We Need More Women in Ministry & Leadership.
No one would contest that the church has a leadership deficit and needs more ministry leaders (pastors, prophets, evangelist etc.). A contributing factor to our current leadership deficit is a system of discipleship in ministry that at times is unbiblically slanted against women.
“28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28. ”
Over the last year I’ve had a surprising number of discussions about this important topic and thought it may be helpful to post some of my thoughts here as they can’t always be conveyed in a casual conversation. .
When looking at this topic from the vantage point of the Bible it is critical to have an understanding of the historical context of the times in which the scripture was written.
In particular, understanding how the family functioned in Old Testament times, how that differs from the time of Jesus Christ and post-ascensions early church, is important and has major relevance to the question of leadership in ministry in the Body of Christ.
So this post is meant to be is a primer on the topic. This is not an exhaustive essay or position paper. But hopefully it gets us all thinking about why and how we can support the calling of women to leadership and ministry. If nothing else is will and cause you to consider ways in which we can include women in our leadership structures to more fully express what I believe God’s intention is for us in ministry (or perhaps this post will just make you yell at me through the screen).
Historical Context
It used to be, in early Judaism, that women were highly marginalized in the societal, and religious roles they could engage.
THE FAMILY During THE Old COVENANT
Women were very much limited in influence to the home and family life. During this patriarchal time the father had enormous and continuing power over daughters and wives. But also various levitical laws were ‘interpreted in such a way that women were prohibited from taking significant roles in the synagogue due to their monthly cycle. (I know, really, I went there. It is relevant though. Really. You’ll see below...)(Witherington, Ben III. “Women: New Testament.” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary 1992: 957)
Women in practice of worship OT
Alabaster Heart is a phenomenal call to worship that finds it’s inspiration in the story of the anointing at Bethany (Matt 26; Luke 7). Jesus said something about this woman that He never said about anyone else, that her worship would be remembered always. Her example has influenced our worship for thousands of years. This is is a significant because it demonstrates the place of worship in public, and proximity to God is no longer reserved for men.
In terms of the practice of worship, women could not make up a quorum that constituted a synagogue; they could not be counted on to recite the daily Shema; they could not make the pilgrimimages to Jerusalem for the major feasts, they could not be involved in the worship of God in a recognized or official way. Further more, there is consensus among scholars of early Jewish sources that women’s roles were limited “to the home and restricting, their rights of inheritance, their choice of relationships, their ability to pursue religious education or fully participate in the synagogue…” (p. 958)
From the above information we can clearly see see that in the Old Testament under the old covenant women were very limited in the leadership or ministry roles they could fulfill. However, that changed during the time of Christ and that change is a reflection of the fullness of the new covenant.
Women (and all of us) In The New Covenant
Women CAN lead and pastor in the church. Unfortunately, there continues to be a certain level of debate. Often this debate flows from Paul’s writings in Corinthians (1 Cor 1:14), or the idea of women playing a lesser role than man from the outset of creation (Gen. 1 and 2), or that because men and women play different roles in marriage (Eph. 5) those differing roles mean superior and subservient in ministry. “After all — the Body of Christ is a reflection of the way God intended family to be, right?”
WRONG.
This is the place where the intention of God in the new covenant established through His Son, Jesus Christ get’s missed in practical application of theology. After Christ, family is no longer the highest place of God’s kingdom structure here on earth, it is superceded by the Household of Faith (the Church). .
Consider this, Jesus became sin, so that we didn’t have to be (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus was rejected by His Father because He bore our sin ‘in Him’ We, all of us, are equal and the same as children of God in Jesus. Joint heirs with Him of all that God has for us. This new family, this Body of Christ supercedes the previous structures of family that were highly emphasized under the old covenant and in the Old Testament writings.
So, even if one believes that men are to lead the family in a patriarchal way (...which I do not, we’ll save that for another post), I believe one must concede that the family unit is different than the family of God and superseded by it in importance under the new covenant. No matter how uncomfortable we are with that, it is the truth: Jesus changed everything including how women were empowered to function in the practice of worship and in the Kingdom of God.
In the New Testament Jesus about family (i.e. Matt. 12:48-50; 22:33). I don’t hear much about what he said in those passages and others often. We don’t tackle these passages often because they uncomfortable to our sensibilities about families. (P.S. it is true, you will not be married in heaven...maybe a post on that later?)
The family in the New Covenant
The family is no longer the chief building block of God’s Kingdom; but the family of God is. Our vacillating on this issue creates many of the complex problems, and inconsistencies we battle in modern ministry. By clinging to the OT ideal of family under the old covenant we unintentionally relate women to some less cable version of ministry that the I don’t believe God intended. When we embrace the new covenant version of family, which is superseded by the structure of the family of God something changes. That embrace gives rise to a sense of miraculous community in which women have full membership and a part to play as leaders and pastors, unrestricted in their roles. Ultimately, one of the major consequences of Christ’s redemptive work was to cause the family of faith to supersede the physical family as the primary group of identification for followers of Christ (Mark 3:34-35 and parallels; Matt 10:34-39, Luke 14:26). (P.958).
Women in practice of worship
The anointing at Bethany carries significance for our practice of worship. Jesus said something at that time He never said anywhere else in the Gospels, that this act of worship would be told as a memorial to this woman. She was the example of NT Worship we should all seek to follow. Click here for more information about this photograph.
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We do not have to look far into the Gospels to find that women are now included. Consider John 4. There is so much happening in this chapter, but as it pertains to woman there is a sense of the practice of worship here that is often missed. A number of barrier breaking behaviours are observed of Jesus here:
He engages with her.
He demonstrates that He knows her sinful life,
despite that knowledge, He includes her in the practice of worship, because the system of the temple and the mountain are now traded in for worship in Spirit and in truth.
He reveals to her that He is the Messiah. She is likely the first person who was informed of Christ’s identity.
He did not choose a man for this interaction. Given the topic we are discussing it is interesting that the individual in the story was a woman and not a man.
So we see that Jesus engaged with her, and included here in the worship that was to come.
The Woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48) is another important example of Christ changing the place of women in ministry and connection with Him (remember, I went there earlier…well this is why). It is remarkable that Jesus allowed her to touch Him. It is also unbelievable that this women, who was consider unclean by the levitical laws of her day, had the courage to reach out and touch him.
Her actions are so remarkable that Christ stops to address her. (Sidebar: when was the last time you or I stopped to offer the dignity of an interaction to someone on the margins?)
Many scholars argue that it was the levticial law regarding a women’s cycle that prevented her from participating in the synagogue, and other aspects of worship (ibid). This interaction between Jesus and the women with the issue of blood seems to satisfy this law upon Christ’s death and resurrection. No longer are women ‘unclean’ and because that law was what restricted them from the practice of worship, now they are no longer restricted but can worship God as fully as ANY other human can
Women in ministry
Jesus accepted women both as followers and as traveling companions (Luke 8:1-3). Rather than serving in the traditional capacity of service, Jesus preferred that women listen and learn from Him as a pupil would. That was a role previously reserved for men. The story of Mary and Martha is the clear example of this. We wrongly think of this as a story about busyness and distraction. It really a story about empowerment of women and Jesus as a barrier breaker (Luke 10:28-42) (p, 958).
Additionally women played significant roles in witnessing of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial; and were among the first to see empty tomb, and to speak with our resurrected Lord. It is no small thing that these interactions were not only recorded in the gospels but highlighted with a sense of historical equality with that of the male witnesses.
Practical Theology:
Jesus liberated women in the family role, in the practice of worship, and in leadership and ministry. Our overemphasis on natural family causes us to underemphasis the family of faith and in doing so we struggle to emphasize the ‘in-Christ’ liberation of women. I believe we rely too heavily on Jewish and early Jewish Christian family tradition; rather than on New Testament theology. The practical application of the theology found on this topic would naturally be to involve women and mean in all the roles of ministry and leadership.
Following Christ’s example of love leads to letting go of ideas that marginalize fellow humans. However, history indicates that it takes time, gut-wrenching time filled with injustices, discouragement and difficulty to realize the fullness of what He has done for us. There is no call to social revolution that I can see in the New Testament. I believe that is because in Christ, family structures continue to have a significant place. However, in the shadow of the cross, the family structure is superseded by the family of God; in which women and men, Jew and Greek (gentile), slave and free all have equality (Gal. 2:28). The call of the NT is to worship God by giving all energy possible to growing the Family of Faith.
When considering 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 in the context of OT history presented above; and in the context of Christ’s words and actions: it is reasonable to conclude that Paul is addressing a specific problem in a specific context. After all, we understand that women in Corinth who were offering a compromised witness to their broader societal context. A context in which women teaching, and leading would not have been accepted on any level. Paul’s instructions, therefore, are about maximizing the witness of the Gospel, rather than prescriptive to every church context.
For Paul , as it was for Jesus, the Family of Faith was central. This meant that the other societal structures like family would be transcended by the practices of the Family of Faith.
Finally it’s worth noting that these ideas were difficult for the new and very small Christian world to implement. Part of this reality is evidenced by the fact that Luke-Acts, which strongly highlights the ascent of women, was written a little later than the other gospels. It’s possible to see it as a response to some of the broader resistance in the Church Body to the new-found roles of women in worship, ministry and faith. We still have this challenge today, unfortunately; and it is much too common. Solving our leadership deficits and sustainable development challenges solved in part, by following Christ’s example of making room for women at all levels of ministry.