Women in the Church. Part 1

First Part: A general overview on women in the church. It's wild! It's all over the place, and covering way too much social, psychological and theological territory. Buckle up.

Second Part: A more focused and personal reflection on why things need to change, and what I plan to do. (Probably a little more interesting, for those of us who already believe that women should play a more significant and equal role in church leadership.)

I've been somewhat avoiding writing this blog because I've thought a lot about this topic, and feel like I can't possibly write a blog that summarizes everything I've thought about. But I'm going to start. I'm not even sure how useful my thoughts are. (There are many more educated and articulate people out there that can speak on this topic) But what the heck...here it goes.

First of all, I grew up in a church where women were not pastors, or elders, or deacons. They were, and still are, Sunday school teachers, women's ministry leaders, and secretaries. They also get to sing (& dance?!). If you asked me when I was younger what role women should play in the church, I'd probably have said they couldn't be pastors, cause men were meant to be leaders.

If you asked why, I'd probably have told you that God made men in such a way that they needed to be in charge. (Also didn't the bible say women can't lead...or something like that.) Basically in my young mind, men needed to be in leadership, because they wanted to be in leadership, and that is why they are the leaders. End of story.

But that's not really the end of the story, because my discomfort with this environment grew exponentially throughout high school, and probably has reached its boiling point this year. Today, I am absolutely convinced without a doubt that women should and need to be involved in every aspect of church life, men should learn from women, women should learn from men. Women need to be leaders because the church needs them.

The following will be a bombardment of thoughts, many of which will need to be expanded upon in later posts.

1) Spiritual gifts--Every time I've taken a "spiritual gift assessment" teaching and discernment are my main gifts. This leaves me with a a bit of a problem. I am neither particularly skilled or passionate about: singing, making coffee, administrative work or taking care and teaching children.

Don't get me wrong! I will willingly serve in any of these capacities. This is not a pride issue, if God wanted me to change diapers and file paper work for the rest of my life I would. I HAVE spent the last four summers in children's ministry.

However, I am saying that these are not my particular gifting, or passions, and yet in my home church these are the options open to me. I have been told numerous times that women perform in these roles because this is how God has gifted them. Men are gifted in leadership (and using their brains!) and women are good at taking care of children. (I'm not trying to be angry, it's a joke...but still.)

The point is. If anyone told me that these are my roles in the church because this is how God has gifted me as a woman, I will have no choice but to laugh at them.

When leadership, discernment, teaching, prophecy (and so on) are all spiritual gifts, I can't see how any woman with these gifts would be able to use them fully in most churches.

I think its hard for someone who isn't a women to understand this frustration, just as I can hardly understand what a racial minority feels on a daily basis. However, I can say that it is entirely discouraging for women who are gifted in leadership and teaching. When you can't function in the way God has gifted you, it's very easy to lose your passion for ministry.

But I'm not going to wait til the church is comfortable with my spiritual gifts. How in good conscious can I not do what God has gifted me to do. I can't and I won't wait for people to wake up.

2) The Bible--I don't want to get into a lengthy theological debate. I've never gone to seminary, and I'm sure there are people with the motivation and skills to argue me into any corner. However, I do want to point out that Paul's writings are very significant in how we view women's role in the church. He states quite explicitly to certain churches in the New Testament that women should remain silent, and should not teach or have leadership over men. However, without going into extensive details I don't believe using these few scriptures to back up a thousand years of suppression is justified.

First of all, in other passages Paul seems to contradict himself, and at best, his viewpoint is ambiguous. Deacons and leaders (who are women) are listed in such a way that it is implied that they were Paul's companions in leadership. These women's names are listed before their husbands, suggesting that they, and not their husbands, were in leadership positions. (There are many possibilities for why these contradications take place, and I don't want to go into them all.)

Many churches will say, we cannot know for sure what Paul meant, but the best we can do is follow the Bible. "It's biblical." How many time have I heard this. However, in these exact same passages women are informed to cover their heads, not cut or braid their hair, or wear jewellery. These are of course disregarded as, "cultural", and no longer applicable to our time. But whose choosing the criteria of what is cultural and what is not? Ironically, the churches that would most adamantly claim to be taking a literal, and biblical position on these passages, are kidding themselves.

3) Women and leadership. If women should not be in leadership, does this apply only to spiritual contexts. Is it right for a women to be in charge in a corporate setting? Can she teach and lead men there? If so--why are women only inferior in spiritual leadership? What was God's rational?

4) Missions. I'm assuming when Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples, he was going to include women in that task. Good thing too, since women missionaries have played a crucial role throughout history. But what if no one is willing to go and tell the people in some village in India about Jesus, except for a woman, is that ok? Should she not go?!

Ironically enough, most churches who don't support female leadership would probably commission a woman to go and teach in some god-forsaken-country. Is a women really capable of being the only spiritual leadership for entire group of people! God could use her?!

I can't see how this double standard can be construed as anything other than a colonial mindset, and blatant racism. A white women is good enough to lead Africans, but infinitely inferior to white men.

5) Redemptive hermeneutics—A significant part of the Jewish and Christian faith is the idea that God works within history. However, it is clear that even when Jesus was on earth, there are certain social problems that he did not address. The Jews wanted Jesus to restructure a broken and destructive political climate. He didn’t. In this way, I think that in many ways God works with what we give him.

However, as Christians we can be a part of our culture, and redeem culture through our understanding of God’s justice and love. There are many issues in the biblical times that were accepted by Christians—that have now changed. Things have changed; they have changed for the better. An example is slavery. Less than 50 years ago Christians used the Bible to justify slavery. The Bible does not condemn slavery, in fact Paul outlines what appropriate relationships look like between slave and master. Christians thought, well, if the Bible doesn’t have a problem with it, why change.

And yet today, you’d be hard press to find a Christian in Canada who thinks that abolishing slavery was a bad thing. It’s a cultural shift, and I would argue one that God is pleased with. The point is, just because Paul and Jesus didn’t stand on a soap box and scream, “Free the women!”, doesn’t mean that allowing women to function as teachers and leaders, and equals, is not something that would not please God.

6) Man's domination over women is part of the Genisis curse. Why as Christians, who have experienced the grace of God, would we try and participate in something that is the direct result of sin.

7) Don’t be fooled. Women have been leaders, and continue to be leaders. The early persecutors of Christians in Rome criticized Christianity, calling it the religion of women and children. Evidence suggests that women played a leadership role, and this only began to fade with the institutionalizing of Christianity.

I don’t want to get all “1960s Feminist” on you, but that’s pretty basic stuff. Once position and leadership in the church was associated with political and social power, women began to be excluded.

What is so inspiring are the stories of women throughout history who worked for Christ in obscurity, without support or recognition Didn’t Jesus say, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Watch out boys! The way things are going...I'm afraid heaven might be a huge feminist dance party.

More to come.

'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.'

I wonder who is going to listen?