Can Women Lead in the Church?
A friend of mine, recently invited me to discuss where we've landed on the issue of women in church by saying the following. "And if I could find somewhere in God's Word, or it can be pointed out that Christ desires women to lead His Church. I would be grateful for the enlightenment Thanks, always seeking the truth."
I am so thankful for the tone of his invitation to dialog!
This will be a LONG post because this is a HUGE subject. If you're up for it, I'll be linking to a variety of resources that we used to come to the conclusion that God invites both men and women equally and without restriction to serve in His kingdom in any and all capacities.
Why is this important you might ask? Because this involves half the church being limited, in some cases fully silenced and in others partially silenced. It involves the other half of the church bearing all of the burden of how the church is meant to function when many of them don't feel equipped, able or gifted to bear that particular burden. The whole church suffers. Whichever side you end up on though, it is essential that we understand all the implications of the conclusion we come to, why we come to it and how we will apply it.
I also think it's important to acknowledge that this topic has the possibility of being a catalyst for contention, mistrust and other unfortunate results. In that light, if you have such a strong stance and are of the belief that there is only one way to view this topic, you'll not enjoy what follows. I'm ok with you moving on by in that case. But I will urge you, because of the possibility of at least understanding a brother or sister with a different view, to at least recognize that bible loving believers differ on this issue and that is ok.
First, I want to say that we have studied for hundreds of hours by way of books, articles, word studies and of course Scripture to reach this conclusion. It was in no way undertaken lightly. Neither of us has ever, as adults, been comfortable with the position taken by most of the church but we'd never really studied it in depth either and it seemed easier to just 'tow the line'.
One difficulty in truly studying this issue is that most of us have a deeply ingrained belief that has been the long held standard in churches for millennia. Not only in the church though, all of society has held to keeping women below men from the Fall. This is important to realize because this is an area where the church is no different from the vast majority of culture. One could argue that we've taken our cue from the world. Mistreatment and oppression of women in much worse forms than keeping women out of the pulpit has been the mainstay of male/female relationships in almost every culture throughout the whole of history and still continues to this day all over the world.
Another difficulty is that, while there is a great deal of biblical scholarship surrounding this issue from the Egalitarian standpoint, most conservatives have either not engaged in study at all or if they have, their main input has been from the Traditional perspective. In that light, it ends up being an echo chamber. It's very difficult to truly have a new perspective get even a modicum of respect when you already have a strongly held belief, we see through the lens we are accustomed to. The reality is that many of us have formed a doctrine whose threads are woven throughout every aspect of how we live based on a very cursory reading of a handful of Scriptures which have been cherry picked from their contexts, stripped of much of the other content and held as 'clear teaching' on the subject of the subordination of women for all times in all places.
A third difficulty exists in that, without taking into careful consideration the cultural contexts of the time, it is difficult to know how those texts that seem to specifically address the question at hand are to be understood. Therefore, the reader needs a cultural understanding but much of this is difficult to ascertain. We also need to understand the history of the church and culture as a whole to recognize that our biases are often formed without our awareness simply because of the culture into which we read various texts.
That's a lot of introduction and we've not even gotten started. I am going to do my best to simply list resources that we used. I will finish up with one simple explanation courtesy of Jeremy Schneider that I hope will demonstrate some of the inconsistencies with which we interpret passages dealing with women in a way that will at least cause you to consider why we pick and choose.
For a very good summary on the issue of Biblical Gender Equality
https://www.cbeinternational.org/…/biblical-gender-equality…
https://www.cbeinternational.org/…/biblical-gender-equality…
A beginning on the issue of how there are translation biases. Translation bias is a large part of this issue because in recent years, the use of gender neutral pronouns has sparked a lot of debate. It's important to know that trusted translations such as ESV don't actually use gender inclusive pronouns at times when the original Greek actually does. This is very intentional and if we don't recognize that, we get duped.
Are women ever given spiritual authority in Scripture? This article outlines a number of specific passages that demonstrates that they are.
Once, slavery was justified through a handful of bible passages much as the subordination of women to men is today. This article discusses the problems with that and the parallels which really made me think when I considered it.
I could go on an on with the articles, if you want more let me know!
I'd also like to list books that have been instrumental in our journey.
Our first book was How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals. This book was a super helpful introduction because it talked about how people had experienced women leading in ways that changed their minds because God's power was clearly in evidence in ways they couldn't deny.
Why Not Women is a book by YWAM founder Loren Cunningham and David Hamilton. This is highly accessible for a typical reader but with a very thorough exegesis of the difficult passages.
Good News for Women by Rebecca Groothius - This is a wonderful explanation of how many of the arguments put forth by Traditionalist theologians actually do not make logical sense along with a great deal of thorough exegesis.
There are more books but I'll stop there for now. Feel free to PM me if you want an exhaustive list.
Next, I'll give you a breakdown Jeremy(the wonderful husband) did of 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Notice that much more context is included than simply 2:12 because you can't simply pluck a portion out and ignore the rest.
"Check this out, directly quoted from NIV. I alternated (red - blue) what I see as individual component statements in this passage (negotiable) for evaluation one by one…do we “enforce” this or teach this or emphasize this, or not? I commented in brackets how I answer that question, from my limited experience.
8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray [YES], lifting up holy hands[NO] without anger or disputing. [YES] 9 I also want the women to dress modestly[SORTA], with decency and propriety[SORTA], adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles[NO] or gold[NO] or pearls[NO] or expensive clothes[NO], 10 but with good deeds [YES], appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
11 A woman[a] should learn in quietness[NO] and full submission [YES]. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach [YES] or to assume authority over a man [YES];[b] she must be quiet[NO]. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women[c] will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. [WHAT??? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??]
11 A woman[a] should learn in quietness[NO] and full submission [YES]. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach [YES] or to assume authority over a man [YES];[b] she must be quiet[NO]. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women[c] will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. [WHAT??? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??]
So the tally is:
[YES] - 6
[NO] - 7
[SORTA] – 2
[WHAT??? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??] - 1
[YES] - 6
[NO] - 7
[SORTA] – 2
[WHAT??? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??] - 1
What’s your score?
Why do we do this? Based on what? We take a passage which I’m learning is notoriously difficult to translate as well as to interpret, we toss out half of it as “cultural” (or whatever), but limit the ministry of the Spirit through half the church based on what remains? For years I have asked this question when reading this text, and 1 Cor 11 and 14, etc. Should women stop wearing gold jewelry and be silent? And why aren’t men raising their holy hands? Do we even HAVE holy hands? What appears so black-and-white, isn’t really.
How we interpret all this has everything to do with where we start. There are various ways to interpret this text, and the other handful of texts that fuel the traditional view."
Darryl, thank you for asking. This is a bit of a fire-hose but there is, unfortunately, no simple answer to this question. One thing I've found is that in view of the overarching point of Scripture, that of an intimate relationship with the Living God and His showing love to all of humankind, it seems a better choice to me to err on the side of freedom rather than restriction. When a women is gifted by the Spirit to teach, preach, lead then isn't it contrary to the very Spirit who gifted her to silence her? I've been learning to look not so much at what seems prohibited as at what do women actually do in the Scripture. They do a great many things which don't get much airtime in our conservative churches and I'd like to offer for consideration, the idea that this is very much by Satan's design.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. It really does mean alot.