Gifted for Leadership

Comments

this article implies that the New Testament allows women equal leadership status in the church. Such a position is dubious considering passages like 1 Timothy 2:12. Today only a very small portion of Christian denominations allow female pastors, a decision based on the bible.

The only biblical support I can find that anyone in a New Testament church should be paid is 1 Corinthians 9 (4-6). Because of this and my own experience in money becoming a divisive issue in the church, I don't think anyone should be paid except the (male) pastor.

Posted By: Ted | March 29, 2012 1:12 PM

Ted writes: “The only biblical support I can find that anyone in a New Testament church should be paid is 1 Corinthians 9 (4-6). Because of this and my own experience in money becoming a divisive issue in the church, I don't think anyone should be paid except the (male) pastor.” (Posted By: Ted | March 29, 2012 1:12 PM)

This comment implies that women are not equal to men in the body of Christ. Such a position is dubious considering passages like Galatians 3:28. Today a growing number of Christians affirm that the calls of men and women to serve in leadership are grounded in the gifts the Holy Spirit has seen fit to give them, a decision based on the Bible (1 Cor 12).

As for your analysis of 1 Corinthians 9, please read on to verses 13-14, Brother Ted.
“13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.”

I see nothing here specifying that only men who proclaim the gospel should be paid. If you wish to justify restricting the application of this passage to men alone on the basis of an argument that only men served in the temple, please take note of the women who served in Exodus 38:8 and the prophet Anna in Luke 2:36. Because of this and my own experience with gender becoming a divisive issue in the church, I don’t think anyone who proclaims the gospel should be denied the opportunity to earn an adequate living.

Posted By: Whit | March 30, 2012 10:06 AM

Thank you Whit for your pleasant response to Ted. I agree. More could be said about equal pay for equal work. Sad that fairness and justice are not a part of Churches. What kind of message does this send to the people of our churches?

Posted By: Paul | March 31, 2012 9:05 PM

The Word of God proclaims, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent” (1 Timothy 2:11-12). In the church, God assigns different roles to men and women. This is a result of the way mankind was created and the way in which sin entered the world (1 Timothy 2:13-14). God, through the apostle Paul, restricts women from serving in roles of teaching and/or having spiritual authority over men. This precludes women from serving as pastors over men, which definitely includes preaching to, teaching, and having spiritual authority.
No matter how much you think you were called by God to Pastor a church, if there are men in that church then you were NOT called by God! I am sorry but that isn't from my thoughts that is from the WORD OF GOD, which you claim to be preaching, says plain as day.

Posted By: Loren | April 3, 2012 1:40 PM

Praise God that he commanded a woman to go and teach the men, his own disciples, that he was risen!

Posted By: K. | April 6, 2012 10:54 PM

I submit that the responses of men only serving as leaders was an appropriate response in Timothy and Paul's time. Jesus did not spend time differentiating between the sexes - he served ALL those who needed to be brought into God's kingdom. If we are going to spend time arguing about who should GO and make disciples, then will anything get done?

As a result of only allowing MEN to serve as leaders within the church, how many women have left the church to find a safe place to worship somewhere else? If this continues to be an issue, then many young women will continue to leave the church looking for someone in leadership that they can relate to.

Why is this such a big deal to some people? Isn't it more important that we put our energy and resources towards feeding the millions of starving people around the world?

Posted By: D. Lynn | April 20, 2012 8:29 PM

I agree with you DLynn, there are much more important things going on in the church worldwide right now, and bickering over these things will, in my opinion, make us look foolish before the Lord. We need to be feeding the Word of Life, as well as feeding meals to the hungry world-wide. Christians are being killed by the thousands in the Sudan, the Ivory Coast, and in the middle east and Asia. Egypt had a large Christian population being terribly persecuted, and Lebanon, Darfur, and many, many more are having their Christian populations wiped out. They were once protected during their worship services and every day life, (when President Bush and earlier Presidents were in office) but now that we have a president who is sympathetic to the muslims, and he is silent on these persecutions, Instead of people just repeating over and over how obama is a Christian, perhaps they should ask him to help the Christians in Africa and the Middle East, and *show* us that he is a Christian. he actually rewards the persecutors by giving them billions of dollars, and is silent on their persecution this president has the audacity to recently give Egypt another 2 billion dollars-just what that oil rich country needs, a reward for their killing of Christians. The cries for help by the Christians world-wide are met with a deaf ear by the most powerful man in the world, who instead of helping them, rewards their persecutors. We can't help the whole world, but we can pray and contribute to help these people and expend our energies this way, instead of bickering over male and female roles. The Bible says that those who believe are children of God, and it says that those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ are children of satan. It's pretty clear what the right thing to do is. I believe that even the mormon, who many of you are so afraid of voting for, will be much more likely to speak up for the Christians, and that's why he'll have my vote.

Posted By: Larry | April 20, 2012 9:35 PM

Ted and Loren,
Frankly, I'm curious as to why you are reading and commenting on the articles in this blog, if you do not hold the belief that women are equally created for church leadership. I think it is a misuse of time, particularly since your comments only served to stir up conflict, rather than gently correct or graciously share an opinion. Luckily, I think most of the wonderful men and women who read this blog would not accuse you of not heeding "THE WORD OF GOD," simply because you hold a different view on gender and leadership than they do.

Posted By: Hannah Parish | April 26, 2012 9:50 AM

It is sad that many men still read an Eastern document with 15th-century, Western, academic, white, male eyes, ignoring the clear role of women leaders throughout Scripture - Priscilla and Deborah who both led and taught men, both chosen by God (and his apostle Paul), Lydia who led a church in her house, Mary, the women in Luke 8, and so on. I used to have his view until I studied the Bible in context, not overlaying a system over the text. Read Romans 16 - the big idea in the NT is men and women leading together -- not male only or women only. The proof-texting brother who is referring to 1 Timothy 2 should read the whole passage and others like it. I am sure he is not rebuking women each week in church for wearing gold or braiding hair, or not wearing a head covering.

As to this particular blog women are undervalued, underpaid and under-esteemed. Insecure men react with fear when women lead. It is time to let them lead as God has called, and to remunerate them equally - this is a justice issue.

As a professor, consultant and pastor in the evangelical tradition, I confess I am ashamed at our record on this issue. Though the bible does not directly forbid slavery, we have abolished it based OTHER passages in the Bible demand it. So it is with women in leadership. The "authority" in 1 Tim 2 is not "exousia" in the Greek (a healthy normal authority), it is "authentein" (an abusive form of authority, a lording over) and authentein is only used ONCE in the whole bible. So unlearned women (not the women of today) who had no rabbinical or other education, we forbidden to teach -- I hope so! Unlearned men were forbidden as well! And then they were forbidden to exercise abusive authority (authentein) over men. Good! No leader was to lord authority over others either (Mt. 20:24-26; 1 Peter 5).

Thanks for your ministry here!

Dr. Bill Donahue, PhD
www.drbilldonahue.com

Posted By: Dr. Bill Donahue | May 4, 2012 9:31 AM

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