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.
The Biblical pattern for women's ministry-- limiting or liberating?
Although not all Reform members have similar views on women's ministry, the Reform Covenant states that male "headship" is our understanding of God's way of life for His people. Here, Carrie Sandom, the female students' curate at the Round Church at St Andrew the Great, Cambridge, argues that when women's ministry acknowledges male "headship", the result is liberating.
"But, Carrie, why limit yourself to working just with women? Surely God wants you to use your gifts to build up the whole church?" Just one of the questions that crops up from time to time as I work amongst women here at St Andrew the Great in Cambridge. But it hasn't just arisen here. It was a common complaint in my previous job that women didn't have an "up-front" teaching rôle in the church and same of the people I trained with at Wycliffe Hall (both students and staff) often tried to persuade me that my views on male headship would severely limit my future ministry.
But have they? I left theological college six years ago and was ordained deacon by the then Bishop of London, David Hope. Since then I have worked almost exclusively with women, although the CYFA venture I help lead means I am involved in teaching teenagers of both sexes. But staying within, what I perceive to be, the Biblical parameters for women's ministry has not been at all limiting-- in fact, it is very liberating and frees me to do pastoral ministry in the way that I believe God intended for women.
Male leadership
The principle of male headship was not established by the Apostle Paul in an attempt to restrict women according to the cultural norms and expectations of the first century. He was not a misogynist-- in fact, his inclusion of women as gospel partners alongside him suggests he was a strong proponent of women's ministry! But he was absolutely clear that women should not teach or have authority over men (1 Timothy 2:12)-- not because it was culturally inappropriate at the time but because of the principle of creation order established before the Fall (in Genesis 2).
Adam was created first as leader/provider (he gave the animals their names), and Eve was created second as the only suitable helper for him (she accepted both her generic name from him, as well as her specific name-- see Genesis 2:23 and 3:20). Neither one was superior to the other, both were made in God's Image and both were necessary to fulfil the creation mandate to fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28).
Modelled
This establishes the Biblical principle of male headship which is to be modelled in the church (see 1 Corinthians 11 & 14, Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 2). Men are to take the position of overall leadership and will demonstrate their authority through teaching the whole congregation, while women are to help them in that rôle and, specifically, are needed to teach and train the women. (I would argue therefore that all-male church teams are as inappropriate as teams headed up by women and the ideal is always to have both men and women working alongside each other, with men being in overall leadership.) But should women only ever work with women? Strictly speaking, the answer to this is, of course no! Women are needed in the very important task of teaching and training children and I don't want to underestimate the rôle of both men and women in this vital work. Teenagers and young children need to have godly rôle models to follow, which means we should ensure that there are always men as well as women involved in teaching in the Sunday School, in Pathfinders and in the CYFA group.
But when it comes to teaching adults, Paul makes it clear that women do have a very important teaching rôle, one that men can't share, in the teaching and training of other women (Titus 2:3-5). Which is why, over the last six years or so, I have committed (not restricted!) myself to working with women and find it enormously liberating.
I do not have the weekly responsibility of preparing and writing sermons for the Sunday services but often spend my week digging into the passages that have been preached and talking through any questions or difficulties that may be raised by the women I am meeting with regularly, either in a small group or on a one-to-one basis.
Privilege
It's a privilege to be able to meet with these women and help them to learn from Scripture themselves-- giving them tips on how to handle the word of truth correctly, and see how it equips them for every good work. Sometimes there are particular applications to women that need to be worked through.
Helping women to be effective (as women) in personal evangelism, working out what it means to be godly at work and in their relationships with colleagues and friends, as well as the whole issue of relationships with the opposite sex, are just some of the issues that can also arise. Marriage and motherhood are becoming more and more of an issue for some as the prevailing cultural trends continue to work against what the Bible teaches.
Encouraging the men
Another important aspect of my work amongst women is in helping them to see that they have a rôle in encouraging the men to lead. This is particularly the case amongst students, but it is also something that women of every age and stage should be involved in. Too many women students complain of the typically "wet" and rather passive men in their CUs, without realising that they are partly responsible because they themselves are far too dominant. CUs and churches will continue to be dominated by women until we understand why the men should be taking the lead, and then encourage them actively to do so.
One group of women were initially appalled when I suggested that they shouldn't pray out loud at their weekly prayer meetings until some of the men had done so first. But after agreeing to try it for a few weeks, they realised that the men would pray if the women didn't-- but wouldn't if the women jumped in first! Of course, some women find this sort of thing very hard to accept-- "if I left it to him, it would never happen!"-- but, once again, this is an issue I can talk through with them more easily than my male colleagues can.
So, have my views on male headship severely limited my ministry? Does the Biblical pattern for women's ministry constrict women and make a nonsense of the gifts God has given them? I think not. My only regret is that more women aren't being encouraged to develop their teaching gifts along these lines. Too many women still think that they have little or no contribution to make to the life of the local church. I realise that I have been very fortunate and am hugely grateful to the men who, over the years, have encouraged me to pursue a teaching ministry amongst women-- would that there were more men prepared to do the same for other women.