ARGUMENTS FOR WOMEN IN MINISTRY

FROM SCRIPTURE

1. Galatians 3:28 “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  If women, also, are one with Christ, then to forbid a woman to do anything is also to forbid Christ.  If women and men are one in Christ, then a woman can do what a man can do without violating the law of Christ.

2. Romans 16:1 “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae...”  Phoebe was a deacon in the church.  Some translations use the word “deaconess” here, but the Greek word is the same for masculine and feminine. It is the same word for deacon that is used in 1 Timothy 3:8ff, the instructions about deacons that are taken to refer to our current position of minister of a church.

3. In this passage in 1 Timothy 3 that talks about deacons, verse 11mentions the characteristics of women.  Verse11 has been translated in some instances as referring to the wives of deacons, but the Greek word is merely “women.”  It can just as well be interpreted to mean women deacons as it can the wives of male deacons.

4. Romans 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19.  These passages mention Priscilla and Aquila, the husband and wife team that had a church in their home.  They are a pastoral couple, sharing equally in ministry. Acts 18:26 indicates that this special pair instructed Apollos, when Apollos knew only the baptism of John.  In two of these three passages, Priscilla is mentioned first, indicating that she may well have been the more powerful of the two.

5. Galatians 3:10-13.  This passage explains that Christ took the curse of the law upon himself, freeing us from its grip.  The law, or Torah, is not just the Ten Commandments and Levitical laws. For a Jew, and therefore for Paul, Torah is the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deutoronomy.  The curse is the curse in Genesis 3:14-19, which sets the husband as ruler over the wife.  It was not intended this way from Creation, it is part of the curse--the curse that Christ took from us on the Cross.  When we are in Christ, the male-female relations of the curse--with the man ruling over the woman--no longer apply.  Instead, when we accept Christ, we return to a pre-curse relationship, both with God and with each other.  Before the curse, man and woman united to become one flesh--just what Paul is saying in3:28--there is no male or female, we are one.  

6. It is sometimes argued that women cannot be ministers because Jesus hadno women disciples.  Jesus did have women disciples. There were no women among the twelve, but there were many other disciples, enough so that seventy were sent out at one time on an evangelistic mission in Luke 10.  Many women followed Jesus and provided for him out of their resources (Luke 8:2-3). There is no indication that they were not considered as part of the broader set of disciples.  They followed him from the beginning, stayed with him at the Cross (Matt. 27:56), and were the ones given the message of the resurrection(Matt 27:61 and all the other Gospels).  Women were the first ones instructed to go and tell the good news. In the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38ff, we are shown Martha, whois tending to the domestic chores and Mary, who is sitting at the feet of Jesus, receiving instruction.  To sit at the feet of a teacher was the accepted posture of a disciple. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen what is better, indicating thatit is a good choice for women to choose discipleship above “women’s work.”  

7. Jesus gives dignity to women.  Jesus’ talk with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4 is the longest discussion that Jesus has with anybody in all of Scripture. Where it was forbidden for a Jew even to talk with his own wife in public, Jesus talks at great length to a woman who is also a hated Samaritan. He also reveals himself to her as the Messiah, the first such revelation in the Gospel of John.  She becomes the first evangelist, going back to town and bringing the townspeople to Jesus.

FROM CULTURE  

1. Women in Paul’s day did not have access to religious education. While many women had quite a bit of business savvy and knowledge, education in Torah was reserved for the men. As women suddenly had access to religious training and heard that instead of being ruled over they were now equal in Christ, they became like a kid in a candy store.  It was not wise for most women to be speaking publicly in church until they had enough training to really know what they were talking about.

2. Seating arrangements.  In synagogues it was the practice to seat the men and women separately, just as is still the rule in orthodox synagogues today. Since the early church services were modeled after services in the synagogues, it would not be surprising if the men and women were seated separately in churches as well.  But now that women could receive instruction and learn, they often had questions about what they heard and sought to ask their more educated husbands about it. Because it was exciting to learn, they often asked right in the middle of the service, and since they were seated on opposite sides of the room, this was distracting and disturbing to others.  By instructing women not to speak in church, order was maintained, and they could ask their husbands any questions when they got home.  

3. Balancing social change with social order. While Paul’s statements about women may seem conservative by today’s standards, Paul was, for his day, a flaming liberal. Paul’s teacher, Gamaliel, was the most famous liberal rabbi of the day. In an age where women were merely property, it was a great leap for women when Paul instructed husbands to love their wives as their own bodies and to give themselves sacrificially for their wives as Christ had done for the church. But Paul’s battle was not primarily a social battle.  He was preaching Jesus Christ. He was not taking on patriarchy or slavery as enemy #1. Paul was not a social activist.  He was merely trying to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that would win converts.  He could not preach the Gospel truly without acknowledging that Christ transcended social boundaries and barriers.  But he also could nothave been heard in his day if he had not encouraged wives to remain under the authority of their husbands or, generally, their spiritual leaders.

                     Social change cannot be accomplished overnight. Paul made some important steps in encouraging men to start thinking about how they treated women and masters about how they treated their slaves, but Paul’s world was not ready to handle complete equality among the sexes or the abolition of slavery.  It is somewhat akin to Jesus telling his disciples that he has much to teach them, but they can’t bear it now (John 16:12).  There is much that the Holy Spirit has to teach us about the implications of the Gospel, but we have to wait until conditions are right for us to be able to hear and understand it.  The culture of Paul’s day could not have accepted men and women as equals in all things, but today the time is right.

FROM EXPERIENCE  

1. There are effective women pastors.  There are growing, thriving congregations under the leadership of women. People commit their lives to Jesus after hearing women preach.

2. There are women who sense God’s call to ordained ministry, who have that call affirmed by others, and who have outward fruits to confirm their inner convictions. 

FROM REASON

1. While studies have shown that men and women approach tasks very differently, research has shown that both ways of addressing problems are effective.  If women can teach effectively in our Sunday Schools, why would they be suddenly impaired when they stepped into the pulpit?  If women secretaries can keep busy executives on track, why would they have problems with church administration?  If our mothers always knew just what to say to make us feel better, why would a woman pastor be handicapped at a hospital bedside, at a funeral, or in a counseling situation?  If most of the people in any congregation of any denomination on any given Sunday morning are women; and if most of the people doing most of the work in the church are women, why is it such a problem that a woman do the work of a pastor? Reason says that a woman should be able to pastor a church just as effectively as a man.