Should Antioch Baptist Church select a woman to serve as a minister?
Created for our church’s discussion time on May 17, 2000
By Dr. Rick Jordan, Pastor rwjordan@twave.net
This is a valid question. It is broader than, “Should Antioch select Tammy Condrey?” It is a question that has been a real, honest struggle for some members of our congregation. The question is not directed at a particular person – it is a question that has to do with tradition, timing and Biblical interpretation. To address the concern of women in ministry, I will try to answer some questions that I have heard or heard about.
Q. Is there Biblical support for God using a woman as a minister?
A. Yes, quite a bit.
a. In Judges 4: 4, we read, “Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at the time.” She lead the military strategy as well, so the Bible says, “the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.” The next chapter is known as “Deborah’s Song”, a song of praise to God for His use of a woman to lead His people. Deborah sings, “My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord!” – a good chorus for a minister, male or female.
b. When the Law was rediscovered after years of neglect (II Kings 22), the King Josiah and the high priest, Hilkiah, “went to speak with the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum…She said to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:’” then gave her prophecy. Later, she continues, “Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says…’” and she gives the message, direct from God.
c. According to Genesis 1:26-27, women are created in the image of God just as men are. Genesis 2:18 says that woman is to be a helper for man. The word for helper is the same word used to describe God’s role in Deut. 33:7, 26; Psalm 33:20, 121:2 and 146:5. As a person of faith relies on God for help and assistance, a woman is to serve as a co-laborer (in life and in ministry) with man.
d. Galatians emphasizes that for those who were “baptized into Christ … there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God can call into the ministry whomever God wishes to call. God makes no distinction due to race, social status or gender.
e. Sometimes, God calls a woman to do what is normally seen as a man’s role (as in Deborah the Judge). At other times, God calls a woman to do what only a woman can do. Esther, for example, had influence on King Xerxes that no other person, male or female had. Indeed, her uncle insisted, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (4:14) For Esther not to be in the role of leadership would have been to be disobedient to God’s call on her life.
f. According to Matthew 28:8, women were the first persons to share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection with the other disciples: “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” God could have chosen men to do that. God chose women.
g. In John 4, Jesus dialogued with a Samaritan woman about religious issues as well as personal, spiritual issues. This was not the usual manner of behavior between a rabbi and a woman. (“His disciples returned and were surprised to see him talking with a woman.” v. 27) This woman became an evangelist, urging her whole community to believe in Jesus. Many did.
h. In Luke 10:39, we have another example of Jesus giving one-on-one attention to the spiritual matters of a woman. She “sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he said.” The Jewish religious law explicitly forbade this. Traditional rules that excluded people (Samaritans, women, etc.) never stopped Jesus. Jesus came untying knots of tradition.
i. Jesus continued to buck traditional roles for women by including them as disciples. They were not in the apostolic circle, but were certainly considered as disciples by Jesus. In Mark 3:35, he claimed them as “family”: “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Women were included in the “followers” as Jesus proclaimed, “If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) At the cross, women remained to morn Jesus’ death. Mark comments, “In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.” (15:41) They were followers of Jesus, disciples of his, in Galilee and onward to the very end at Calvary. And, there at the new beginning (Easter).
j. An unnamed woman anointed Jesus in Mark 14. Others protested this woman’s ministry to Jesus. Jesus rebuked them, saying, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me…She did what she could.”
k. In Acts 2, the Spirit of God fell on men and women. Peter saw this as a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, “I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophecy [preach] …Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophecy.” (v. 17-18)
l. Certainly, the three thousand that were baptized following Peter’s sermon included women. They would have been included among those who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
m. The ministry to the poor was recognized by the people of Joppa as being led by a woman named Dorcas (or Tabitha). “In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha…who was always doing good and helping the poor.” (Acts 9:36)
n. When God was trying to help Peter understand that God’s love was for all, he gave Peter a vision in which he was commanded by God to kill and eat non-kosher animals. “Surely not!” Peter argued. But God insisted, “Do not call impure anything that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15) Does God call women? “Surely not!” some protest. But God would say, “Don’t call uncalled anyone that God has called.”
o. Lydia of Thyatira (Acts 16:14-15) was a wealthy, single woman, a “worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message… ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” Paul, Luke and the others traveling with them accepted Lydia’s ministry of hospitality and financial generosity. Her home probably became the preaching and teaching center for the church in Philippi.
p. According to Acts 18, a husband and wife team, Priscilla and Aquila, ministered to Paul. He stayed with them in Corinth for 1 ½ years. They joined him on his next leg of the missionary journey to Jerusalem. Paul left them in Ephesus. After Paul left, Apollos, “a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures …came to Ephesus…When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.” Biblical scholars point out that the leader of teams is named first. Peter is always named first in a listing of the disciples. It is always “Paul and Barnabus”, “Paul and Silas’, “Paul and Timothy”. Having Priscilla’s name given first seems to be an indication that the woman of this family team was the spiritual leader and was the lead teacher to Apollos. Some scholars even believe that she was the author of the book of Hebrews! As Paul concludes the letter to the Romans, he says, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.” (16:3)
q. As Paul continued his journey, he came to Caesarea and “stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven [deacons]. He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy [that is, they were preachers].” (Acts 21:8-9)
r. Certainly, the gifts of the Spirit were not limited to male recipients. Women in Corinth would have had their share of the Spirit’s gifts to be used in ministry: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. …wisdom…knowledge…faith…gifts of healing…miraculous powers…prophecy…the ability to distinguish between spirits…to speak in different kinds of tongues…the interpretation of tongues” (12:7-10) Women in Ephesus would have been included in Paul’s teaching to the Ephesian church: “It was [the Lord] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians 4:11-12) Paul gives no hint that some of these are “male gifts” while others are “female gifts”.
Q. Aren’t there Biblical passages that say women should not be ministers?
A. No. However, there are passages that are often used to argue that women should not be ministers. Most of these are taken out of context – either the social context or the literary context.
a. When we remember that in Biblical days most women were considered to be not much more than property and that most women were kept from having an education, we can understand why some in the early church would have a problem taking women and women’s teaching seriously. Note that the disciples did not believe the women’s report about the resurrection of Jesus - “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense.” (Luke 24:11) When Rhoda discovered that Peter had been miraculously released from prison, she wasn’t believed. “When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening [the door] and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her.” (Acts 12:14-15) In a society where women were not trusted as reliable witnesses, there would not be much confidence in women as teachers or preachers.
b. In other contexts, the unique situations of a particular region lead to social principles that are not binding on all people or times. For example, I Corinthians 11 stresses that men are to be “the head”. Then, Paul uses “head” in literal situations to show symbolic meaning. Men are to keep their head uncovered, women are to cover their heads, when they pray and prophecy (notice that women preach, too.). Men are to have short hair. Women are to have long hair. Clearly, Paul is speaking to a particular cultural context that does not fit in other cultures or times. But, his words were authoritative for the time and place of Corinth, considering their circumstances.
c. Often, persons who try to prove that women should not be ministers will do so by using a Biblical passage that is dealing with a particular social context, while ignoring other statements made in practically the same breath. For example, in I Timothy 2:12, Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” Three verses before this, Paul insists on a code of dress for women: “not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.” (v.9) Obviously, for a modern interpreter to insist on one verse’s truth while ignoring another verse’s truth is to take at least one of those verses out of its social as well as its literary context.
d. Literalism leads to problems, always. For example, some insist that only men may be ministers because the twelve disciples were all men. Does this mean that all ministers must also become Jews first or that the number of ministers should be limited to twelve? Of course not.
e. We must keep in mind the movement of the salvation story. God is moving from the few (Israel and the chosen people) to the universal (God so loved the world); from the Law to grace; from the limitations of human society with its blind spots and restrictions to the full demonstration of equality before God (neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female).
Q. Is this “a Baptist” thing to do?
A. Yes and no. Some Baptist churches choose to call a woman as a minister. Some do not. There have been women in the Southern Baptist ministry for many years. Most serve as chaplains. Many are on church staffs. Some are pastors. It is a Baptist issue only in that it is a local church issue, and we as Baptist believe in “the autonomy of the local church”. That means that no one – not the local association, not the state convention, not the national convention – can tells us what we can or cannot do or believe. So, a Baptist church may select a woman as a minister, but no one can say that it must choose a woman (or a man). This is a local church decision. That is very, very Baptist.
Q. Is this the “right time” for our church to make this decision?
A. Did you pray for the search committee? They have been hard at work for over a year, praying at every meeting and between every meeting that God would lead. Others made that same prayer to God during this time. Did you?
Did you pray for the candidates? Over 50 resumes were received. They were prayed over, and then sorted through with the best of intentions in the hope that God was leading. Candidates were interviewed. They were asked to pray for God’s leadership. They did and then they shared with the committee their leading from God’s Spirit. Our candidate has been praying over this church and over this ministerial role and over her future as a minister.
When the church is praying and the search committee is praying and the candidate is praying, and when everything works out in ways that only God could work them out, then the timing must be right and we are watching God answer our prayers.
