All summer here at Christ Church our sermons have been looking at what we believe and why it matters. As an independent, evangelical, non-denominational church, what makes us distinct? We call ourselves “A Wesleyan Faith Community,” which means that we speak with a Wesleyan accent, as it were. We are Methodist in our heritage (being formed out of a departure from the United Methodist Church) and Wesleyan in our theology, drawing from the life and teachings of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement in 18th-Century England. This shapes what we believe and sets us apart from many of the non-denominational churches in our area. 

This past Sunday I preached from 1 Peter 2:4-10, looking at our call as Christians. Verse 9 describes what has often been called, “The priesthood of all believers.” It’s a verse where Peter tells us that every believer is a priest, part of a royal priesthood whose job it is to represent Christ in the world and present ourselves as an offering to God daily (Rom. 12:1). As a part of that priesthood, we believe God calls both men and women into ministry. As conservative Biblical scholar Gordon Fee says, “What is at stake is not whether all people are equally gifted; they are not. What is at stake is whether the Holy Spirit, in his gifting the people of God, ever makes gender a prior requirement for certain kinds of gifting; The Spirit does not.” (Discovering Biblical Equality, p. 241). 

Christ Church is blessed to have some amazing pastors, and Rev. Jen Ryerson is certainly one of them. I believe she is one of the strongest communicators of God’s Word I’ve heard, and her heart for God, her love for Jesus Christ, and her desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit is unmatched. We are so fortunate to have her here! Because of this, it would be easy to say, “Well, we’re going to believe that God calls women into ministry because we love Pastor Jen and we think she’s great and so it must be that way.” That would be a huge mistake; our beliefs about any doctrinal issue should not and cannot ever be based on emotion; we always need to lay our beliefs and thoughts up against Scripture and let Scripture speak to us rather than us speaking to it. Too often the Church has spoken about a theological issue and then tried to get Scripture to fit. Instead, we must always let Scripture lead, with us under its authority and not over it. So, if we’re going to say we believe in women in ministry, it can’t just be because we love Pastor Jen, even though we do!  

On that note, we believe the Bible is clear, from Genesis to Revelation, that God calls both men and women to ministry. In fact, if you believe in the authority of Scripture but don’t believe in women in ministry, you actually have some wrestling to do, just as we have done. There are two main passages in Scripture that seem, at first glance, to prohibit women from leadership in the church, and yet both of these passages contain contradictions when laid beside other texts. And this is not just an “Old Testament vs. New Testament” contradiction, or a “Gospel vs. Epistle” contradiction, these are actually Paul vs. Paul contradictions within the same letters! What we do with these texts will be critical to our understanding of this issue.  

I’m getting a little ahead of myself, though. Let’s start in Genesis, where at creation both male and female were created in the image of God and given joint dominion over the earth (1:26-28). Eve was created to be a “helper” to Adam, a word that has unfortunately been mistranslated by some to mean less-than or submissive to. The Hebrew word here actually means counterpart or partner. In “Stong’s Hebrew Lexicon” we read this about that word: “An indispensable partner who supplies what the man alone lacks; a mutual dependance within God-given roles.” In fact, in many places throughout the Old Testament, this same Hebrew word is used to describe God as he is relating to the Israelites, and no one would argue that God is lesser. It is only after the Fall and the introduction of sin into the world that domination and hierarchy come onto the scene. 

In the Old Testament we see that Deborah was both a prophet and a judge leading God’s people, and Huldah was a prophet who interpreted the Lord’s words for King Josiah. We also see the words from the prophet Joel that Peter used in his Acts 2 Pentecost sermon: “In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy.” 

When we move to the New Testament we continue to see women in ministry roles. Jesus valued women and involved them directly alongside men in His ministry. Luke 8:1-3 is a good example of this: “Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.” After the resurrection, women were the first to proclaim the risen Savior. They were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb, and the message of the Gospel was entrusted to them. 

As the early church was being formed, we see women take on greater leadership roles. From Priscilla, who Paul calls a “Co-worker in Christ” in Romans 16:3 and who preached and discipled men and women at the church in Ephesus (“Women in Ministry,” Dr. Sandra Richter Substack article) to Lydia who became a leader in the Philippian church (Acts 16:13-15, 40) to many other women ministers listed in Romans 16 – Phoebe, a deacon in the church (vv.1-2); Junia, an apostle (v.7); Mary and twin sisters Tryphena and Tryphosa who were all “hard workers for the Lord” (v.6, 12). The entire tenor of the New Testament is one of equality in heirship to the Kingdom. In the New Covenant, all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17) and all are one in Christ Jesus, as Paul writes to the Galatians: “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” (3:26-29) 

Now, let’s get to the two texts that have been primarily used to argue against women in ministry, 1 Cor. 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12. As I mentioned earlier, both have to deal with contradictions that make us take a deeper look at the passages; there’s clearly more than meets the eye here. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 does say, “Women should remain silent in the church. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” And yet earlier in that same letter, Paul says this: “A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering. A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is made in God’s image and reflects God’s glory.” 

We have a couple of things going on here. First, Paul is saying that when women pray or prophesy in worship, they should cover their heads (and that men should not). Paul clearly is saying women are not to remain silent in church. So there must be something going on in the Corinthian church that would lead Paul to give this call for women to remain silent in Ch. 14. 

Dr. Sandra Richter talks about this as the difference between normative passages of Scripture and situational passages of Scripture. Normative passages are for all believers at all times in all places. Situational passages are for some believers in particular situations. This is one of these passages that seems clearly situational, based on what was going on in that particular church at that particular time. If we believe it’s normative, we also must believe that women should always cover their head in worship and that we should greet each other with a holy kiss (16:20). But we understand that there are some cultural instructions that were for that time in that situation. While we don’t know the specifics of what’s happening in the church at Corinth, we can infer from all of Paul’s instructions throughout the letter that the services had gotten out of hand in many ways. According to Gordon Fee, they had apparently patterned their worship after the pagan feasts in the nearby temple, with even drunkenness going on! (11:21). Paul is saying, “Everybody be quiet in the worship service!” He’s trying to get them back from disorder to order. I love what he says as he wraps up this section of his letter in 14:39: “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.” 

Moving on to the 1 Timothy passage. Regarding the church at Ephesus Paul tells Timothy, “Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.” Given what we already know, we have to dig a little into the Ephesian church at the time to see just what was going on. We know this is not a normative passage, as Paul gives some instructions in the verses immediately preceding these that Christians today overwhelmingly see as cultural only to the first century (men are to lift their hands when they pray, women are to avoid gold or pearls or expensive clothes in worship). 

There has been a great deal written about this passage by scholars much smarter than I, so I will just summarize here. The entire letter of 1 Timothy is Paul warning Timothy about false teaching that has creeped into the Ephesian church. These false teachers were leading the young widows astray with false doctrines related to the Greek god Artemis and the Artemis cult in Ephesus. There was a shrine dedicated to her there that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and she was seen as the protector of women, with her worship led by women who were viewed as spiritually superior. These verses by Paul to the church are written to correct this false teaching and bring the church back to the only one worth elevating: Jesus Christ.  

Let me close by saying I realize there are brothers and sisters in Christ who do not agree with this position. There are amazing, God-honoring Christians who attend amazing, God-honoring churches that hold to a position of male-only leadership. I have great respect and admiration for the work they do for the Kingdom and certainly would not allow a difference in understanding on this issue keep me from fellowship with them. This is just one of the areas in which we disagree, and this is one of the things that makes Christ Church who we are. I hope this has been helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me or any of our pastors if you would like to talk it through further.