If men and women are truly equal in the sight of God, why are so many churches dominated by male leadership? Is this what God intended for His church? Or are churches with only men in leadership misreading the Bible in how they have given out leadership and teaching roles?
We’re in the middle of a preaching series at NewLife on the Bible and gender, trying to understand what the Bible has to say about the role of men and women in the church, in marriage, and in society (you can listen to the sermons online at www.newlife-glastonbury.org). If you’ve listened at all to the messages, you know that this is a complex issue that mature Christians have disagreed on over the years. Our church believes the Bible is God’s Word and our authority for faith and practice, and so we take seriously what it has to say about men and women, from the Genesis creation account, to the way Jesus treated women, to the teachings of the apostle Paul on the subject, to the examples of men and women throughout the pages of the Bible.
Even though we hold a high view of Scripture, there are three other voices that can inform a particular view on the Bible and gender. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral, credited to John Wesley, the 18th century leader of the Methodist movement, is a model of theological reflection which theorizes that people of faith use four different sources in coming to their theological conclusions:
Scripture – what does the Bible say about the issue?
Tradition – what does the past two millennia of church history say about the issue?
Reason – what does our rational thinking say about this issue?
Experience – what has our personal experience as a Christian taught us?
This model can be helpful in understanding the differences between many strands of Christianity. For example, Catholics place a high value on both Scripture and tradition, believing that the teachings of the Popes are just as important as the teachings of the Bible (which is why sometimes there is such extra-Biblical emphasis on things such as the saints, adoration of Mary, purgatory, sacraments, etc.). So-called “liberal” churches place a high value on reason, which can lead to a downplaying of the miraculous elements of the Bible or an acceptance of cultural practices that may contradict the Bible. Many Pentecostal churches place a high value on experience, believing that many manifestations of the Spirit are legitimate, even though they may not be found or emphasized in the Bible (e.g. holy laughter, being slain in the Spirit). Evangelical churches like our own try to treat Scripture as of primary importance, and the other three sources as all of secondary importance. In other words, we believe that we can learn a lot from tradition, reason, and experience, but if they contradict the Bible as we understand it, then the Bible takes priority.
All this introduction serves to bring us to this question: what do we learn about the roles of men and women in the church when we take into account tradition, reason, and experience? Recognizing that none of these trump Scripture, nevertheless, does looking at these three sources influence us in any way on the question of whether God’s will is for both men and women to fulfill all roles in the church?
I think I can deal with the “reason” and “experience” issues fairly quickly. My experience, and that of many today, is that we have a lot to learn from both godly men and women, and that to silence the voice of half of God’s people in church or in leadership is to weaken the church. Some may argue that their experience is that allowing women to be in leadership will cause fewer men to participate in church or to step up to leadership roles. However, if men are insecure about sharing leadership with women or resort to passivity in the face of assertive women, that is hardly grounds for banning women from leadership.
As for “reason,” most rational thinkers would agree that men and women can complement each other well as leaders and teachers, having observed this in many secular professions. In fact, many who believe that women should not function as pastors, teachers, or elders struggle to understand why God would make it this way when there are many women who are gifted leaders and teachers. Therefore, I would argue that both experience and reason heavily support an egalitarian point of view, that church roles should be distributed on the basis of spiritual gifting, not gender.
The tradition issue (what church history has to teach us), of course, is much more complicated. My hope is to raise the important questions in today’s post and then spend next week answering the questions, because I do believe we can learn something significant from examining church tradition. I think this is a crucial thing to do in the discussion we’ve been having, because I would argue that many evangelical Christians assume the following three things:
1) The church has traditionally held that only men can be pastors, teachers, and elders
2) The increase in women pastors, elders, and teachers is due more to the influence of secular feminism than it is to Biblical scholarship.
3) Therefore, a Biblical church will resist cultural influence and allow only men to be pastors, teachers, and elders
Does this resonate with you? Have you heard this argument before, or do you believe it yourself? I have found that many churches and Christians, when faced with the complex issue of gender roles in church, would rather err on the side of “men only” leadership, because “that’s the way it’s always been.”
But is that the way it’s always been? And if that’s the way it’s always been, are there good reasons that it has been that way?
Next week I’ll do a more thorough analysis on how church tradition has handled this issue. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts on how reason and experience influence your views on the roles of men and women in the church. Bible and tradition aside, what has been your experience of “men-only” church leadership? What has been your experience of men and women working together in leadership, whether in the church or in society? Do you see any rational basis to exclude women from positions of authority or teaching in the church? If you have any thoughts or questions, please post your comments so that we might learn from each other on this subject.
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