carefully. He was not a pastor, but he was a wonderful Bible teacher and a lifelong Baptist deacon.
I am a pastor and I love to preach. Nonetheless, there are many Sunday mornings when I do not want to get out of bed. Every time I step on the platform I wonder what I am doing there. I am a shy person at heart, and sometimes I long to sit on the back pew. My dad would not, and I do not! Thanks to him, I learned early not to depend on my feelings, but to do what was right in God’s sight.
Our family attended a Southern Baptist church. I had wonderful teachers and I knew I was loved. It was Training Union, the name for Sunday night graded classes, that ignited a desire in my heart to serve God. There we often read about Baptist missionaries, including Lottie Moon and Amy Carmichael. I can still picture the missions offering envelopes featuring the sweet and lovely face of Lottie Moon. I read a great deal and learned about heroes and heroines of the faith, and I longed to serve God faithfully as they did. My childhood church laid a strong foundation for my Christian life.
What (if anything) might have hindered you from responding to God’s call to serve as a pastor?
Ironically, the same father and the same church which contributed so much to my growth also contributed to some wrong but very strong perceptions about women and the church. It took me many years to overcome my sense of being somehow “less” than males. Offices of pastor, deacon, adult teacher, in short any leadership in church was clearly a man’s place. Women staffed the nursery, taught children, sang in the choir, and (most of all) served wonderful fried chicken at church dinners. I also knew they could be missionaries, and my heart was willing. But I knew that physical problems I faced would keep me from being a likely candidate. I never considered pastoring a church, of course. Even later when I realized that God was calling and gifting me to do exactly that, I struggled mightily–a struggle that lasted years. Even when I did become ordained, my father never acknowledged that I was a minister. It simply was not spoken of between us.
