Women Called to Ministry in Churches of Christ
I’ve written and spoken often about the need for Churches of Christ to recognize, affirm, and use the gifts of women (along with men) in preaching, teaching, praying, etc. Perhaps some of you are tired of hearing about it from me.
But I am convinced that our prohibitions on women are a mark of the fall rather than a testimony to the good news of Jesus. It’s a failure to be faithful to the gospel-propelled trajectory of scripture.
Undoubtedly what we need is to hear from some of these women who feel called to ministry in Churches of Christ. I’m so thankful that we now have these poignant, insightful words from four young women who’ve come through the Graduate School of Theology at ACU.
Please, listen carefully to this podcast . . . share it with others . . . pass it along to leaders of your church.
I wish we could hear hundreds of other voices which could be added to these four!
It is time for those of us who have been lucky enough to have a voice to speak up. It’s time to take a chance. It’s time to teach and preach that God has gifted both sons and daughters. It’s time to listen to these honest, thoughtful young women — and many others just like them.
@keith- Keith you wrote recently in a blog how Job’s friends made tremedous blunders in their theology because the conclusions they arrived at were founded upon erroneous logic. (I am a huge fan of the book of Job and absorb every nugget I can find on it. You had some profound comments and I enjoyed it.) That being said, in my humble opinion, you are making the same mistake that Job’s friends made. Your logic , at least to me, appears to be as follows: God makes no distinctions between male and female (from Galations). Paul commanded that females have no authority of males. To harmonize this apparent inconsistency, we must conclude that Paul was merely a product of his current environment. And this in no way should be construed as a commandment binding to this day.
Keith, I implore you to reconsider. We can have “in house debates” about numerous issues. But the role of women in the church is much more simple than you think. The fact that God has given men different roles in the church than women is obvious. Do you dare think that a woman should serve as an elder? This is an isult to women only when they are blinded by political correctness. I am afraid, brother, that you too have been duped. Believe it or not, I really do feel sympathy for these ladies. But if they are this compelled to preach, then they should find a community that accepts this belief. And as you know, the majority of churches of Christ strongly disagree with this.
Dave, I subitted a response earlier today … maybe I did something in it that got it flagged and sent it to moderation. I can’t imagine what, though. If it doesn’t show up in another day, I’ll try to reconstruct my thoughts. (I’ll see if this one posts, first.)
@ Erin
I’ve been busy or I would have responded to your post. You wrote:
THEY believe in scripture; THEY aren’t being selfish; THEY just want to do God’s will; THEY have read the story of strange fire; THEY don’t need to read other books because they have the Bible. My response: THEY can have it.
Please tell me that you do not mean that the way it appears.
Dave, I apologize for the delay. Keeping up with New Wineskins and my full-time job and full-time family has been keeping me quite occupied. You said:
“Your logic , at least to me, appears to be as follows: God makes no distinctions between male and female (from Galations). Paul commanded that females have no authority of males.”
My original response, as I recall, was to ask how you reconcile these seemingly contradictory passages (as you have stated them above). Obviously, we can’t just ignore one that we don’t like or don’t understand.
You added, “The fact that God has given men different roles in the church than women is obvious.”
Is that obvious? Given what I have already cited about Jesus entrusting women with sharing the good news of His messianic identity … about women praying and prophesying with heads covered … plus the fact that both Prisca and Aquila taught Apollos privately … that Philip had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9) … that Euodia and Syntyche, in spite of their differences, had labored side-by-side with Paul “in the cause of the gospel” (Philippians 4:3)? Can we dare to just explain all of these away because they are inconvenient to what we would prefer to believe?
Or does it make more sense to realize that Galatians 3:28 states a broad principle, in a setting where the circumcision sect threatened the very power of the gospel for all people by its focus on a male-only (in Jewish culture) ritual? Does it make more sense to realize that on Pentecost, Peter pronounced the prophecy fulfilled that the Spirit was poured out on both men and women – and the obvious result was the proclamations of the gospel the listeners were hearing in their own native languages? Does it make more sense to understand that Paul’s instructions about women and silence were limited to dire situations in Corinth and Ephesus where both genders were having their own behavior challenges, but the ones involving the women seemed to have been further disrupting an already-chaotic worship (1 Corinthians 14) and to have been seeking authority over men (1 Corinthians 11; 1 Timothy 2), possibly spreading “godless myths and old wives’ tales” (1 Timothy 4)? These were threats to the clear communication of the gospel, as much as anything that selfish men were doing in either of those churches.
You see, I do not find a word translated “roles” used with respect to gender in the Bible. I do find “authority” to be an issue between the two, and when there is an attempt by one or establish it over the other when there should be partnership (help-meet; working side-by-side) and a recognition of God’s authority … well, something has gone wrong.
“Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:3. Yet we also know that Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2). At the time Paul wrote this, Jewish women had not been part of synagogue worship (and the church in Corinth originally met in a synagogue). At the time Paul wrote this, Gentile women (especially in Ephesus) had served in priestly positions in pagan worship, however perverse it may have been. Do you see the culture clash here? Liberation for Jewish women who became Christians to join in worship and the ministry of the gospel; a reduction in status for the priestesses/female followers of Diana/Artemis who became Christians, no longer over men. Both needed to learn what the gospel was all about – and to learn, they needed to listen; and to listen, they needed to observe some silence and decorum.
That’s not political correctness; that’s just common sense.