Ramblings About Women in Ministry

I am currently working on a series of messages that have to do with church life. It is an application-based study through the Pastoral Epistles of First and Second Timothy and Titus in the New Testament. It is not exactly a traditional expository study, but rather arbitrary in a sense. In other words, I am going to take the Bible and submit it to our own contextual situation. What that means is that we are not going to spend all day breaking down the nuances of a word, but rather dive right into the issues that would be relevant to our church. One of the issues that we will address during this study is the gender debate, and specifically how that applies to women serving in the church. In order to prepare for this part of the study, I read a book a few months back entitled Two Views on Women in Ministry, which is a Counter point book, that gives several different arguments or perspectives, and then submits each respective view point to objections from the other authors. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and it gave me tremendous insight into the debate and the Scriptural as well as the cultural implications for both views. Having read the book, however, did not change my belief, and I still maintain a complementarian position, which believes that there is no difference in value between men and women, but believes that there is a difference in functionality within the body of Christ. Let me clarify, though, that I am not opposed to female deacons, as long as the term "deacon" is understood to be a servant that ministers under the oversight of pastoral leadership. I do, in fact, believe that Phoebe held the office of a deacon. I also believe that women can teach men (as one does at our own church), but not in a pastoral or authoritative role. I am very confident that Priscilla taught the Scriptures to Apollos, but was undoubtedly not a pastor or authority over him within the church. I want to also say that the Scriptural argument that I would used to defend my position has nothing to do with a woman serving in government. Deborah served as a judge over Israel, and I see nothing that would preclude a woman from being able to serve even as the President of the United States.

One thing I did gain from the book is a larger appreciation for those with whom I disagree. There were two basic views presented in the book, with each position having an extreme representative, as well as a less extreme representative ( although I found out that I am one of the extremes). I felt that each view was ably presented and some of the arguments made good points. I will also say that I came away with the realization that there are good, sound people on both sides 0f the aisle in this. There are several pastors in our specific area with whom I disagree about this, but I am by no means going to go to the mat over this. This is not a fundamental of the faith, and there is nothing that should prevent me from working with them for the benefit of the universal body of Christ.

I sincerely hope that we can all find common ground with our brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of His name.