Women In Christian Ministry
By Fisher Humphreys, Beeson Divinity School,
Birmingham, AL
Note: This article is reprinted from Chapter 12 of Putting Women In Their Place (Eds. Audra E. and Joe E. Trull, Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2003) and is available from the publisher or through Christian Ethics Today.
Our new pastor is Sarah Jackson Shelton. This past Sunday our church called her to be our servant-leader. Her husband is an accountant here in Birmingham, and they have two young sons. Sarah’s father is one of the great pastors in Alabama Baptist life, now retired. Sarah holds the M. Div. degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. We were not surprised when someone told us that she had won an award for outstanding preaching while she was in seminary—she is a wonderful preacher. She is a wonderful pastor, too, a wise and compassionate person who relates beautifully to all the different kinds of people in our diverse little congregation. We learned these things about her during a twelve-month period when she served as our interim pastor.
Apparently Sarah is one of the first woman to serve as pastor of a church affiliated with the Alabama Baptist State Convention. We love the Convention and its agencies such as Samford University, where I teach, and we hope the Convention will continue to accept us as members, though we expect that some people will be troubled by our having a woman as our pastor.
I suppose some people will assume that we called Sarah Shelton in order to be politically correct. Two things occur to me about that. One is that among Baptists, calling a woman as our pastor is politically incorrect, not politically correct.
The other is that the phrase “politically correct” suggests that one of three things is the case: Either we didn’t understand the motives that led us to do what we did, or we did what we did out of a desperate need to conform to some group’s expectations for us, or we’re claiming we did what we did for one reason when we know we actually did it for another reason. In other words political correctness is either stupidity, or weakness, or deceit. I don’t think Christians should use the phrase “politically correct.” It is too laden with contempt.
We called Sarah Shelton as our pastor because we believe she has the gifts, the training, the experience, and the spirit that we need in our pastor at this time in our church’s life. We believe she will be a wonderful pastor. We are grateful to God that Sarah is coming to lead us.
Still, I understand that many Christians are uncomfortable with the idea of women serving as ministers. Their view is well represented in the 2000 edition of The Baptist Faith and Message which says: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” I think it is understandable that many Christians hold this view and think it is the biblical view.
Though I respect the sincerity, intelligence, and good will of such persons, I do not agree with them. My purpose in this chapter is to provide a biblical argument for the church’s acceptance of women serving in Christian ministry. It is the argument that has convinced me, and I hope it may be of interest to others.
There are six steps in the argument. First, I call attention to the patriarchy that characterized the world described in the Bible. Second, I identify a few women leaders in the Old and New Testaments. Third, I describe Jesus’ unconventional attitude toward women. Fourth, I review two New Testament themes that support women in ministry. Fifth, I offer a theology of ordination. Finally, I respond to one of the passages that prohibit women from playing certain roles in the church.
Patriarchy and the Bible
The world described in the Bible was patriarchal. This is hardly surprising; apparently the entire ancient world was patriarchal. Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which fathers are the supreme authorities in their families, clans, or tribes. In a patriarchy, men possess cultural hegemony or dominance and use their dominance to exclude women from sharing in aspects of communal life. Women are expected to be submissive to men in something like the way in which, in our society today, young children are expected to be submissive to their parents.
The patriarchy of the ancient world is reflected in many ways in our Holy Scriptures. This is one of the evidences that our Bible was written by human beings. We Christians have never claimed that the Bible was written in heaven. We believe that it is God’s Word just as much as if it had been written in heaven. But we believe that God in infinite wisdom arranged for the Word to be mediated to us through human authors; one result of this is that the patriarchal context within which the authors lived is reflected in the Bible.
But that is not all; the Bible contains passages that describe women acting as leaders in ways that challenged patriarchal assumptions.
Women Leaders in the Bible
An early example is Sarah. Her story is as much an adventure as is that of her husband, Abraham, and of course, she is as much a parent of the chosen people as is her husband.
Her name means “princess,” and Sarah was treasured by her husband as a princess. But for many years she had great sadness in her life, for she had no children. She was elderly when she was told that she would have a child, and she thought that was laughable; in fact, it made her laugh. When the child was born he was named, quite appropriately, Isaac, which means “laughter.”
Another woman who broke free of ancient society’s restrictions on women was Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. It was Miriam who arranged for the infant Moses to be cared for by his mother after he was taken into the household of Pharaoh. During the great events of the Exodus, Miriam became, along with Moses and Aaron, a religious and political leader. Centuries later, God said this to Israel: “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam” (Mic 6:4).
During the period after the death of Moses and Aaron and Miriam, when Israel was moving back into the Holy Land, the nation was led by people whom we call judges. These leaders were not only judges as we know them today, people with legal responsibilities, but were also charismatic military leaders. One of them was a woman named Deborah. Her general was named Barak, and Barak refused to go into battle unless Deborah accompanied him. Deborah led a coalition of Israelites into battle against Sisera, a leader of Canaanite forces, on the plain of Esdraelon. This was a strategic battle in Israel’s control of central and northern Palestine. In addition to her work as a judge, Deborah was also a prophet (Josh 4:4).
Another woman who protected her people was Queen Esther. She was the wife of Xerxes, a king of Persia in the fifth century before Christ. Esther was Jewish, and, when she learned that the king’s chief lieutenant Haman intended to kill all of the Jews in Persia she intervened (at great personal risk) with Xerxes and succeeded in saving the Jews who were in Persia from extermination.
Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, and Esther played important roles in the story of salvation history that is recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. Though these Scriptures were written in a patriarchal world, they tell about women who were called by God to act in ways that went beyond the restrictions placed on them by their society.
The same is true in the New Testament. Scattered throughout the New Testament are accounts of women exercising leadership roles and carrying out ministries in the early church. That this would happen was predicted by Peter in his great evangelistic sermon at Pentecost: “Your sons and daughters will prophesy. . . . On my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit” (Acts 2:17. Peter was quoting the prophet Joel).
In the New Testament era the Christian faith was more like a movement than an organization. Though there is a great deal that we do not know about the organizational structure of the churches of the New Testament era, it seems probable that the various churches were organized in different ways, with different officers and different functions for the various offices. As one scholar has expressed it, “There is no such thing as the New Testament church order.”[1]
One thing we do know is this: There were women ministers in some of the New Testament churches. In Acts 18:26 we read about a couple, Priscilla and Aquila, who were teachers, and one of their students was a man. In Acts 21:8-9 we read about four unnamed women who were prophets. In Romans 16:1 we read about a woman named Phoebe who was a deacon in her church. In Philippians 4:2-3 we read about two women, Syntyche and Euodia, whom Paul describes as co-workers who have “struggled beside me in the work of the gospel.” In 2 Timothy 1:5 we read about Lois and Eunice who taught the Scriptures to young Timothy. And in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 we read that women prayed and prophesied during church services; as we would say today, they led the worship services.
In summary, given the patriarchy of the ancient world, it is not surprising that men occupy the center stage in the biblical narratives. What is surprising is that several biblical passages record the fact that women exercised leadership roles in Israel and in the churches of the New Testament era.
Jesus’ Attitude toward Women
To that surprising fact we now add another, namely, that Jesus held an unconventional attitude toward women, an attitude evident in the ways he related to them and spoke about them. I will review some of the examples of this that have been studied by Evelyn and Frank Stagg.[2]
In Mark 12:41-44 we read that Jesus praised a widow’s small offering. Ironically, it was a gift she would have given in one of the outer courts of the Temple, since women were not allowed to enter the inner courts.
According to John 4, Jesus engaged in a long conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria. They talked about theology, about Jesus’ mission, and about her life. She accepted Jesus’ message, and through her witness other Samaritans also accepted that message.
In Luke 10:38-42 we read a story about Jesus and the sisters Mary and Martha. Jesus allowed Mary to “hear his word,” that is, to be a disciple, a learner of his teaching. This was in violation of the social custom that only men may become disciples of the rabbis. As the Staggs point out, “A rabbi did not instruct a woman in the Torah.”[3] Today we are so accustomed to higher education being available for women as well as for men that we find it difficult to grasp the radical implications of Jesus’ act. Some of us have been helped by a short story written by Isaac Singer entitled “Yentl,” which was made into a movie by Barbra Streisand. Certainly Jesus’ contemporaries would have understood that he was doing something unconventional when he welcomed Mary as a learner, a disciple.
In Luke 8:1-3 we read that a large group of women not only benefited from Jesus’ teaching but also supported him financially and accompanied him and the Twelve on evangelistic trips.
In summary, Jesus took an unconventional attitude toward women. He treated them with the same respect that he accorded to men. He expressed appreciation for their achievements. He assumed that they had the same intellectual and spiritual abilities that men do. His attitude toward women was a challenge to the assumptions of the patriarchal society in which he lived.
Two New Testament Teachings that Support Women in Ministry
Two important New Testament teachings are supportive of women serving as ministers in the church. One is the teaching about the priesthood of all believers, and the other is the teaching about spiritual gifts.
In the Old Testament era, priests were an elite of male descendants of Levi and later of Aaron. Two Old Testament passages, Exodus 19 and Isaiah 61, contain promises about a coming time when all of God`s people will be priests. In 1 Peter 2 we read that these promises have been fulfilled in the Christian church. That Christians generally believed this truth is confirmed by five brief references to believers as priests scattered throughout the book of Revelation.
What are the biblical meanings of priesthood? What did the Hebrew priests do that other Jews did not do? There were three closely related activities: Priests led worship, they offered sacrifices, and they offered prayers on behalf of others.
We have seen that in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul spoke of women as engaged in worship leadership. That was priestly work.
From the beginning the followers of Jesus did not offer animal sacrifices. Christians were, until the Temple was destroyed in 70 ad, the only group known to us in the Roman world who did not do so, and their rationale for not doing so was extraordinary: They believed that the death of Jesus was a final sacrifice that rendered all animal sacrifices superfluous.
The sacrifices that Christians offered were spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5). One spiritual sacrifice was worship itself; two others were giving money to the poor and performing acts of compassion. All three of these spiritual sacrifices are mentioned in Hebrews 13:15-16: “Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
In Romans 12:1 Paul advised his readers to give their lives to God as living sacrifices. Offering a spiritual sacrifice is priestly work, and God calls women as well as men to that act of devotion.
Finally, the Hebrew priests offered prayers on behalf of people. This too is an activity for women as well as for men, as 1 Corinthians 11 makes clear.
In other words, all Christian churches have women priests, that is, women members who as priests are called to the priestly work of worship, sacrifice, and prayer.
The second New Testament teaching concerns spiritual gifts; the most important passages are Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4:7-16, and 1 Peter 4:10-11. Paul says explicitly that all Christians are given spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:6-7; Eph 4:6). God gives spiritual gifts to women and expects them to use their gifts in the life and ministry of the church.
The New Testament teachings about priesthood and spiritual gifts constitute a challenge to the patriarchal assumptions of the ancient world and a call to the church to welcome the ministries of women. Christian women who minister are putting into practice the unconventional attitude that Jesus took toward women, and they are following the examples of the women in the New Testament churches who were teachers, prophets, deacons, worship leaders, and co-workers with the apostles.
The Meaning of Ordination
Two other questions need to be answered: What is the meaning of ordination? and, What are we to make of the New Testament passages in which women are prohibited from playing certain roles in the life of the church?
The New Testament does not contain a doctrine of ordination. Churches in the New Testament era occasionally laid hands on individual members, and sometimes this was done as members began a new phase of ministry.[4]
Across the centuries the church has continued this practice and has understood its meaning in three different ways. The Roman Catholic Church has understood ordination as conferring upon a man an indelible grace that authorizes him to conduct the Mass. Magisterial reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin understood ordination to confer upon a man the authority to proclaim the Word of God.
These understandings of ordination are not appropriate for Baptists because Baptists believe that churches are authorized by Christ to celebrate the Lord’s Supper whether or not an ordained person is present, and they believe that all Christians are responsible to give a witness to God’s Word.
A third understanding of ordination is that it is a church’s confirmation that it concurs with a person that she or he has been called by God to perform some ministry, and a church’s blessing on the individual as he or she begins that ministry. Ordination is not a conferral of authority over others, but rather a confirmation and a blessing. This is the only understanding of ordination that is appropriate for Baptists. When it is embraced, it puts to rest the objections about ordination conferring upon women an authority over men.
Passages Prohibiting Women from Playing Certain Roles in the Church
The most compelling biblical argument again women serving as ministers is, of course, the presence in the New Testament of passages in which women are prohibited from playing certain roles in the church. I believe that 1 Timothy 2 is the most forceful of these passages, so I shall give attention to it; what I say about it may be said about other similar passages.
Here is the difficult passage: “I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty” (1 Tim 2:8-15).[5]
I will make two simple points about this passage. First, if we apply this passage to the church today, then women should not serve as ministers in churches. I think it is important to acknowledge this fact.
Second, I think that the principal question to be answered about the passage is this: Is this prohibition a universal principle applicable to all times and places, or is it rather a rule intended only for and appropriate only to the particular time and place addressed by the author?
All Christians believe that the Bible contains principles that apply to all times and places. An example is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Matt 22:37). This teaching is universal in its application rather than culture-specific.
On the other hand, all Christians recognize that the Bible contains teachings that do not apply to all times and places. It is customary to describe these teachings as culturally conditioned, but I do not think this is a good way to put it, for this reason: Since we use language when we make statements, and since language is the central component in culture, all statements are culturally conditioned. I prefer to say that teachings that do not apply in all times and places are “culture-specific,” by which I mean that they are applicable to a particular culture but not to all cultures.
First Timothy 2 contains some teachings that, most Christians agree, are culture-specific. For example, it says that women should not braid their hair or wear gold or pearls. Most Christians today regard these things as inappropriate in Paul’s world but as acceptable in today’s world. The spirit behind them is presumably that Christians should be modest in their appearance.
Is the same thing true of Paul’s instructions that women are not to teach or have authority over men? Are these instructions, like those about pearls and braided hair, culture-specific? Or are they universal?
I think they are culture-specific, and I think that the universal principle that underlies them is something like this: Christians should not behave in ways that cause profound offense to the gospel and thus prevent the church from carrying out its mission to the world. In the patriarchal world of the biblical era, it would have been deeply offensive for women to teach and to exercise authority over men.
What about today? I think that there may be some societies today in which women’s exercise of authority over men is so deeply offensive that the gospel cannot be heard when preached by churches in which women do these things.
But in most societies today, particularly in technologically developed societies, the opposite is the case. In our culture the freedom and dignity of women are everywhere affirmed. In American society, where women are bankers, military officers, physicians, and engineers, it is deeply offensive to many people that women are excluded from leadership in churches.
If the universal principle that underlies 1 Timothy 2 is that church members should not give such profound offense to a society that the gospel cannot be heard, then in America today churches should welcome women as ministers. Why? Because in our society it is as scandalous for the church to refuse to welcome women into ministry as it would have been in the ancient world for the church to have welcomed women into all forms of ministry.
The issue concerning 1 Timothy 2 is not whether we believe the Bible but how we interpret it.
God is sovereign, which means, among other things, that God is free to arrange the church’s life in any way God likes; God is free to call men into ministry and not women, and God is free to call both women and men into ministry. Our responsibility as members of the church is not to choose a practice that we happen to like, but to seek God’s will and then to attempt to do it.
I believe that it is God’s will for women to serve as ministers of the church in developed societies today. In these societies women leaders do not give grave offense to the gospel, and the work of the church will prosper if the church adopts Jesus’ attitudes toward women and follows the example of the women prophets and deacons and worship leaders whose ministries are named in the New Testament.
St. Irenaeus has written, Glorio dei homo vivens—“the glory of God is a human being who is fully alive.”[6] It is God’s will is for all people to experience wholeness and fullness of life. One of the most egregious contributors to human impoverishment and alienation is the systemic, invidious diminishment of women in patriarchies. I believe that the diminishment of women is weakening, and I believe that the future for women is a bright one, because I believe that God intends for women to experience life in all its fullness. Therefore I believe that we Christians may hope for a better future and that we may move into the future with joy and confidence in God.
