Response to Response

I received a very good response to my blog from a friend who had reservations about women in pastoral leadership in regards to the over-arching Scriptural support and specifically how this would coincide with home life. I thought his comments were very well-thought out. Anyway, this is part of the response I sent to him, and thought I'd go ahead and share it. It's not very organized, very informal, and probably has lots of loopholes. BUT, it might be beneficial to someone who reads it.



In response to your responses :), I totally understand and respect where you are coming from. Like I said in my blog, your opinions were pretty much my own four years ago. And I don't say that to mean I've come to more advanced opinions either--just to say that I completely understand your stances and respect them.

Here are some of the reasons/questions that prodded me to come to the stances I hold now in regard to the issues you raised.

As to the women in leadership in the Bible being the exception to the rule, I totally agree. However, I think the reason isn't that God made the rule and sometimes chose to break it, but rather that the culture had a very strong rule in place, so rarely were there women who had the opportunity to break it. I think it seems odd to say that God would design genders in such a way that men were to be the leaders and women not, but then call specific women throughout the course of Biblical and post-Biblical history to step up.

Secondly, the issue of submission in the home was a much tougher one for me to deal with when God called me to ministry. Being very vulnerable and honest, what single woman in her right mind wants to be called to ministry? I want to be married. I'm female. I long for companionship--for a man who will pursue me and be a protector figure in my life. I don't want to have to make life decisions on my own. I don't want to go it solo. And what man wants to marry a pastor? It sounds so odd... a pastor's husband... we don't see it all that often. Some people have accused women in ministry (not at all saying you have) of being power-hungry, feminists who want to have control over men... Well, I'm definitely not one of them. I want to serve and love... and I desperately want to be married. So anyway, all that to say that I struggled with this like none other... And it often times made me want to run from my call. But God has shown me in Scripture that Christianity is all about submission--not just wife to husband, but "one to another." In fact, in Ephesians, the verse preceding "Wives, submit to your husbands" says "submit one to another." The division in our Bibles was only added, and I think it's placement was significant to the cultural bias of the day. Finally, I think we have a skewed understanding of what pastoral leadership means. Yes, leadership involves authority... but it is ultimately an act of service, humility, and submission to God and others. All in all, I guess I would be lumped in the "mutual submission" category in regards to marriage--that in some areas I may lead in the home, in others my husband may lead. However, I don't take this stance out of a desire to negate Scripture or to elevate myself, but simply because I think that's the ultimate principle. My desire is to submit to my husband... which is why I'm praying for a very godly, wise man in whom I can place the utmost respect and admiration, but who also affirms my call and will support me in pastoral leadership. But I think my desire to submit is not motivated by a God-given mandate of women as those who submit so much as it is motivated by my desire to love selflessly and the fact that because I'm a leader, I'd really just appreciate to be able to be led sometimes. :)

Women in Ministry

Here it is--for all of you who have been asking me for years what my perspective on women in ministry is, I'm finally at a place where I feel like I can answer. I'll probably never do this again other than in ministry/mentoring settings (I'm a firm believer that it's not my job to defend my call but to live it out), so enjoy this historical moment. :) I also preface this by stating that I've been on a long journey of coming to the following ideas, and I'm sure God will continue to tweak them (or change them if He likes) as time goes on. This, however, is where I stand.

As a woman who is called to ministry and attending seminary in order to further prepare for ministry, I think it is a no-brainer that I affirm that God does call women. However, this was a hard conclusion to come to after being told my whole life that He does not. Once God finally convinced me that He was truly calling ME, I had the difficult task of figuring out what that meant--both in light of Scripture and practically in the church world in which I live. I wrestled with these issues for years. Scripture became very confusing to me. I saw both instances when women were forbidden to speak, and times when women led the nation of Israel as judges or spoke as God's prophetesses. I saw a woman referred to as an apostle, a woman who led a house church, and all distinctions of gender being eliminated in Christ. I was confused. However, after studying the Scripture, popular interpretations, the practical views that different church leaders held, I came to the following "conclusions."

1. You have to fall off the fence in one direction or the other. There is no view in Scripture that details, "Women may be youth pastors, children's ministers, worship leaders, associate pastors, and missionaries (aka pastors) in foreign lands, but they may not be senior pastors in the United States." Either women are called, or they are not. No limited view can be truly supported Scripturally.
2. The evidence is strong that God has and does use women to serve His Church. To deny this is to deny reality.
3. I am both an egalitarian AND a complementarian. I know these views are supposed to be somehow contradictory, but I disagree with the definitions. I am an egalitarian because I believe men and women are equal in worth and value in both the eyes of God and therefore the eyes of His Church. Adam and Eve were created to be "face to face," not in some sort of hierarchy of importance or authority. Therefore, there is no male or female in Christ--only person. Because of this, God's call to service is extended both to men and women, and this call can be identical. I'll spell it out--maybe for the first time in my life--God can and does call women to senior pastor. I apologize for any heart attacks I may have just caused. BUT, I am also a complementarian. By this, I mean that men and women are DIFFERENT. I draw this as much from life as anything. While some individuals may somewhat break the mold, I think it is safe to say that men and women are wired differently in some pretty standard ways. This does not mean, however, that one is wired for pastoral leadership and the other is not. It means they are wired DIFFERENTLY for pastoral leadership. In conclusion, I believe a church with only male leadership OR a church with only female leadership is not at its best pastoral health. We COMPLEMENT one another. Any church lacking in either way is LACKING. Thus, a church with a female senior pastor needs other male leadership, and vice versa. This is easily applied in a large church who has a large pastoral staff. However, in small churches (solo pastorates), this compensation is not something that can necessarily be visible on the back of a church bulletin but rather is woven into the church in an integral way. I believe it is the responsibility of both a church and its pastor to be sure that both "gender styles" of leadership are present in their church in a balanced fashion. Only then, I believe, will we see the full beauty of the Body of Christ represented in its leadership under the headship of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Well, there it is. All this was sparked in the shower this morning, and I was compelled to write it down before moving on with my day. I hope it pleases all of you who have asked that I finally complied, and I welcome discussion. I know it's pretty gutsy to start redefining terms--but somebody's gotta do it sometimes. :)

In His Service,
Amber Janelle