Article: Women in church leadership by Jenny Howard

This article is based on a questionnaire that I gave to four people in my church on the subject of women in ministry and leadership.  They include a male Anglican priest who left the Church of England when a woman vicar was appointed, a woman in leadership running marriage courses and preaching and two other women, a younger church member and a church member with a Catholic upbringing. 

The questionnaire raised lots of interesting issues:

• The main question seemed to be about women having authority over a man rather than women preaching and leading
• Some people had taken the cultural context into account when looking at scriptures, while others had not.
• There was inconsistency in people’s views of what women could or could not do e. g. that women could step up as a leader of the whole church during the interim period until a man is appointed but not permanently, and that women could be responsible for everything when they go to be missionaries abroad but not here at home.
• Some people based doctrine on one scripture, but didn’t seem to consider the relevance of other scriptures e. g. Phoebe and her role in the church, Priscilla and Aquilla and joint ministry, the implications of Jesus first revealing himself to a woman at the tomb
• With a lack of teaching on the subject of women in leadership, the youngest participant had taken on board what is happening in society today with regard to women and their role in leadership, rather than basing her views on the Bible.
• The example of women leaders from the Old Testament and what we can learn from this e. g. Deborah and Esther and whether God called them to lead and preach
• Women in leadership in the 21st  century

So what do scripture, church tradition and contemporary culture have to say about these issues?

In the questionnaires, people raised a number of points related to women preaching and leading in church:

• Women should not preach or teach based on scriptures 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35
• The ‘headship issue’ – women can teach but cannot be overall leaders
• New Testament and examples of women leaders
• Tradition and what has gone before carries as much weight or more than scripture
• Old Testament and examples of women leaders
• The Trinity – women’s permanent subordination to men reflecting the subordination of Jesus to the Father

1 Timothy 2:12 is the passage that is understood by many to prohibit women from teaching and leading. Paul says ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.’ The word he chooses for authority ‘authentein’, has caused much debate and is not easily translated.  Before the 1940’s it was translated mostly ‘to dominate’ rather than ‘to have authority over’.  If we look at the cultural context a possible explanation of why Paul was writing this about the women is because of the cult of Artemis, where women were understood to be superior to men.  Another possibility would be the bizarre Gnostic heresies at that time that the women were spreading false doctrines about. Rosie Ward quotes Linda Belleville ‘If the Ephesian women were being encouraged as the superior sex to assume the role of teacher over men, this would go a long way to explaining 1 Timothy 2:3-14.’ Andreas J. Kostenberger said, ‘The role of women in first-century Ephesus was not sufficiently peculiar to suggest that Paul intended to curtail the role of women in the Ephesian church, but not elsewhere.’ Paul teaches about women learning and up until that point they had not had a deep knowledge of scriptures. If anything, was Paul trying to encourage women to learn? 

In 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 the contentious point is whether women should remain silent in church and whether Paul is addressing the issue of speaking and not leading.  Paul was keen for women to learn but did not want them to interrupt and be socially inappropriate as they would not speak publicly at that time even to their own husbands. The Greek word he uses in this passage was ‘continually speaking up’ and was more about interrupting than speaking at all. The verse goes on to talk about brothers and sisters prophesying (v 36) so Paul cannot be saying that women are meant to not speak at all.

1 Corinthians 11: 2-16 and Ephesians 5:23 are the relevant verses in the ‘headship’ discussion; the Greek word ‘kephale’ meaning ‘head’.   Ephesians 5:23 is aimed at man and wife in the marriage and home but 1 Corinthians 11: 2-16 is implied within the church.  It has been interpreted that the woman cannot be in overall leadership of the church, or a woman can only lead if she is covered by the man as head. The questionnaire from the male leader, spoke about Bob Fulton from the Vineyard movement, who sat behind his wife on a high stool, as she preached so that he was head over her while she was preaching.  Other examples are where a man as head is present during a women’s meeting as a covering for her.  Another view is that the ‘head’ can be interpreted as the one coming first as the source or origin and not as ruler or chief. If Paul was meaning authority of the man over the woman we would have to continue the theme and understand that God has authority over Christ which is not an orthodox understanding of the Trinity.  However, if we talk about origin or source it fits nicely with the theme of the verse meaning that the source/origin of Christ is God.  This cannot mean that the Son is unequal to the Father as this distorts the view of the Trinity but that he is fully equal.

There are other examples in the New Testament that we can look at to obtain the mega-narrative.   Paul referred to Phoebe as a ‘diakonon’, the Greek word for ‘deacon’.  Many bible versions translate this word as ‘servant’,  even though when describing Stephen and Philip the same word is used and translated as ‘deacon’, and when they are called ‘servants’ the Greek word used is ‘doulos’ (Phil 1:1).  In his questionnaire the male leader said a deaconess was not a leader, but a servant of the church but this raised the question of why Paul had called her a deacon and highlighted the point that Phoebe was called a name that would normally be attributed to a man.  He also said in Acts, deacons were involved with the practical things but not spiritual.  J. Lee Grady said, ‘deacons in the New Testament were often powerful ministers who worked miracles when they preached (Acts 8:5-6).’ Priscilla and Aquilla (Romans 16:3) were mentioned by Paul for having a joint ministry. 

We also need to consider the example of Jesus, and how relevant this is to an understanding of women in leadership. Jesus chose to reveal himself first to a woman, Mary, at the tomb.  The male leader felt this was insignificant, whereas I believe this was a clear example of Jesus trying to raise up women onto a more equal footing to men.  We can see a number of times where Jesus does this in his ministry, elevating women to be more equal e. g. Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet while Martha worked in the kitchen (Luke 10: 40-42).  Culturally women did not have positions of authority but Jesus challenged this and allowed women to follow him.

Traditionally women held a variety of leadership and ministry roles in the Early Church.  The Apostolic Constitutions date from the late fourth century and record women deaconesses although others did not allow women in leadership and ministry.  The council of Laodicea disbanded the female leaders in the fifth century and so presumably they existed up until this point.  Montanists were known to have women leaders and Marcions had women in equal leadership to men.  Through history we can continually see how women leaders have been constrained by man-made rules.

E Margaret Howe said,
 

Frequently today the issue of women and church leadership is approached as though women are for the first time in history seeking the right to be appointed to leadership positions.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  Women are simply seeking to re-establish their claim to leadership positions which were clearly theirs in the early centuries of the Christian era.

Augustine had a different view which has not helped this issue when he said ‘Woman is a temple built over a sewer.’

Another argument for women not being in leadership is having to take time out for running a home and raising a family but Catherine Booth was committed to being a wife and mother of eight children while also being an itinerant preacher.

We can also learn from Old Testament scripture.  Numbers 27:1-7 is a great example where Moses talks directly to the Lord and land is given to Zelophehad’s daughters Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, as inheritance from their father as a son would have received.  This was completely against the culture of that time when the Lord gave the daughters what they had requested and something we can learn from today.

J. Lee Grady wrote:

God contradicted centuries of prejudice and wrong-headed tradition.  He made it clear that in His kingdom, women are not afterthoughts or appendages.   They have equal value to men and full rights to His benefits.  When God looks at redeemed mankind, through the blood of Jesus Christ, He does not limit women from full participation in His kingdom purposes.

Another example is Deborah and how she ruled a nation.  The male leader filling out the questionnaire argued that Deborah was an exception and male members failed to step up, that it was the exception and not the rule and that hard cases make bad law.

So what about women in church leadership in the 21st century? Scriptures provide clear boundaries with timeless principles for all generations. Dorothy Patterson said, ‘A wise woman would rather give up an opportunity to show and use her giftedness if by using that giftedness she would risk bringing dishonour to God’s word and thus to him.’ This raises a question though, from my point of view.  Is it not from God that we obtain these gifts in the first place?  In which case how could women dishonour God by using the gifts he has purposefully given to her?  

Rosie Ward said, ‘My concern is that women who do have leadership talent and are called by God should be allowed to exercise their gifts, in a way that accords with the example of Jesus and the teaching of the bible.’ Patterson claims that if we say the instructions given to women by Paul in the first century were not applicable now in the modern era, we are using personal situations to take priority over scripture. She wrote, ‘Although women are certainly not bound by the past and what their foremothers have done, neither do they have the option of revising, updating, or adding to Scripture just because they are part of a new generation.’ Carolyn Osiek argues for, ‘the possibility of the historical reconstruction of the lives of early Christian women’.

New Testament eldership was male and typical of its culture and in my view when Paul refers to the authority of man over a woman it was a cultural reference and not a theological one.  Church organisation is a part of the social condition of the church, and structures of authority are adapted to circumstances.  The responsibility of the eldership of a church remains, keeping the Kingdom of God as its focus, but the way it is provided will reflect the social culture of the time.  Women hold important leadership roles in the secular world and should be able to do so within the church too. Andrew Perriman said ‘there is real danger that the church will find itself perpetuating a social order that no longer has any relevance to the modern world.’ Robert Parham of the Baptist Centre for Ethics in Nashville, Tennessee said that the 15 million member Southern Baptist Convention ‘has pulled up the drawbridge to the 21st century and locked its members into a 19th century cultural castle’,

I’ll end with some recommendations for local churches. Clearly there are different opinions about the roles of men and women in the church. Wendy Virgo makes her view of women in leadership clear when she says about women, ‘she must get out of his way and let him lead’, whereas Rosie Ward said, ‘those who question women’s leadership do so more out of ignorance and prejudice than thought- out conviction.’ Jesus began to change the paradigm showing a new attitude to women and Paul followed.  If we are to be true to scripture then we need to affirm women in every area of the church, including leadership. J. Lee. Grady said, ‘True spiritual liberation is not about overthrowing men or putting women in a place of superiority.  It is about freeing God’s people to obey the Holy Spirit – who works through male and female vessels.’ My recommendations to my church would be to have a non-biased teaching to church members and to give opportunities for women to lead and preach if God has called them, not to take advantage of a situation but to humbly serve in obedience to God.

Through the research for this article my opinion has changed from making a post-modern assumption that women can do anything, to looking at the scriptures with discernment and wisdom while taking into account the social culture and principles of scripture.  My conclusion is that women should be able to preach and lead in church because the scriptures used to argue this point were said with a purpose for the culture and places at that time.  It is not for women to dominate men but to be equal to and to learn and preach from sound doctrine taking into account the seriousness and responsibility of standing firm on scripture. With regard to headship it is my opinion that Paul meant women originate from men and are not to be ruled by men just as God is the source/origin of Christ and think joint ministry, which I feel called into, is biblical just like Priscilla and Aquilla.  For women going into church leadership alone there are unanswered questions that prevent me from drawing a firm conclusion.  In an Anglican context, a woman vicar would come under the umbrella of the local rector or bishop. 

To the men and women that do not believe women should be able to lead or preach I respect your view but ask that you respect women who believe otherwise and do not stand in the way of what God has called them to do for his glory and to further his kingdom.  In my view we have been a Christian tank firing on only half its cylinders and it is time for women to move forward equally with men for God’s purposes on all cylinders to take on this battle field together through his calling and for his glory.

Jenny Howard is studying at Moorlands Bible College - BA (hons) in Applied Theology, doing Church Leadership, Evangelism, Church Planting and Preaching track. This article started life as an assignment for the Church Leadership module.

Comments

[Lisa Malcolm]

Jenny, thanks so much for sharing your article with us! It was really helpful to read through and great to have the main arguments raised in such a concise way.

[Lynda Davies]

Completely agree with you!

[Gulnaz]

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I will wait your reply.

Gulnaz Angel

In Lord Jesus Name ,