bobbed hair, bossy wives, and women preachers

Since these are obviously the greatest issues facing the Christian community in the summer of 2005, I decided to write a little about them today.

Actually, this blog entry has been a long time in coming. Perhaps it was the Dr. R. C. Jr. blog-o-versy that made me really think through what I actually believe about women and their roles within the body of Christ.

Maybe it was the other women controversy swirling around in homeschooling circles about the appropriateness of single women attending college or even living on their own and not under a father's or a husband's roof. Thankfully someone is challenging these views and its a group of conservative Christian women no less!

Perhaps it was the cute and stylish bobbed haircuts I was perusing before my recent visit to Denise, my hair stylist. With all due respect to John R. Rice, I believe a woman can be a lovely example of Christian femininity without "her glory" growing down past her knees!

Possibly it was the invitation I received to be a lay speaker at a small country church a few weeks ago, an invitation which I heartily accepted.

It was an unusal Sunday, to say the least, with my daughter's mother-in-law agreeing to play the piano, my whole family and my daughter's in-laws attending, another woman in the congregation who had been a dear friend to my uncle years ago, mothers of former high school classmates, AND the interesting information that their pastor, who was ill and could not attend, hence the invitation to me, is a guy I had dated in high school! The day was a tad surreal in many ways.

Whatever the reasons, I have recently revisited the topic of women and their roles within the church and have come to the conclusion that every Christian who wants to be culturally relevant, which ought to be every Christian, must have a well-reasoned view of women and their ministry callings. To simply take the word of favorite teachers or to come from a prejudiced hyper-patriarchal position is unacceptable and brings harm to the body of Christ.

A long time ago, my husband and I worked through the issues of women's roles within the institutionalized church. We both came to two conclusions: we did not believe that women were called to be elders in the church but we did believe it was ok for a woman to speak to a congregation as long as she does so under the authority of the church leaders. While I am sure some readers will not see this to be a consistent position, a good explanation of this view written by Wayne Gruden can be found at the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website.

In the past 25 years or so, I have, upon occasion and at the invitation of church leaders, spoken at a variety of churches on a variety of subjects. While I have claimed no authority over those who heard my presentations, I know that God has gifted me in public speaking (perhaps called the gift of prophecy) and has given me many great opportunities to use my gifts, for His glory.

Typically, we hear churches handing down the list of all the things forbidden to women. In reality, the list of things that she can do ought to be much longer than the list of things she cannot do. But in many conservative churches today, this is not the case. Too often women are instructed that they are called to nursery duty or potluck patrol simply because they are women. I am still waiting for the exegesis on the mysterious passage where this is handed down to us.

The truth of the matter is that God has given to women all the same spiritual gifts he has given to men. He has also naturally gifted men and women alike in the working out of those gifts. You see no gender distinction in any of the Biblical references to spiritual gifts.

I do believe that there are differences in how those gifts are to be used and in what context God calls someone to use them. But we need to be careful to only speak that which the Scripture speaks and to be careful to not superimpose our own prejudices where they should not be.

Oh, and as far as that bossy wife thing is concerned…..when my husband and I were first married, I told him that the perfect wife was Lucy Ricardo. He replied that the perfect husband was Fred Flintstone. ‘nough said.