Women in Ministry and Leadership

Part 1: Serving with Gifted Women in the Church

Some time ago, a mother shared with me a story about how her daughter courageously shared the gospel with her friends at school. One day in class, the ten year-old girl was telling some of her fellow students about her favorite Bible story. When the teacher overheard the discussion, he reprimanded the girl for talking about the Bible at school. The girl responded defiantly by telling the students that she would meet anyone who was interested in hearing about it during recess. Which she did, and they showed up.

Upon hearing this story, one might anticipate this girl eventually serving God in a leadership role within her church, perhaps as a pastor, congregational teacher, or leader in the church. Sadly, however, the leaders of her church believe and teach that these roles are inappropriate for women. Such positions are restricted to men, despite the evidence of women’s giftedness for them.

This view, that certain ministries, roles, and positions are restricted to men, is a form of what is called ‘complementarianism’ or the ‘patriarchal view’ of women in the church. Its advocates do not believe that women are of lesser value or dignity than men, but that God designed women to be subordinate to men in role or function. “Equal in dignity, subordinate in [certain] function(s)” is the usual motto. In particular, women should never operate in positions of authority over men. Complementarians differ over what kinds of activities constitute ‘authority’ and therefore should be allowed versus disallowed for women in the church (e.g., some believe that gifted women should be allowed to preach or lead, others dispute this). However, all agree that women should serve under and be accountable to male leadership.

I am an egalitarian, which means that I believe in the full equality of women and men before God, in the home, and in the church. In terms of ministry in the church, I believe that women should be welcomed and encouraged to serve in all of the church’s ministries, including positions of church leadership and authority, because I believe that one’s giftedness should determine a person’s qualification to serve – not one’s gender*.

I have had the privilege of serving in ministry and leadership with many gifted women. When I was in university, the president of our Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group was a young woman. She led wisely, faithfully, and effectively. During that time, I met my future wife, and we served in leadership together at IVP, the first of many joint leadership ventures to come.

In church leadership (at the ‘elder’ level), I have served alongside women who brought tremendous depth and richness to the leadership teams.

One is a prayer warrior, a woman of wisdom who is an encourager and mentor to many, walking with them and providing discerning guidance. Another is an HR expert in the business world, holding an MBA degree and serving as a consultant to several major corporations as well as non-profit organizations. Her spiritual sensitivity, relational wisdom, and expertise in things like team building, conflict resolution, interviewing, and employer-employee relations were a huge benefit to our church and to the broader Church. Another is a former church planter (along with her husband, though she was the ordained minister), mother of four, who now holds a PhD in Christian Theology and teaches at a seminary. She brought theological depth and a passion for spiritual theology to our leadership team. Another is a wonderful writer and gifted communications expert, who served as an executive at a large non-profit organization, whose spiritual depth, maturity and mentoring wisdom shaped conversations.

Another is a stay-at-home mom who grew up as a missionary kid, trained as a high school teacher, has a graduate theological degree, and in her daily life exemplifies humility, simplicity, hospitality, and charity. Her views helped us maintain perspective and balance in our meetings. Another is a dentist (now retired, and serving in the church in various ministry capacities) who cared deeply for others and served them in practical ways, both at work and in the church. She is the kind of leader that pours into others, offering them support, counsel, and discerning wisdom. Another is a math instructor who taught calculus to engineering students at the University of Waterloo. In addition to serving in leadership, where she often helped move conversations forward though her ability to think clearly and identify the crucial issues, she blessed the church through her gifts in teaching, organizing, and worship leading. She went on to complete an MDiv degree (with no particular career goal in mind) and is a very gifted Bible teacher and communicator. Another is an entrepreneur who runs her own business, sits on numerous boards, has strong strategic leadership abilities, and is a capable preacher. My own wife is a gifted spiritual director, speaker, teacher and counselor, with a keen sensitivity to the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit and an ability to help others discern what God is up to in their lives. She also holds an MDiv degree and works within a well-formed theological framework.

Oh, and the woman in the photo at the top of this post? That’s my current pastor, Cerena Browne, a gifted and inspiring preacher who loves to study the Scriptures and communicate the Word of God passionately and pastorally.

Over and over again, I have found that the presence of women in ministry and leadership enriches the church (or particular leadership teams within the church) in significant ways, adding needed depth and breadth. This is not something new in the history of the church, though unfortunately the stories of women serving in such influential capacities (in the Bible and in church history) have often been forgotten, ignored, or played down. Women bring to the table particular perspectives, experiences, ways of relating (to God and other people), ways of asking questions and solving problems, and unique gift-mixes endowed by the Holy Spirit that are simply lacking in male-dominant (or male-exclusive) ministry and leadership models and practices.

Over the next several weeks I will be sharing why - from a theological perspective - I am an egalitarian. I will offer reflections on a number of biblical, hermeneutical (interpretive), philosophical, theological, practical, and ethical considerations that are relevant to this issue.

Beginning next week, future posts will go live on Wednesday mornings. I welcome questions and feedback, but I won’t post anything that is rude or disrespectful.

My purpose in all of this is not to put down those who are not egalitarians. I respect their views and understand that the Bible is often less than fully clear on this issue (and so disagreements over interpretation are bound to occur). My main purpose is simply to explain my own position, with the hope that: (1) It can be of some encouragement to women who are sensing God’s call to serve in the church as pastors and leaders; and (2) It can offer some perspective to those who are presently thinking through this issue; and (3) as mentioned in my ‘series announcement’ post, I welcome (and so want to model) informed and honest engagement with the Bible, which strives for coherence, consistency, fairness, comprehensiveness, and sensitivity to the breadth and depth of the key questions being posed and addressed (of course, I will fail in this, but it’s what I aspire to - with the help and conversation of others - nonetheless).

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*Note: In this series, I will be using the word ‘gender’ as a synonym for biological sex. I am not seeking to address questions related to ‘gender identity’ in this series.