Because developing the pastor without changing the system — or changing the system without developing the pastor — does not work.

The Problem

Nearly everyone believes women should lead. Far fewer churches are equipped to make room for them.

The Model

Joanna Calling addresses both sides at once.

The Residency

We place women in subsidised, three-year Pastor-in-Residence roles within partner churches. Each residency rests on three integrated supports: Formation, Collaboration, and Care.

It’s a structured leadership pathway — women carry real responsibility from day one, with the scaffolding to sustain it.

The Leadership Framework

A pastor isn’t formed in a vacuum. So while she’s in the role, we work alongside the church’s leadership for the full three years — best practice assessment, quarterly consultancy, and a readiness framework that equips the church to have clearer, safer, more equitable structures.

This looks different in every church. Some will move a long way; others, because of their own convictions, will reach a real and durable ceiling — we count that as legitimate progress, not failure. Our aim isn’t a uniform outcome but genuine movement.

The Subsidy

The subsidy declines as the church’s ownership grows:

Support — supervision, coaching, consultancy — stays constant throughout.

The Opportunity

Funding underwrites the salary subsidy that makes each residency possible — without it, most churches couldn’t afford to create the role at all. As churches grow into funding it themselves, that support is freed to open the next placement.

You’re not funding a single appointment. You’re funding the pathway that forms women to lead, and equips churches to share leadership, at scale.