A lot of us saw the stir last week when Baptist pastor Timothy LaBouf “fired” a woman teacher, establishing a policy that women would not teach men in his congregation. That, connected with some other things I heard the weekend before, got me to thinking a bit about women in the church. I’m not going to write about the big questions about women (although my official stance on those questions is Yes-No-No-Yes-No). Instead, I want to reflect a moment on one of the most critical tasks in the church that is almost exclusively carried out by women.

At a team-building workshop for the organization I work for, the facilitator quoted something that I had heard before, saying that if a person doesn’t believe the basic truths of Christianity by age 10, there is only a 10% chance that they will be converted in the course of their lifetime. Add that to the studies that show that our basic moral values are essentially set in stone by early elementary school and others that show our basic personality is forged by age 7, and we get a clear picture of the importance of proper training in early childhood.

How does that typically translate to the church situation? Nursery, cradle roll, preschool classes, early elementary Sunday school. That’s the “front line” for the future of the church. And who are the soldiers on that front line? Women. Almost exclusively. Our women carry out arguably the most important tasks in the church (speaking, of course, of what goes on at church. Their influence in the home during these formative years is even greater).

I got to wondering what would happen if a church announced: “We will no longer permit men to teach in the cradle roll. This work is too important to be left in the hands of males.” Would we suddenly get dozens of men clamoring for their right to participate in this vital work?

It would be interesting to see.