Reform, as a grass roots movement, envisages action coming from members who have thought, studied, discussed and agreed. Discussion papers such as this one are written by individual members for the council of Reform and the wider church. The author alone is responsible for the paper. This paper may be copied freely.
A shared ministry - the best model
Angela Pearce
The vast majority of Christian congregations consist of both men and women. Consequently, the best and most effective ministry any congregation could enjoy should contain both men and women. If that is the case, we need to look at biblical patterns of ministry for men and women.
Equality
In Galatians 3:21-29 the apostle Paul talks about the "oneness", the equality of all those who are "in Christ Jesus", the "baptised into Christ" who "have put on Christ". We are all "sons of God, through faith" or, if preferred, "sons and daughters of God, through faith". Indeed we should have expected that equality from the creation principle in Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them". So equality should never have been in question in the church, and great damage has been done to women down the centuries because this has not been so. Perhaps this should not surprise us either, because the relationship between the sexes has been so damaged by the Fall, Genesis 3:16b. Consequently the church is always going to have to be working out the right relationship between men and women.
Does equality mean we should do the same things?
Equality does not mean sameness. The next chapter in Genesis spells out very clearly that men and women are different. The medieval theologian Peter Lombard's comment on the story of the rib (Genesis 2:20-25) is most moving and memorable. He comments that God did not make woman from man's head for her to dominate him, nor from man's foot for him to tread her under foot; but from his side so that he might hold her close to his heart and cherish her. Lombard's comment reflects God's pattern for marriage, which is the story's first context (when .... "a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh". Genesis 2:24), but the context is also that of helping, "... I will make his helper fit for him". Genesis 2:18. And if helping, where better than in the ministry?
Men and women are different, so their rôles should reflect their God-given differences. The feminist seems to think that difference equals inequality. It doesn't. The Biblical teaching is equal and different. This difference means that, in partnership across the sexes in the church, the women is the man's helper. One rôle is not inferior to the other. Consider a lock and key. Both are useless without the other - though a lock would keep something secure, so long as it never needed to be opened! Perhaps that's a hint of what's happened in the church for many years!
Complementary rôles
The complementary rôles of men and women are best seen in a happy and fulfilled marriage relationship. In Ephesians 5:21-33 Paul expounds Genesis 2:24. "Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh", and he extrapolates to Christian marriage and explains that it should reflect the relationship between Christ and the church. First, we are all in relationship to Christ, whether men or women, and out of reverence for Christ all, including husband and wife, are to be "subject to one another". That means the man can't tread the woman under foot, he can't have her "under his thumb". He's not meant to. He and she are under Christ. First then - equality (v.20).
Only then the difference. In marriage, in their complementary roles, the husband's role mirrors Christ's, the wife's mirrors the body of Christ. So the husband's love must be sacrificial, total and utterly faithful. In response to that initiative the wife's love must also be sacrificial, total and utterly faithful. Should there be disagreement in love after mutual submission, the wife must be subject to her husband. Happy the marriage where there is agreement about how a decision is reached when, even after mutual submission, there is no agreement.
So how does this work out in Christian ministry? The same principle holds since woman is man's helper. In any team there must be mutual submission across the sexes - no heavy-handed domination. (Ephesians 5:21). But, as Christ is the head of the church, a man should be head of the team and take final responsibility for decisions. (Ephesians 5:23 and 1 Corinthians 11:3).
A lot of people think that the apostle Paul was anti-women, and they quote 1 Corinthians 7:1ff, "It is well for a man not to touch a woman". It is presumed that this is Paul's own teaching. However, the verse begins "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote" and considering the immorality in Corinth and in the church, it may be that the phrase attributed to the apostle, was in fact suggested by the church in their letter, and that v l should read "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote - "it is well for a man not to touch a woman" ..." This interpretation is possible because the original Greek was in capital letters and without punctuation as we know it. If this is so, Paul is writing about the rightness of Christian marriage despite his own bias to celibacy (v.7 "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God ..."
In fact Paul is way ahead of his time, because v 4, having said that the wife does not rule over her own body, the husband does, he then adds the bombshell "likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does". I wish that the church had remembered and taught that down through the centuries. Paul clearly gave respect and status to women.
This same relationship of mutual respect can be worked out in the ministry. All ministers are subject to one another, so women should have an important say in staff meetings; where there is unresolvable disagreement the decision must be taken by the leader of the team who should be male. I believe there was just such respect between the apostle Paul and the first European Christian, the businesswoman Lydia. Lydia may or may not have been the leader in the group of Philippian women who met to pray by the riverside, (Acts 16:13) she may have been in charge of her own household (v 15), she certainly persuaded Paul and Luke and possibly Barnabas also, to stay in her household. In addition when the evangelists had received their apology from the magistrates who had caused them to be beaten and locked up, they first visited Lydia, then they saw and exhorted the brethren, (i.e. the infant church). Though possibly the best educated and richest person in the church, nowhere are we told that Lydia was the leader of the church, nevertheless she would have been an important and respected member.
Lifestyle and ministry
In Paul's letter to Titus, chapter 2, the apostle spells out how Christian men and women should live. Both older and younger men are to be temperate and self-controlled, matching his instruction that women must not be slaves to drink. In addition the women are not to be slanderers, just as the men are to be serious. Both are to be sensible and the older women in addition should "... teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind and submissive to their husbands, that the work of God may not be discredited". So it would seem that the primary responsibility for teaching women is given to women. What a privilege, what a deep insight, especially in these days of militant feminism, when many young Christian married women don't want to be "domestic" or submissive to their husbands! Many will at least listen to such instruction from a woman, whereas they might only pretend to listen if it was given by a man, or even worse, it could cause deep resentment, and the instruction would all too often simply go in one ear and out the other. We should not devalue the privilege; because men and women are equal, teaching women is not inferior to teaching men and, of course, teaching men is not inferior to teaching women.
Lastly there is the issue of women preaching to the gathered church, (1 Corinthians 14:34 & 35). If "keep silence in the churches" means just that, then women should not read the scriptures, pray or do anything else vocal when the church of God is gathered.
Yet in verses 26-32 Paul does not restrict prophecy and speaking in tongues etc., to men. However, the Greek can mean chatter. In the synagogues of the day the women sat separately from the men, they tended to chatter through the service, perhaps only about something as harmless as children and swapping recipes!
But, they were there for worship, so they should be quiet, listen, begin to use their minds and, if they did not understand, ask their menfolk later. All perfectly reasonable. However, it is impossible to argue conclusively one way or another.
Therefore, if both the head of a woman's ministry team and (if she is married), her husband agree that she, a woman, has the gift of preaching, then she can preach, or, if they agree, she can lead in prayer or read the scriptures. Very often male preachers, when expounding the scriptures, only give a male perspective. They may well be unaware of this, but the women in the congregation will not be. Conversely, a woman's exposition will inevitably be slanted to a female point of view. Balanced exposition needs the insight of both men and women. It makes good sense and it seems extraordinary that it has taken us so long to see it. It should, however, always be clear that the woman is preaching under man's authority, just as a curate, male or female will be preaching under the vicar's authority, 1 Corinthians 11:5. Paul himself did not permit women to teach or to have authority over men (1 Timothy 2:12) and he enjoined silence presumably in mixed company. However, in verses 8-11 of 1 Timothy 3, he talks about deacons and includes women specifically. The word used is "gunaikas", which means either wives or women. The REV says "the women likewise must be serious" and the NEV says "their wives ...". There is no personal pronoun in the Greek so although the word can mean wives, it cannot mean their wives. And so we may conclude that Paul's taboo was not universal in the church, and that there were women deacons who may have had authority to speak to the assembled church. It is quite clear that a presbyter has to be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2) and this is a minimum requirement, while the minimum requirements for deacons are set out in vv 8-10. The first example of deacons in Acts 6 is verse 2 and 3 where they had to serve in a very practical way. From the example of Stephen we see that this minimum requirement did not restrict the use of other gifts.
That women did pray and prophesy is clear from 1 Corinthians 11:5, where the chapter continues that "the woman is the glory of man" (v.8) and the "woman was created for man" (v.9). She must, therefore, demonstrate she is under his authority.
Some practical implications
So much for the theory. How does all this work out in practice? It seems to me that the practice will be different for married and single women, and different at different times in a married woman's life. I will only presume to explain how my husband and I sought to obey God.
I was converted at university and very soon afterwards called quite clearly to "full-time" service. I thought that this service would be abroad, and expected that, after teaching science for two years I would go to Bible college and then abroad. I expected my missionary training to equip me for evangelism and pastoral care (in both of which I was already fully involved) and that if there were no male missionaries where I was sent, I and a female co-worker, would have to plant a church ourselves as so many women have done before. I expected that we would seek "to do ourselves out of a job" and, as soon as possible, hand over leadership to an indigenous male Christian.
In fact the scenario was simpler because the Lord led me to marry an Anglican clergyman who believed in shared ministry and was called to the East End of London. We have brought up four children in the East End and the family has been a real missionary family - fully involved in the work. From those wonderful years of living in Hackney and seeing God build three healthy churches almost from nothing, I am convinced that a Christian home is the most powerful evangelistic force excepting only in supernatural outpourings of the Holy Spirit. My responsibilities were domestic - running an open house and helping in the youth club. Because of the youth work our home was always filled with unchurched young people, who, once converted (or interested) came to my teenage Bible study every Thursday evening in our sitting room. In the two or three years near the end of the nine years in our first parish, that teenage Bible study had an average attendance of thirty, mainly boys, and most stayed on until gone midnight so hungry were they for teaching from God's Word. I also began and led a young Mum's Bible study. Nearly every Mum who came was converted, and so, equally wonderfully were their husbands after them.
After nine years we moved to our next door parish. My new contemporaries were out at work because their children were older, so the family, and the community to which we belonged, agreed that I should go back to college to do a BD preparatory to ordination as a deaconess. The Lord provided me with a dear widow in the parish who was delighted to keep house from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm while I was away. I walked with my youngest to school before going to college and was home before he arrived with his friends at 3.45 pm. After ordination all my children had arrived at secondary school. At the same time my ministry in the parish expanded to include preaching and leading home groups. I was also appointed as acting chaplain, (the "acting" being removed when I was ordained as deacon) and head of religious studies at a church East End Comprehensive School. The result is that I have a very full and a very rewarding ministry both at school and in our most recent parish at Limehouse. My role is still domestic. I run a house that is home to two pastoral assistants, we still believe that hospitality is vital in evangelism and we do as much as we can. The house is still often full of teenagers but now the pastoral assistants are responsible for them - not because they are male but because they are young! In the school holidays I attend staff meetings. I lead a Mum's group (I've dropped the "young"!) and a house group and I take my turn on the preacher's rota. I also visit locally. I am in fact an NSM (non-stipendiary minister) dividing my time between school (majority), parish and home. The latter two areas are shared with my husband who is team leader. It is a very busy life, very satisfying and I believe God's plan for me.
This is of course only one example of how a woman in ministry has worked out the biblical principles. Each minister, each team, must grapple with the principles for themselves. The ministry of a married woman will include the privilege of looking after her husband and children, which will inevitably include anxiety about worldly affairs, (1 Corinthians 7:34). Those called to be single will be spared many of these anxieties, and will be more free to be devoted to the Lord in body and spirit, (1 Corinthians 7:34). The principles have been given us to enable us all, male or female, young or old, married or single, to use to the full, our different God-given gifts. Let us not under-rate either men's or women's ministry.