2011-05-09T06:15:25-05:00

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard a thousand times. Calvinism is a hierarchical system of thought and it is hierarchical in marriage and it is hierarchical in churches. The more one emphasizes God’s sovereignty the more one can emphasize male sovereignty. Therefore, Calvinism is inherently complementarian and that means it will — for those who aren’t complementarian or who think women should be leaders in churches and pastors etc — suppress women in churches.

If you think this, you need to read Ken Stewart’s new book, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition , because he has a whole chapter on that examines the myth that Calvinism rejects gender equality. Got your attention? Read on friends.

What is your experience with Calvinism and women (in the home, at work, ministry)?

“It is hard,” he says to open the chp, “to imagine that anyone would point to the movement in which John Calvin holds such a prominent place and suggest that it had helped to pioneer the advancement of women” (219). And concludes the chp with these words: “The evidence supports the conviction that he [Calvin] encouraged an enlarged role for believing women in society (on behalf of the church) and in the ministries of the church itself” (235). But… but…

… “it is necessary for us now to recognize that portions of the Reformed world today fall well behind Calvin’s own demonstrated sixteenth-century readiness to capitalize on the then-expanding influence of women in kingdom work” (235).

Two probings then suggest to Ken Stewart that Calvin was more open than many of his followers, and that means that those today who think the NeoReformed (or perhaps even better NeoPuritan) groups who are so intent on raising complementarianism in home and church to the front of beliefs and practices may not be continuing the movement Calvin himself began. Here are some elements to consider: (more…)

2011-01-19T07:05:20-06:00

Alan Johnson, well-known and much-loved professor at Wheaton, has edited a collection of stories of well-known evangelicals who have in their own ways changed when it comes to women in ministry. His book has a great title: How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals. In his own introduction, Johnson maps some common themes that he has found in the stories evangelical leaders tell in how they changed their mind.

Are these themes the ones you have experienced or hear about? What else would you add? If you could do one thing to help hierarchicalists or complementarians find a larger role for women in ministries, what would it be?

First, themes about what precipitated change, and I don’t see an order here — rather, what I see in these stories a confluence of dialectical factors:

1. The influence of a strong, gifted woman in one’s life.
2. The impression of the stories of those who changed their minds on this very issue.
3. A more careful reexamining of the whole of Scripture in light of its historical, cultural and broader theological context.
4. The experience of working side-by-side with gifted, dedicated, and called women leaders, teachers, and preachers.
5. The realization that there is a view where head, heart, and Scripture can come together and honestly confront the difficulties of applying a restrictive position consistently.

Women tell their stories and their stories show some common themes too: (more…)

2011-01-17T06:53:44-06:00

Alan Johnson, well-known and much-loved professor at Wheaton, has edited a collection of stories of well-known evangelicals who have in their own ways changed when it comes to women in ministry. His book has a great title: How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals. Every person who is either “for” or “against” increased roles of women in leadership needs to read these stories. Before I get to the names and the stories, I want to sketch Dallas Willard’s introduction.

First a question: Who wants to tell a story about change? What were the “factors” that led you to shift your mind on women in ministry? What do you think of Dallas Willard’s three points?

Dallas Willard, in fact, didn’t change his mind because he always believed in the legitimacy of women in leadership in the church. He grew up in churches where both men and women taught — though the preaching pastors were male. Dallas thinks the passages used by the complementarians are not “principles” but expressions of the principle that all Christians should be all things to all people. (I don’t entirely agree with that term the term “complementarian” is accurate for those who use it since I think most everyone would want men and women to work together for the gospel in a complementarian way. More importantly, that term today means “hierachicalist in role.”)

Willard makes three points: (more…)

2010-11-09T05:15:16-06:00

Robert Putnam and David Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, sketch the facts when it comes to women in American religious communities, and here’s a major conclusion:

Religious Americans have largely accepted the gender revolution, at the same time that many of them, especially evangelicals, staunchly resist the sexual revolution.

Put differently, when it comes to women in ministry and participating more in church leadership there is no evidence of a slippery slope among evangelicals.

When you read this post, what comes to mind about the correlation of trends? Why the disparity between what Christians (evangelicals too) believe and the percentage of women in leadership? How do these numbers explain the rise — or the seeming rise — of those who oppose women in ministry?

What do you think explains the shifts in greater support for women clergy?

Here are some facts:

Between 1970 and 2000 they have mapped trends in feminist views by church attendance, and what they show is that church attenders correlate substantially — uncannily so I would say — with culture at large. Thus, what they are saying is that the church bought into gender transformations. Here are indications of gender transformations in the last thirty years:

Married women should not work: 28% believed this in 1970; 19% in 2000.
Better for a man to achieve; women at home: 70% believed this in 1970 to 42% now.
Wife should help husband’s career, not her own: 70% to 23% now.
Mothers working hurts children: 50% to 23% now.
Women take care of home, not country: 40% to 20% now.
Would not vote for female President: 27% to 8% now.

What about women clergy? (more…)

2010-11-08T05:31:57-06:00

Questions for the post: Are there unnamed women in your church? Are their ministries made known? Are names made known? Furthermore, is there a silencing of the ministry of women in the history of the church in your pulpit and in your Bible/education classes? Put together, while many today decry the unnamed women of the Bible, is there a vibrant and viable presence of women in your church? Are we continuing the “unnaming” by a “silencing”?

From CBE’s newsletter. There’s an issue here. It is not that there are both unnamed men and unnamed women in the Bible, but that there are too many unnamed women. And this tradition has continued, and JoAnn Shade addresses it with grace and generosity; her piece is called “Have You Ever Seen a Lassie?”

Major JoAnn Shade (DM, Ashland Theological Seminary) has served as a Salvation Army officer in the USA since 1978. She is a trained counselor, mother of three, and author of Heartwork of Hope: A Directed Journal and Seasons: A Woman’s Calling to Ministry.

*     *     *     *     *

The Salvation Army in New York City recently celebrated the 125th anniversary of the opening of the work in that great city. It was quite a party and gave witness to the faithfulness of God in powerful ways. But it raised again an issue that has troubled me for a number of years: Why do we continue to refer to the seven brave women who came with Railton as the “seven hallelujah lassies”? Okay, in a pinch it may be a poetic phrase, but this is 2010, and whatever that word may have implied in 1880, my vivid imagination can only draw on my early childhood experience of Lassie, the adorable collie who kept getting lost.

These “lassies” are seven women who left their homes, their families, and everything that was familiar to cross the ocean in hopes of spreading the gospel. They are seven women who have names. Except that it’s difficult to find them. Sixty minutes on the internet could not locate their names. They are unnamed in Soldier Saint, a biography of George Scott Railton, who accompanied them to New York, nor are they named in Red-Hot and Righteous, Diane Winston’s work on the urban religion of The Salvation Army. Edward McKinley names one in Marching to Glory—Emma Westbrook—and describes the group as “stalwart women with great heart but little ability”(15). It finally took an email to the archives in London to find them. So for the record, in recognition of their personhood, the women who came to US shores in 1880 were Alice Coleman, Rachel Evans, Emma Elizabeth Florence Morris, Elizabeth Pearson, Clara Price, Annie Shaw, and Emma Westbrook. (more…)

2010-03-19T00:05:57-05:00

When I was at Synergy conference in Orlando, I gave a plenary address and chose a tricky topic. Kris said “Why?” and then said “Be careful.” My answers, “Because it’s in Paul” and “I will, real careful.” And I tried. And I think it worked. 

But first: great to meet Carolyn James and her husband Frank; wonderful people. Then so many, many others, including outstanding an outstanding talk from Michelle Loyd-Page. Just before I spoke I was upstaged by an outstanding performance by Susan Isaacs, and I’ll be saying more about Susan on this blog soon.
Now for the topic: I was reading Beverly Gaventa’s very fine book Our Mother Saint Paul

when I said to myself, “Perfect. To an audience of women who are interested in ministry, I said, ‘Let’s talk about the motherly images of ministry that Paul uses for his own apostolic ministry.'”

So, here are the points I made, and I really thought the theme worked. One leader even suggested it would work on Mother’s Day. (I don’t know about that.)
1. As mothers, our mutual ministry means nursing
1 Thess 2:7-8 although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became little children among you. Like a nursing mother caring for her own children, with such affection for you we were happy to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

1 Cor 3:1-3: So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people?

2. As mothers, our mutual ministry means birthing.

Gal 4:17-20: They court you eagerly, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly. However, it is good to be sought eagerly for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you. My children – I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, because I am perplexed about you.

3. As mothers, our mutual ministry means participating in cosmic re-birth.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. 8:19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope 8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 8:23Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 8:24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
2009-10-23T00:10:27-05:00

This is getting fun: RJS posts about Dorothy Sayers book and PW, another regular writer here at Jesus Creed, responds … or I should say that RJS’s post generated a reflection by PW.

As the spouse of a pastor, I have often been in discussion with my pastor/husband about this very subject. And, we have recently discussed the fact that he allows me into his head quite often.  In fact, there are times when I will frankly explain to him: when you walk into the church building, do you ever think about what it would be like to be a person with a uterus walking into the experience rather than other male parts? Are you assuming the audience will track with your message, delivery or illustrations if it’s male biased?

However, I know of many PWs who do not dialog in that way with their pastor/spouse. There is no feedback from one of the most important people in the pastor’s world. How is it for you PWs who are female? Do you hold back? Or do you help fill in with living Technicolor those things that your pastor/spouse couldn’t even begin to understand about the audience and the church experience?

Ministry spouses have a great opportunity to dialog with their pastor/spouse and exchange how the message will come across in so many ways. That’s communication–sending and receiving messages. Communication also understands the audience and most congregations are 50% or greater women. I am enjoying RJS’s discussion, “Are Women Human?”

2012-10-10T20:03:19-05:00

Sayers.jpg

Last Thursday (see here) I started a short series of posts focused on Dorothy Sayers’ essays published in the volume Are Women Human?. The first essay in this volume is an address given to a women’s society in 1938.  Sayers starts the essay by relating her invitation to speak to the group and noting that she did not consider herself a feminist and did not wish to be identified with feminism.  She did, however, think that “a woman is as good as a man”, but goes on to explain what she means by this phrase:

What, I feel, we ought to mean is something so obvious that it is apt to escape attention altogether, viz: not that every woman is, in virtue of her sex, as strong, clever, artistic, level-headed, industrious,and so forth as any man that can be mentioned; but, that a woman is just as much an ordinary human being as a man, with the same individual preferences, and with just as much right to the tastes and preferences of an individual.  What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual. (19)

Classifications and generalizations can be useful – Sayers does not deny this – women tend to be smaller, Swedes tend to be blond … we can go beyond this to personality traits and abilities. But  such classifications do not define any individual human, male or female,

What does it mean to affirm (for those of us who do) that all men and women are created equal in the image of God? If you don’t, why don’t you?

(more…)

2012-10-10T20:06:50-05:00

We’ve had extensive conversations on this blog on the issue of women in ministry. The topic comprises the last third of Scot’s book The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible , and is at the root of many of the contemporary conflicts within our church, including those over tribal translations.  I generally stay on the periphery of these discussion because they always leave me feeling sick – and just a little dirty.

But this is an issue that we cannot avoid – not in the context of “Christian Virtue”: and not in the context of “Missional Campus Ministry.” One of the most potent criticisms of the church within the academy is directed at the view of women presented by some who purpose to speak for the church – for God – on this matter. As a Christian, a scientist, an academic, and a woman – I find this conflict particularly troubling.  I have been asked how I can be a thinking woman and a Christian much more often than I have been asked how I can be a scientist and a Christian.

Sayers.jpg

A few weeks ago Scot posted a series in Chris Armstrong’s book  Patron Saints for Postmoderns: Ten from the Past Who Speak to Our Future.  The final “saint” Armstrong highlighted was Dorothy Sayers, a woman many know as the author of the still popular Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels … but who also translated Dante and wrote on theology. Dorothy Sayers was an amazing woman, a trailblazer, and a great thinker. She was far from perfect – but that only makes her human.  Or does it?

There is a short volume Are Women Human? containing two essays by Sayers on this very topic.  Anyone who reads both this book and her novel Gaudy Night will immediately recognize the coherence of her overall view.

I am going to put up a few posts on this book over the next week or so, focused on some of  Sayers’ key points. Today  I would like to put forward a brief excerpt from this book and open the floor for discussion.

(more…)

2009-06-22T06:08:39-05:00

This is a most interesting letter, and one I’d like to hear your response to… This young woman is a gifted preacher and pastor. Churches who are in the search process are figuring out how their congregation responds to a woman preacher by inviting her to fill their pulpit during the search process. What do you think of this approach? And how much does hearing a woman preach impact what congregations think about women pastors? Do you think churches should be more pro-active about having women preach? (By the way, if you heard this friend of mine preach, you’d probably say “gifted by God.”)

Scot,
 
I have received several calls from folks from small churches who need someone to fill their pulpit while they are between pastors.
 
As the calls have come in to me, I am noticing a trend … For instance, the call I received this morning, was from a man working to fill the pulpit in his small church and he said that he is especially interested in having me fill the pulpit early in the process because he “wants to see how the congregation will respond to a female preacher.”
 
In a funny way, I am being “used” as a test run for these small churches to see if they might just not be ready to have a female pastor.
 
It brings me a certain amount of joy to know that God might just be using me to pave the way for a woman somewhere who is being called and led into pastoral ministry by God … who otherwise might not have been called to one of these churches.
 
Anyway, this just made me grin this morning I wanted to share it with you and Kris.
 
A friend
 

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