Not Yet
By Karen Shaw
"I personally have no problem with women being leaders in our church, but the congregation isn`t ready for it yet," one pastor explained.
Congregational change comes slowly. Church leaders need wisdom in choosing which changes to promote and the best time to implement those changes. However, it is too easy for a shepherd afraid of controversy to hide behind the flock rather than lead it. A church`s lack of readiness to empower all of its members is not an excuse to do nothing. It is a call to action. To do nothing suggests that a leader may lack genuine interest in bringing women into leadership as full members of the Body of Christ.
There are a great many things that a church leader can do to prepare God`s people to reach their full potential, even if they are not yet ready to make a major change. It may be "a journey of a thousand miles," but one can begin with a handful of these steps:
1. Pray. Only God can change people`s hearts. Pray frequently and fervently, and listen to the voice of the Spirit as you pray.
2. Model integrity. Be honest with yourself about your own reservations. You cannot lead others in examining their fears and prejudices if you have not done so yourself.
3. Engage in careful, sound teaching of Bible interpretation. Start with the senior church leaders. Train them in general hermeneutical principles applied to unrelated texts and issues, and then gradually begin to help them to apply these principles to texts about women. Once the leadership understands the principles, they can support you as you teach the congregation.
4. Expose the congregation to ministries of gifted, godly women. There are plenty of examples in the Bible, church history, the contemporary world, and your own church from which to draw.
5. Preach regularly on Bible passages about women. This conveys to the congregation that the whole church can learn from the lives and words of holy women.
6. Move women into roles from which they have been excluded for purely cultural reasons. Nothing in the Bible can be construed to prevent women from ushering, being treasurers, distributing communion, or being ordained and employed as evangelists. (However, a few desperate souls may try to invent some objection!)
7. Count the cost of not having women leaders. You might find it surprisingly high. I know many young women who won`t return to a church where the only people on the platform are males. When wise women are muzzled and their gifts neglected due to gender discrimination, the whole church loses. Exclusion of women from leadership in one generation leads to lack of role models for women in the next.
8. Create opportunities for people on both sides to discuss their concerns openly in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Small groups, informal discussions over meals, and private conversations are far more effective than a public debate. One can open the conversation easily and constructively by asking people about their experiences of women in ministry or strong women, or even about their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, etc.
9. Don`t be surprised by vehement female opponents to the public ministry of women. Most evangelical women have been taught relentlessly that their worth is in fulfilling traditional roles. Of course they have grounds for alarm. Women who are used to having influence without responsibility and who gain their status in the community through their husbands` titles (such as some wives of elders and pastors) will be particularly threatened. Housewives and female children`s workers need to be reassured that they will not be despised, but honored for their valuable work.
10. Remind people on both sides that they are not t dealing with just a controversial issue, but with real people. Kindness is not optional.
11. Firmly, lovingly, correct commonly held misbeliefs and prejudices. Myths abound, including the idea that Eve`s sin was not asking her husband about eating the fruit, that the ordination of women leads inevitably to the sanctioning same sex marriage, that men will stop coming to a church with women in leadership, or that women are too emotionally unstable to be given senior responsibility.
12. Don`t fall for the "many people will leave" trap. Occasionally it happens, but usually the "many people" are a small but very vocal minority.
13. Provide pastoral care and ministry alternatives for women who are hurt by the church`s exclusive stance. Deal with their pain and frustration rather than ignoring it.
14. Keep reminding male leaders that their decisions will affect the whole church. If they would not want others to decide on their behalf without consultation, they need to hear women`s opinions and not assume that men know best. Women consulted should include single, divorced and widowed women, not simply wives of the male decision-makers.
15. Identify women`s gifts and callings, and give them whatever training and opportunities you can for appropriate ministries. Start small if you must, but start!
16. Prepare male leaders to work alongside women as equals. For some, this may be an entirely new and potentially threatening prospect. Teach solid theology, model respect, and make extra space for communication and problem solving.
17. Publically express your support for women in ministry. It is cowardly to be a fence-sitter because of fear of opposition. Taking a stand demands courage and integrity. But isn`t this the sort of leader you want to be?
The journey that appears in advance to be a thousand miles long might just turn out to be considerably shorter than that. You never know until you start walking. However long and difficult the journey to full inclusion of women may be, it is a worthy pilgrimage, heading as it does in the right direction.
This article was first published in CBE and is reprinted with permission. Karen Shaw is assistant professor of cross-cultural ministry at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Mansourieh Metn, Lebanon. She has lived in the Middle East for over 20 years, along with her husband and their two children.
