By Danielle Burkholder

I wonder how many of you have second guessed your ability to bring valuable contribution to spaces—wondering, Why me? Why my gifts? 

I can so relate!

I came to faith in college. Soon after, I got involved in a campus ministry where I learned how to pray, read the Bible, follow Jesus, and lead others to faith. It was an amazing experience—helping disciple others even as I was discipled. When I graduated college, I planned to go on to med school and become a medical doctor, but God rerouted me—He called me to campus ministry instead. 

Invisible Barriers

My church supported my call to college campus ministry, but it didn’t encourage women in ministry in the church—women weren’t considered for leadership, pastoral positions, or even as valued contributors to leadership decisions.  The people around me rarely said it outright, but the message was clear: leadership in the church was for men, and volunteering was for women. 

Eventually, those outside voices became internal ones, discrediting my desire. My inner dialogue became: I want too much. I’m not enough. I must have an ungodly desire to lead for selfish reasons. Maybe God didn’t put leadership in me for his church. Who am I to think that I have something to give at a leadership level anyway? I am being prideful … I prayed about letting it all go.

Under all the unspoken rules, assumptions, and expectations of the church that told me what I wasn’t, I buried who He is and what He had given me to steward in my life.

Trusting Our Heavenly Investor

Yet outside the church, I had no problems growing in leadership. I led Bible studies on my college campus where girls came to faith. I worked with a team to lead outreaches at middle and high school campuses, growing a youth ministry from six students to over 150 in a few years. I got married, started having kids, and at the same time, started a business that launched over 30 entrepreneurial women in less than two years. 

Leadership was growing in me and producing good fruit, yet when it came to leadership in ministry inside the church, I was afraid to ask if I could.

I felt I already knew the answer. It wasn’t a flat-out “no” that scared me—it was the unspoken “Why would you want to?” and “Who do you think you are?”  

What if it was all about pride and a selfish need for recognition? I thought, if that’s true, I’d better bury this desire so I don’t displease God. It never crossed my mind that men handle that same tension and still lead.

Then one day, reading Matthew 25, I  was struck to my core. Jesus tells a story of a man who entrusts gold to three servants before leaving on a journey. The first two invest it. The third buries it. When the master returns, he asks the third one why. The answer?

“I knew you were a hard man … so I was afraid and I hid what you gave me.”

And something in me cracked open.

Because I had been afraid. And I had buried something.

Not because I was greedy or lazy. But because I wasn’t sure I could trust the One who gave it to me.

That’s when I realized: burying what God puts in us doesn’t just reflect how we see ourselves. It reflects how we see Him.

And I don’t believe God is hard or harsh. I believe He’s generous. I believe He puts treasure in every single one of us—male and female, loud and quiet, polished and messy. He gives leadership, insight, creativity, vision, wisdom … and He hopes we’ll invest it.

Not out of fear. But out of trust.

Gold for His Glory

It is not about the amount or kind of gold. It’s about whether we steward whatever he gives us with trust and faithfulness, reflecting back to Him and the world what we believe about his character.

That realization changed the direction of my life. The gold in me is, and always has been, for his glory, not mine. And I know he is good. He can help me navigate the heart issues that come with leadership.

In this new season, when I think about investing, I know this: 

Right now, I’m in a season of researching and building. I earned my Executive Leadership Coaching certification at the end of last year, and I’m currently finishing a doctorate in organizational leadership. My focus is on how ministries can better invite, equip, and promote women in leadership—not at the expense of men, but alongside them.

I’m also testing coaching tools and leadership development labs with pastors, churches, and women in ministry in Seattle and across the US. In the last three years, I’ve taught learning labs, hosted pilot programs, spoken to pastors’ groups, and coached individuals 1:1.

And I want to keep going—to help leaders not just manage teams but unlock the potential inside them. 

To move from communication that constrains to coaching that unlocks. 

To stop assuming who the leaders are and start discovering the ones they never saw coming.

That’s the work. 

That’s the dream.

To help others dig up the gold they’ve buried—or that’s been buried for them.

That’s what I’m after now.

I’m not trying to be the hero. I just want to be hero support.

Reflection Questions

What if you really believed there is gold in you? Would you invest it? Encourage it? Test it? Give it space to breathe?

What would your day look like if you lived like you believed what God says about you? How can you redirect your focus to live in a way that reflects God’s goodness and His investment in you?