An accomplished leader once told me, “God has been working on my pride. I’m trying to learn to be humble.” As the CEO of an organization bringing in millions of dollars, his pride was understandable.

I marveled at what he said, not because it surprised me but because how unfamiliar his experience was to me.

The experience I find myself talking about with colleagues who lack an older White man’s social privilege (younger, female, people of color, LGBTQ+) is quite the opposite: not thinking highly enough of ourselves.

The feeling of not being good enough is called impostor syndrome. It’s often more pronounced in people with minoritized identities.

Impostor syndrome thrives in the church. Religious institutions perpetuate conditions that breed it.

As a woman who’s felt this way myself, I’ve pondered the gendered aspects of sin and pride and considered how the church can combat impostor syndrome.

Reconsidering sin, pride and redemption

Many Christians have been taught that pride is sinful. Proverbs 16:18 cautions, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

More than 60 years ago, theologian Valerie Saiving observed that the theology of sin and pride was based on masculine experience. The definition of pride as a sin did not adequately describe feminine experience. For women, she said, sin more often took the form of “underdevelopment or negation of the self.”

Writing over a decade after Saiving, Mary Daly suggested the sin of “too little pride” is both a demon in need of exorcism and an indication of systemic problems.

In other words, having a low opinion of one’s ability is not the result of one’s own failure but the systemic failure of a culture that devalues women’s contributions.

Therefore, salvation from this sin needs to take the form of systemic change.

Confidence equals competence?

A few years ago, I applied for several academic administrative positions. At one institution where I did not get the job, I asked for feedback on my candidacy. The search committee chair replied, “Some people thought you didn’t seem confident enough.” My competence was judged on the ­basis of my confidence — or a perceived lack of it.

Churches reinforce the “confidence equals competence” fallacy in hiring, promotion and the daily rhythm of church ministry. Interviews that reward self-promotion become the basis for hiring decisions. These processes favor those who speak confidently about themselves.

Unfortunately, though, when women do project confidence by promoting themselves, research suggests this can have a negative effect on their hireability.

Instead of rewarding confidence, congregations ought to reward skills. Rather than inviting a candidate to talk about their accomplishments, a search committee could ask the candidate to draft a memo to demonstrate written communication skills. When a junior staff member takes on a new assignment, senior staff person could praise her courage and initiative, dispelling concerns about inexperience or timidity.

Let women lead

My second suggestion for the church is simple: Let women lead. I have been in many settings where women have been welcomed as guests. Their presence is praised. Perhaps their contributions are even valued.

However, Rebecca Hernandez observes that this “host-guest” model of inclusion does not always feel inclusive to the guests. It allows hosts to “engage hospitality on [their] own terms.”

Such hospitality appears in well- meaning invitations: to serve on a committee, to offer an opening prayer, to share a reflection on scripture. But who is chairing the committee? Who is delivering the keynote address? Who is leading the gathering?

When women are guests rather than hosts, inclusion rings hollow.

Giving women the authority to be hosts tears down barriers that suppress women’s gifts. It opens eyes: Seeing women in leadership roles enables other gifted women to recognize their own talents.

The church needs more gifted leaders. It has a lot to gain by abolishing practices that contribute to impostor syndrome.

Let’s exorcise the demons of patriarchy that hold women back. Let’s encourage the positive version of pride, the kind that says, “I’m good enough.”

Melanie A. Howard is associate provost at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and a member of Willow Avenue Mennonite Church in Clovis, Calif.