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Women
in the Pulpit? Absolutely! The
Bible itself displays tension over the issue of women in ministry,
and we therefore should not use it as a club to smack down those
of differing opinions. Several
years ago I saw an old book by J.R. Rice entitled Bobbed Hair,
Bossy Wives and Women Preachers. Though I didn't read the whole
book, I found out quickly that Rice had an aversion to all three!
Of most concern to him was the notion that women would dare consider
the possibility of becoming a preacher-pastor. A
committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest
Protestant denomination, has recently published its proposed revision
of "The Baptist Faith and Message," a confessional statement
of the generally held beliefs of those people called Southern
Baptists. Under
the "Church" section of the proposed revision, the committee
sounds a note not unlike that of J. R. Rice: "While both
men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office
of the pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture." Assuming
that the statement's authors referred to the work of the shepherd-
preacher when they used the word "pastor," I have to
say immediately that I'm one Baptist who disagrees with this proposed
revision. Most importantly, I do so by arguing against the notion
that the scriptures don't allow for the possibility of women pastors. Consider
this: In I Corinthians 11: 5, the Apostle Paul speaks of prophesying.
He encourages men to prophesy with their heads uncovered and women
to prophesy with their heads covered. A
double point can be made. One, not even the most ardent Southern
Baptist demands bonnets in church anymore! But two, and more seriously,
"prophesy" literally means "preach" and it
refers here to both men and women. Yes, I know that in I Corinthians
14:34, Paul calls for women to keep silent and in I Timothy 2:12
he forbids a woman to have authority over a man. Yet
in Romans 16:2, he commands the church at Rome (that included
men) to "assist" Phoebe (a woman) in "whatever
business she has need of you, for indeed she has been a helper
of many and of myself also." Paul ordered the church to do
what Phoebe asked! He gives a position of authority to a woman
because she had been a "helper" to him. My
point? The Bible itself displays tension over the issue of women
in ministry, and we therefore should not use it as a club to smack
down those of differing opinions. Just as the Bible leaves room
for interpretation here, so also should we. I'm
not alone in my suggestion that women might be pastor-preachers.
Consider three examples. One,
Promise Keepers (the movement that called thousands of
men to greater commitment to family and church) opened its clergy
meetings to women pastors because, as Bill McCartney, founder
of the movement, explained, "We have learned that 13 percent
of our churches are pastored by ladies." Two,
the Reverend Billy Hybels, pastor of the Willow Creek
Church, an enormous congregation in Chicago's suburbs known internationally
for the "seeker service" trend it started, has said,
"We don't restrict any office or position in the church on
the basis of gender." Finally,
Dr. Billy Graham, when asked by David Frost about women's
ordination, said, "Women preach all over the world. It doesn't
bother me at all from my study of the Scriptures. And there were
many women preachers in the Bible." Each of these three men
is a conservative evangelical. Yet,
each leaves open the possibility of women as preachers. Ironically,
on the same day that the SBC published its proposed revision to
the "Baptist Faith and Message," USA Today carried an
article about Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the famous evangelist.
In that article, Graham called her the "best preacher in
the family." Enough
said. Though I respect the right of those in the SBC to state
their opinions regarding women, it seems that they're trying to
recapture a past age more than they're trying to do a thorough
exegesis of scripture. That is not only impossible but unwise. The
advancement of women in American culture, yes, even as preacher-pastors,
is as inevitable as azaleas at the Masters in April. Yes, we can
always debate our Biblical positions (with each of us finding
proof-texts to show our rightness). But no astute person can doubt
anymore that increasing numbers of churches both inside and outside
the shadow of the SBC will ordain women as ministers. That's a
reality. To embrace it is to feel the gentle breeze of God's moving
Spirit. To reject it is to stand in the face of a swelling tide. July 2000 |