Then God Created…Woman

I’ve spent my career writing about many of the women of the Bible. I’ve loved getting to know these women through their stories in Scripture, especially as I’ve found they aren’t so very different than we are today. Many of them were strong women, something that seems to be highly honored in our world. That’s not to say women haven’t struggled to gain leadership roles in business, politics, and more. In some cultures, women aren’t even leaders in their own homes.

But one particular place that has been a hotbed of debate regarding women in leadership roles is the church. Not every church, but many. And lately, that debate has spilled into the public Twitter-sphere.

I’m not one who goes looking for the latest trends on social media or pays attention to what a religious convention plans to vote on in their annual meetings, especially since I don’t belong to those groups. But it’s been impossible to miss the back-and-forth comments coming from male and female leaders in these Christian circles.

Apparently, one of these big issues seems to be over women teaching men in the church, as in women as pastors and teachers. Based on Paul’s advice to Timothy, for many, many years, men have assumed the roles of pastors and teachers in the local churches. I grew up with this teaching. It’s nothing new.

What is new to me is that now it is being suggested that women should not be allowed to teach in para-church settings or at a conference where men might sit under their teaching. Hmm…that’s not who Paul was addressing. What about Christian female singers who write songs that teach the gospel in poetic form? Or Christian female authors who weave stories that share the good news of Jesus in their stories? Should men not read or listen to anything written by or spoken by a woman? How far should this go? The issue is about pastors and teachers in the church, yes?

So if this is about the church, shouldn’t it stay in the church–not discussed on the very public Twitter? When we take our disagreements to social media that should remain in our own circles, strong words start flying from both sides for all the world to see. Condemning tones come through. A ton of comments from believer and unbeliever banter for and against. My dear brothers and sisters, this ought not be. If we disagree on something in the church, shouldn’t we discuss it there and settle it there? And really, whatever happened to “love one another as I have loved you”? “Love is never haughty or selfish or rude…” to name a few characteristics from 1 Corinthians 13.

Sigh.

I understand both sides of this in a certain sense. My background can relate to the men. My studies of women in Scripture can relate to the women.

Does my opinion on this matter make any difference? Nope. It really doesn’t. And I won’t claim to know the mind of God on this issue. I know that Paul talked about women being silent in the churches, but what did that mean? I’ve never in my life attended a church where women didn’t speak. Can you imagine walking into a church where the only people who were talking were men? Was that Paul’s point?

What about women asking questions in Sunday School? If that’s what he meant, then I’m guilty as charged. I love to learn and when I’ve had a good Bible teacher and there is open discussion, I ask questions. No one ever suggested in those settings that women were to be quiet. I suppose I could have waited to ask my husband at home, but he might have had to contact the Bible teacher to ask my question if he didn’t know the answer. Are we really supposed to be that legalistic about this?

Some might say yes. But when I look at the whole of Scripture, I would caution us to remember the women God immortalized there. In the Old Testament, for instance, Miriam is listed as one of the leaders of Israel along with Moses and Aaron. Deborah led her nation as judge during the terrorist reign of Sisera and Jabin. Huldah was a prophetess who gave the Word of the Lord. Esther saved her people from annihilation. Rahab saved the spies and ended up in the lineage of Christ.

In the New Testament, which is where the trouble seems to come from, Priscilla and Aquila are called Paul’s co-workers and together they taught Apollos the truth about Jesus because he didn’t have the gospel quite right. Euodia and Synthyche were two women who contended alongside Paul for the sake of the gospel. Mary and Martha both followed Jesus, and Mary sat with the men to learn at His feet.

Mary Magdalene, Susanna, Joanna, Mary, wife of Clopas, and many more women were followers of Jesus throughout His earthly ministry, supporting Him from their own means. Mary Magdalene is considered an apostle to the apostles because Jesus appeared to her first and told her to go and tell his brothers he was alive.

Jesus elevated women in a culture that didn’t. When Paul told Timothy that he didn’t permit a woman to teach or assume authority over a man, I wonder…was Paul making a statement that was to be true of every church or was it specific to Timothy’s situation?

I don’t know. Even if Paul intended his comment to be true in all of the churches, even if men are to be pastors and teachers and women are not to assume that role in the church, I hope we can as Christians look at this with the same kindness Jesus used toward the women who followed Him and learned from Him and went on to preach the gospel alongside of men like Paul or Aquila.

I do not presume to know for certain how these passages are to be interpreted, and at this point, I’m not going to try. What I do hope to see is Christians acting more like Christ, rather than squabbling over something that is not a point of salvation.

We were all given the commission to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations. Missionaries are often women, and I’ve never heard complaints about that. Our purpose here is to show a dying world that there is a Savior who came to rescue them. Our purpose is to share God’s love with those who need it. And we all need Jesus.

I hope that the next time I hop on Twitter, I don’t see any more vitriol or condemning words coming from men or women against each other over an issue that is not necessary for salvation. It’s a point of how to operate in our churches, not something to argue about in public forums.

The whole world desperately needs Jesus. They need to see His people loving one another. That’s how they know we are His disciples, right? By our love for one another. Sadly, what I’m reading from both sides is not loving. I pray we can change that.

~Selah

#womeninthechurch #andthenGodmadewomen #livegrace #pastorsandteachers #womeninleadership #christianlove