Clad in matching tee shirts, bubbling with enthusiasm, chock full of helpfulness, they sell programs, organize bake sales, carpool, chaperone, assist in a hundred behind-the-scenes ways. More importantly, they support, encourage, hug, dry tears, and cheer. They are morale-lifters.

Anyone who has had a child, grandchild, niece or nephew in a band, sports team, or club, recognizes that I'm talking about Boosters. As my son and daughter-in-law, both high school coaches, will attest, Boosters are an absolutely essential part of the program.

I am convinced that the young women and girls in our churches today need a Booster Club of godly women who will be mentors, models, and encouragers. In today's world, where female icons are most often found on sit-coms, soap operas, and MTV, young women desperately need models of Christlike women in their lives. More than most of us realize, the girls and young women in our churches are watching us for clues as to what the actions and attitudes of godly women are. Regardless of our age, education, economic level, ethnic background, or personality, we are all women of power and influence. Every woman has other women and girls who are watching her, following her lead, imitating her, whether or not she is aware of it. In fact, obedience to God's call by young women in your church may very well be in your hands.

History demonstrates that God has always called women into a multitude of roles: Deborah, was a judge, prophet, and military advisor in Israel; Huldah, an Old Testament prophet and advisor to King Josiah; Esther, the courageous queen whose daring saved her people, the Jews, from extermination.

Phoebe, Priscilla, the four daughters of Philip, and Junias, were among the New Testament women called to be preachers. Lydia was a New Testament businesswoman; Dorcas, helped the poor; Hannah, Mary, and Eunice, are Biblical examples of godly mothers.

Bridget, was influential in politics and church affairs in the 5th century; Heloise, a 12th century abbess, writer, and founder of a theological college; Hildegarde of Bingen, was a scholar, scientist, composer, poet, visionary, and abbess; Elizabeth of Hungary, a 13th social reformer who built a hospital for lepers.

Susanna Wesley led prayer meetings in her home, and home-schooled her 19 children; Barbara Heck organized the first Methodist Society in America; Katherine Ferguson, a former slave, opened the first Sunday School in America.

Phoebe Palmer, a 19th century wife and mother of six, was an author, publisher, Bible teacher, revival preacher, feminist, philanthropist, and a major force behind the Holiness Movement; Sojourner Truth, a former slave, became a preacher, public speaker, and activist for the rights of women and African Americans; Catherine Booth co-founded the Salvation Army; Fanny Crosby wrote hundreds of hymns and gospel songs.

Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, was a Nazarene theologian and college professor; Esther Carson Winans, Orpha Speicher, and Claudia Stevenson number among a host of Nazarene missionaries; Leah Marangu, is a Nazarene university president, Diana Cisneros, Karen Evans, and ReeAnn Hyde pastor Nazarene churches.

And God has called a great throng of Sunday School teachers, PTA presidents, soccer coaches, women's ministries directors, school teachers, business women, homemakers, and prayer warriors, far too numerous to name. All of these women have been called not only to make a difference in their time and place, but also to be Christlike Boosters: models, mentors, and foremothers to those women and girls who come behind.

Godly women played an important role in my own belated obedience to the Lord's call to ministry. As a young teenager, I felt a very strong, very definite call of God to ministry. However, my teenage world of the late fifties and early sixties was peopled primarily with TV role models like Donna Reed and Harriet Nelson. My Sunday School lessons were dominated by David, Joshua, Peter and Paul, all distinctively male examples of whom God uses to do His work. I don't recall hearing about Phoebe or Priscilla until I was an adult. The only sermons I had heard involving women were Mother's Day messages. And yet, some marvelous women were making an indelible impression on my young life.

My great grandmother, Etta Jane McBride, wife of an evangelist, was herself a licensed Nazarene minister back in the 1920s. Lela London, Minister of Religious Education at our local church, took me under her wing, and taught me public speaking by giving me opportunity to have parts in pageants and do "readings" in church services. Mary Corser, my junior high Sunday School teacher, a godly wife and mother, befriended the young girls in her class, welcoming us into her home and her heart. Ruth Bullock, a young single career woman in the church, came alongside the teenage girls, offering support and a Christlike model. Each one of those women instilled in me a sense that I could do anything into which God would lead me.

As I went to college, I became convinced that the pastoral ministry wasn't open to women. I began to doubt whether God had actually called me. Being a person who is uncomfortable with conflict or confrontation, I found it easier to go other directions than to obey God's call.

For most young people, it is nearly impossible to envision what they do not see or hear in their own spheres. If there are never any women pastors or leaders in their churches, they will assume those roles are not open to women, even if God calls. If they continually hear language that refers to leaders and pastors as "he" and "men," they will suppose that only males are acceptable in those positions, even though God may be speaking to their hearts. Those were the assumptions I made.

But always in the back of my mind were those marvelous models of godly women who had encouraged and supported me. Fortunately, God continued to nudge me until, after years as an administrator in the secular world, I finally answered God's call and began the journey into ministry. On that journey, I found more godly laywomen who were willing to encourage and support me: Jan Stone, a pastor's wife who came alongside; prayer partner Maxine Lindell; Jo Conk, Evelyn Gillespie, and Linda Jones who offered wise counsel and support; marvelously supportive women in the church I now pastor; and two wonderful daughters-in-law who are my biggest Boosters. However, one fact that I discovered as a young girl continues to be true: the attitudes and opinions of some churchwomen can be among the greatest hindrances to women in ministry.

I have a burden for the girls and young women growing up in the Church of the Nazarene today. God still calls women into a multitude of roles in His Kingdom, as He has always done. Are they being nurtured and affirmed by the women in their churches to courageously obey God's call on their lives, whatever that call may be? Do they have models in their churches of women leaders, as well as women who encourage and champion other women? Do they see women around them who are open to calling and supporting a woman pastor? If not, how will these girls and young women ever find the boldness to heed God's direction in their own lives?

In today's world, when competent women doctors, lawyers, executives, athletes, and politicians surround girls, Christianity is in danger of losing its relevance in their eyes if women are not respected as leaders in the Church. Gifted young women may ignore God's call to ministry and, instead, seek opportunities to use their God-given abilities outside the Church. Or they may answer God's call and give four, six, or eight years in preparation for ministry only to find the doors closed to them.

Godly women have the power and the responsibility to be models, mentors, and encouragers for the young girls and women in our churches. We have the power and the responsibility to make our churches into places that nurture the call of God on all lives, male or female, clergy or laity. We are women of influence. Let's use that influence wisely. Let's be Boosters!