The Role of Women In The Church

It seems at least once a year, the internet explodes to tell women that they have no place in church leadership.

What has always confused me about such forceful arguments against women in church leadership is that such arguments never say WHY women shouldn’t be in leadership. They only ever say THAT women shouldn’t be in leadership, then use scripture to justify that position.

These arguments will warn about “violating God’s Word” or that “allowing women to lead will lead to the downfall of the church/society/family etc.” In my opinion, these arguments are as false as they are flimsy. These beliefs can also have deeply harmful consequences towards girls and women within Christian circles.

To hold onto these forceful positions, one must ignore the reality that over 50% of the titles used for God in the Old Testament are feminine. Jesus even describes God as a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings in both Matthew and Luke.

One of the feminine names for God, “El Shaddai”, appears 48 times in the Bible. This name means “the nurturing one” or “the breasted one.” According to Exodus 6:2–3, Shaddai was the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This name is used in moments like when God is telling Abraham that he will have a son.

El Shaddai is the one who cares for Hagar and Ismael when they were cast out by Sari and Abraham. Similarly, when God tells Jacob to be fruitful and multiply. Situations that directly involve the care, protection, flourishing, and the love of persons. In these moments, God is displayed parenting humanity as our mother.

If we have discomfort ascribing this foundational biblical characteristic to God, what does that say about us? What does that say about our perspective of God that cannot have feminine attributes? What does that say about how we truly feel women? Furthermore, what does it say about the value we place on men and women? Is it equal? Is it divine?

The truth is, to downplay the feminine aspects of God is to downplay the full image of God. For God made humanity in God’s own likeness, “male and female” the scriptures say. Moreover, downplaying God’s feminine attributes directly results in downplaying women. When we don’t see the feminine attributes of God we won’t see God in femininity, we will begin to see God as only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but not the God of Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel. Our vision of leadership must also be shaped by the full image of God, not just half.

To add to the confusion these forceful arguments is that these patriarchal traditions read the same scripture that includes leaders such as Deborah, Miriam, Mary the mother of Christ, Priscilla, Euodia, Syntyche, Junia, Phoebe and many others. Yet, these leaders did not lead to the downfall of Israel or the church.

In fact just the opposite happened. Israel and the early church were strengthened and empowered precisely because these women lived into the call of leadership God had placed on their lives, leading and teaching even the men over which they had authority. The reality is, the church would not be here today if it was not for women in leadership.

This is one of the primary reasons I am a pastor in the Wesleyan tradition, which has been ordaining women as pastors since before women had the right to vote in the United States. In fact, we’ve been ordaining women since before the United States was the United States. We do this because we follow the ancient tradition of the early church which elevated both men and women into positions of leadership.

It needs to be understood that women served as pastors, prophets, elders, evangelists, priests, and bishops in the first 5 centuries of the early church. (History: https://rb.gy/n6s5xz (archaeological: https://rb.gy/w7op7x).

This includes the churches mentioned in scripture. The New Testament passages that clearly reveal the leadership of women in the church can be seen here: (https://rb.gy/i7mpjb).

So often, the few scriptures in all of the Bible that speak correctives towards women in the church are plucked out to condemn women in church leadership as a whole. Verses like 1 Timothy 2:12 are used so haphazardly while ignoring the historical context of why Paul is saying what he is saying in that particular context the first place. Ignoring things like the role of goddess worship, elitism, and classism that was so pervasive Ephesus, the context of Paul’s letter to Timothy. It also ignores the reality that Paul appointed women like Pheobe to be pastors during his ministry (shorturl.at/intZ7).

What is worse, such verses are used to interpret the whole of scripture, including how all the women leaders in scripture are read, rather than the other way around. Such scriptures are used to even justify a revisionist view of church history, as if women never lead the church at all. Either ALL women must keep silent in church, and Paul violated it by appointing Phoebe as a deacon (Romans 16:1–2), and God violated it by calling Deborah to be a judge over all of Israel, or perhaps we are simply reading 1 Timothy 2:12 incorrectly within its historical context.

In reality, it was only after the patriarchy of emperor Constantine‘s Roman Empire that the church began to subjugate and relegate women to “lesser roles.” This was not part of the original Christian witness in the world at all. The subjugation of women began with the heresy of a “Christian empire.” A lot can be said about the consistency of this trend, of how patriarchy is so tied to Christian nationalism and imperialism throughout history, but I will leave it here for now.

So, all this to say, when a theological tradition discredits our sister’s call to ministry and God’s call on their life to lead and preach, and it uses scripture and theology to justify it, it is important to know that it is simply justifying a kind of Christian patriarchy, rather than the historical church or the authentic biblical perspective.

What is more, it relies solely on a theology that begins AFTER the fall of humanity rather than a theology that begins at the creation of humanity in the image of God (Genesis 3:16). A creation that is made accessible and redeemed through Christ’s death and resurrection. To subjugate women is actually supporting the curse of humanity through sin rather than to upholding the original blessing of God that we were given “in the beginning” and restored for us through Jesus Christ! In whom both male and female are made one (Galatians 3:28).

Not to mention, all four Gospels end by Jesus sending women to preach the good news of the resurrection. Jesus is the actual Word of God as John’s Gospel tells us (John 1:1). So, when people ask “what does the Word of God say about women in leadership?” You can answer, “the Word of God (Jesus) empowers and calls women to lead and preach.”

I pray for a day that my sisters no longer have to defend their God given call to lead simply because of their gender. I simply cannot imagine how exhausting, mentally straining, and dehumanizing it is for my sisters in church leadership to see such harmful rhetoric surface every time a woman is elevated to a position of leadership.

Moreover, my heart breaks to think of how patriarchy has been allowed to not only co-opt Christian institutions, leading them to mistreat, dehumanize, and abuse women, but policy issues in our country that do the same. Because of that prayer and heartbreak, I am always deeply thankful when churches of any theological stripe live into the historical, biblical, ecclesial, and eschatological reality that creates a culture where both our sons AND our daughters thrive in harmony and equity, peaching, leading, and prophesying as one together (Joel 2:17; Acts 2:17).

If you are looking for further reading on this topic, here are some resources I recommend:

If you haven’t checked out the Junia Project, I highly recommend it for all your questions about scripture passages that are often used against women. I would recommend starting with two articles. The first is called, “5 Reasons to Stop Using 1 Timothy 2:12 Against Women.” (shorturl.at/bdeKV). The second is called, “5 Myths of Male Headship” (shorturl.at/ilvOR).

One of the most powerful books I have read recently on the topic of how the patriarchy has influenced modern Christianity is, “The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth” by church historian Beth Allison Barr If you haven’t yet read this phenomenal book, I highly recommend reading it when you are able. (shorturl.at/ceIVZ)

My good friend Meghan Tschanz wrote an incredibly empowering book called, “Women Rising: Learning to Listen, Reclaiming Our Voice.” I would encourage you to check it out as well. (shorturl.at/AS028).

In a recent sermon series, I preached on eliminating the patriarchy in Christian circles. You can listen here: (shorturl.at/dkryA). My sermons are also updated on this podcast every week if you would like to subscribe and follow along.

I’m also planning on reading the book called “Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts” by Lucy Peppiatt. (shorturl.at/aOSW0)

I also wrote about this in a recent newsletter. If you are interested in signing up for my free weekly newsletter, you can do that by clicking here: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page