Facebook Post by Ken Schenck, June 2024. Shared by Marg Mowczko.
I affirm women in all roles of ministry leadership on the following basis:
1. Women arguably play every such role in Scripture except one. That’s the OT priestly role that Hebrews 7 says is definitively fulfilled in Christ (so doesn’t apply to this conversation).
They are apostles (Junia), deacons (Phoebe), teachers (Priscilla), and arguably overseers and elders (Lydia, Priscilla, Nympha). They are supreme political and military leaders (Deborah) and the highest spiritual authority in the land (Huldah). [See also Marg’s article here.]
2. Theologically, women in ministry leadership reflects redemption from the Fall (a clear Christian and kingdom value) and is a natural consequence of the resurrection and Pentecost (Acts 2:17; Gal. 3:28). It also reflects the kingdom trajectory, where women are not “given” in marriage (Mark 12:25).
3. Counterarguments are either unbiblical or single-text prooftexts taken out of context. For example, the Bible never connects the question of husband headship to this question (thus those arguments are not biblical).
- 1 Corinthians 14 cannot be about ministry because it assumes 1 Corinthians 11 where women speak in prayer and prophetically speak in worship.
- 1 Timothy 2:12 is the only verse that even sounds like it would prohibit female leadership and 1) it is about the husband-wife relationship, 2) the verb authentein is strong and shouldn’t apply to men or women in a marital relationship, 3) parts of the verse are unclear (women saved through childbearing), arguably cultural (birth order), and possibly situational (Artemis cult, false-teaching at Ephesus). In short, this verse is unclear and exceptional. You never base a theology on a single verse, especially when your interpretation would conflict with the whole tenor of biblical theology and practice.
- 1 Timothy 3 assumes that most overseers and deacons will be male (and they have been) but says nothing about precluding women as overseers or deacons.
4. Women have played leadership and ministry roles in the early centuries of the church (e.g., bishop as late as the 800s). The Wesleyan Methodist Church supported women’s ordination as early as the 1850s.
5. It is the experience of thousands of women that they are called to ministry (which makes perfect sense). Be careful not to oppose God. Attributing to the devil what is the work of the Spirit is blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
