Church in Transistion: Tough Questions
I haven't posted on the transition my church is going through for a while because it's been a process of meetings, questions and discussions. One of the tough questions that has come up is, "What is the role of women in ministry and leadership?"
It's one of those questions that can cause tempers to flare, feeling to be hurt, and people to leave.
Right now, a few of us are are writing position papers on the issue. It's an exercise we went through a few years ago but nothing came of it, and as a result of a couple of hard drives crashing, I can't find my old paper so I'm starting over.
Smarter men (and women) have dug into this issue than I, so I have been reading "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism" by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. They take the unpopular 'Complementarian' view.
I have also spent a lot of time reading through an article by "Christians for Biblical Equality": Men, Women, and Biblical Equality, which takes the egalitarian point of view.
Through prayer and study, I've become a "modified complimentarian". There are prescribed roles for women and men, neither is better than the other, both stand equally before the cross, mutual submission, ect...If you're familiar with the issue, you know what I'm talking about.
I don't have a problem with woman in ministry. Let them teach, preach, pray, prophesie (if your into that), do Sunday School and so on. The Harvest shouldn't turn away workers.
As long as they are submitted to a man.
See, I can't reconcile women in leadership roles as elders and pastors.
The critical verse for me is 1 Cor 11:3 "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" (Read whole Chapter here to see the context).
The verse clearly states that man is the head of woman. I know that people try to interpet this as being a result of the culture and Paul trying to do this or that, but those are people who assume that Paul was trying to oppress women. I don't see this at all because Paul commends women in ministry in some of his other writings.
My view of this is that woman aren't oppressed, but doubly blessed. They not only have the coverage of Christ, but they also have the coverage of their husbands. While Eve was first to take the apple, Adam was the one who was upbraided by God, and when the fall is discussed in the bible, Adam bares the blame.
More on this later.
Christianity
It's one of those questions that can cause tempers to flare, feeling to be hurt, and people to leave.
Right now, a few of us are are writing position papers on the issue. It's an exercise we went through a few years ago but nothing came of it, and as a result of a couple of hard drives crashing, I can't find my old paper so I'm starting over.
Smarter men (and women) have dug into this issue than I, so I have been reading "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism" by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. They take the unpopular 'Complementarian' view.
I have also spent a lot of time reading through an article by "Christians for Biblical Equality": Men, Women, and Biblical Equality, which takes the egalitarian point of view.
Through prayer and study, I've become a "modified complimentarian". There are prescribed roles for women and men, neither is better than the other, both stand equally before the cross, mutual submission, ect...If you're familiar with the issue, you know what I'm talking about.
I don't have a problem with woman in ministry. Let them teach, preach, pray, prophesie (if your into that), do Sunday School and so on. The Harvest shouldn't turn away workers.
As long as they are submitted to a man.
See, I can't reconcile women in leadership roles as elders and pastors.
The critical verse for me is 1 Cor 11:3 "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" (Read whole Chapter here to see the context).
The verse clearly states that man is the head of woman. I know that people try to interpet this as being a result of the culture and Paul trying to do this or that, but those are people who assume that Paul was trying to oppress women. I don't see this at all because Paul commends women in ministry in some of his other writings.
My view of this is that woman aren't oppressed, but doubly blessed. They not only have the coverage of Christ, but they also have the coverage of their husbands. While Eve was first to take the apple, Adam was the one who was upbraided by God, and when the fall is discussed in the bible, Adam bares the blame.
Christianity
Posted by Surly Dave on
Thursday, August 24, 2006
I started writing a response, but it got so long that I decided to dedicate a whole post to it on my blog.