Hi WIWN ladies! Over on my Facebook profile, a huge debate has been happening over the past 3 days! More than 250 comments were left, as the dialogue bounced back and forth between people of differing opinions.
The problem was only 5k of you are my Facebook friends, and as my profile has reached it maximum number of friend requests, many of you who WANTED to join in the discussions couldn’t, as you couldn’t access my Facebook profile. Sorry!
Hence, why I’m blogging about it…so we can carry on the conversation here.
It matters to us, as many of us are involved in some kind of ministry or church leadership. So we need to know what we believe and why!
Let’s show our ability to engage with the Bible for ourselves and back up our views. This is a really important part of following Jesus – knowing truth by exploring the actual texts and original languages – for yourself! Otherwise we will just be robots, parrotting off what we heard from the last Christian author or speaker!
Let’s be like the Berean followers of Jesus, in Acts:
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” – Acts 17:11
So…..here goes!
Some key texts you might want to look at, or discuss here are: Colossians 3, Ephesians 5, Genesis 1, 2 and 3, Proverbs 31, Revelation 1:6, 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2, Galatians 3:28 and any others you want to bring to the table.
Over to you!
- Do you believe women should be able to preach in Church?
- Have you ever been challenged about leading worship, and told you shouldn’t as it involved you taking authority over men in church?
- Should women be able to be the senior leader of a Church? An Elder? A Bishop?
- Are men and women equal and ‘the same’ before God, in their role, because of the resurrection? Or is there a difference in role that is God intended?
- Is a man the ‘head’ of his wife? Should the husband get the final say in a marital issue?
- Is Complimentarianism (the belief that men and women have different roles; e.g. women can’t teach men) right?
- Is Egalitarianism (the belief that because of Christ’s work, men and women are equal in role and not bound by any gender dictated restrictions) right?
- How do we interpret the key Scriptures about these things?
Really looking forward to your thoughts on this!
Vicky
Hi Vicky,
this has been and is still a subject of regular reflection on my side. This is because I’m a woman involved in church leardership, and public speaking to youth and to adult crowds.
I wont answer your questions one by one but will just share my thoughts and testimony.
First I believe there would be a lot less discussion about this if we all were secure in our identities in Christ (men and women).
I’ve sometimes the feeling that some males are afraid of ladies with brains and skills and find refuge in Paul’s writings about women not speaking, etc.
I believe those passages should be studied in context and with the original greek words because they add some explanations that we don’t have in our modern languages.
Some friends of mine disagree with my point of view but we respect each other!
I believe that at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon every person in that room : men and women alike. And with the Spirit came gifts that He gives as He wills, without segregation.
I think there can be very good kid church male leaders and also very good female speakers in church settings. I don’t think God looks at our gender before bestowing gifts.
That’s why it’s OK for me to have women preaching -if the gift is recognised of course.
I don’t think women are “plan B” in leadership, e.g when there are no males available : in the times of the prophet Jeremiah there was Hulda, a prophetess that people (on the order of the king) would go to even though there was a male prophet!
Leadership is a spiritual gift, so again, if I see that in an individual I will encourage it regardless of their gender.
Concerning headship and submission : let’s not forget the context of Ephesians when it’s asked of women to submit themselves. It’s a passage about mutual submission!
Remarks : a woman will submit easily to a man who loves her as much as Jesus loved the Church.
She’s not supposed to submit herself to all the men in church though!
I don’t think a man should have “the last word” just because he’s the man. If he is right about the decision to be made then why not. But discussion is there to find solutions together…
I’m not done yet in my thinking with regards to church offices (bishop,elders, etc) so I wont give any opinion on it and I’m not dogmatic on egalitarianism either. That’s what I lean towards, but I try to understand complimentarians’ point of view.
Maybe neither view is right actually!
I think the fall has caused a lot of hurt in men/women relationships and that the Church should reflect the restoration God has brought in Jesus. Sadly, the church isn’t always countercultural in that area. I still see sisters with amazing gifts but confined to certain ministries only on the basis of their being females. Or I can sense some machism in brothers…etc.
We need to start working together in mixed teams to bring God’s kingdom forth. That’s the main purpose and I don’t want global conversations about gender roles to stop us from action. Though I encourage exploring the Bible for answers and discussing with others
Sorry I didnt quote a lot of Scripture and stuff. It may look “light” to some readers. I didnt want to turn the post into a bible study!
Jo
Also, I wonder why some ladies would be great leaders in the market place but not allowed to be leaders in the church…
This is such a great topic to bring up and one I definitely want/need to study more. My experience has been that females in my church are expected to lead Sunday school, kids choir, etc… but the youth group on up are led by the men. I personally don’t really have a problem with this rule, but I also don’t want to be satisfied with it if it’s based upon a false understanding of the bible– especialy since we aren’t consistent with some other things the New Testament seems to teach. For example, it also says that women are to stay quiet in the church and wear head coverings and we don’t follow that rule. It’s possible that some “rules” are followed and others are not based upon what is convenient/comfortable and what isn’t for the congregation.
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