Disclaimer/Trigger Warning(!): I don’t usually include these at the start of my BLOGS, however the nature of this piece may call for it: I am writing as a response to the Southern Baptist Convention’s actions and approach, and the subsequent “chest beating” of other “self-appointed evangelical gate-keepers” who jump on the band wagon. This piece is therefore written in response to the extreme views espoused online that are harmful and hurtful too many. It is not intended as a way to outline a fully fledged view of my own (although I might follow up with if time permits), nor is it intended as a conversation starter with those genuinely interested in a discussion. If that is you, you are clearly not a ‘chest-beater’ , and I’d love the opportunity to chat. If you are a chest-beater, well let’s get together anyway and I’ll beat mine too.
Women in Ministry: Southern Baptists, Witch Hunts, and the Evangelical Gate-Keepers (JMs)
A few weeks ago in a move made by the Southern Baptist Convention that was both vicious and vacuous, churches with female pastors were excommunicated from membership. This move was not insignificant: the SBC are a 13 million-member juggernaut, and so is bound to create some waves.
Sure enough, the issue of women in ministry is getting a lot of airplay especially among chest-beating conservative evangelicals, who as a breed tend to more actively promulgate their views on social media; where their voices are persistent, proud and platitudinous, their arguments usually boiling down to variations of "the Bible says so!" with other peacocking and proclamations about manhood and womanhood.
Whilst their arguments vary in scope and application, their substance is simple: women cannot participate in all areas of ministry because of their (*ahem) womanhood. A statement made plausible by a literal (yet selective) reading of certain passages in the Bible which at face value seem to support this, but upon an informed and intelligent reading yield many possibilities which, in my opinion, better fit into the Bible's overall scheme of humanity and salvation and practice.
Perhaps I'll expound those Scriptures in a separate post, but for now I prefer to point to the work of those more intelligent and credentialed than I: N.T Wright, Scot McKnight, & Gordon Fee among many others. The open mind will not necessarily arrive at the same opinion but will at least be convinced of other possibilities; and thereby be open to genuine discussion, prayer, and having at least a hint of humility. As for the closed mind I can offer nothing further except for the small red dot at the top left of your browser. I mean, I could challenge you to a duel, but alas those days are no more (sad face). BLOG duel perhaps?
Back to the SBC though. I think we can agree they don’t fit the “hint of humility” category. The excommunication was measured and has been coming for some time. The recent move only being one further advance in a war that has been brewing for over a century. The current Baptist Faith and Message (2000) states: "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
Although in the preamble, they stress this is “only a guide… having no authority over the conscience” and “are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought,” in practise it is no longer the case. Not that there was ever such freedom of thought. What of the women who in the “authority of their conscience” perceive their gifting as a call from God to actually use it for His glory? (Imagine that!)
Well, SBC President James Merritt (from 2000-2002) stated that while some women may believe they are called to preach, "they are misled, because God is bound by his own word not to issue a call that is unbiblical." Wow. He doesn’t expand on who is doing the misleading here, but with gifted women labelled essentially as delusional at best (having heard wrong) or demonic at worst (having heard correctly but from the wrong source) this quote is neither wise nor winsome. And that's before we start on his comment about God being “bound” ... I don’t know about you, but I get the feeling we are barking up the wrong tree if we are blaming any issue on God's limitations!
Anyway … I do applaud the SBC for not leaving these women (whose giftedness is not denied) without direction, for they are offered the following helpful guidance: "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband … and has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation." This is indeed a noble calling - for men and women alike in my opinion - however it begs the question.
What of the single, the childless, the widowed, or those gifted for ministry or other careers? Well… um, (*keeps scrolling through the BFM2000) nope, nothing. Sorry. Maybe find another church? I don’t say this light heartedly as this has been the reality of many women who have been forced out of positions in SBC churches and seminaries due to increasing discrimination, at great cost to family and friends and career and calling.
So, regarding the SBC’s view, did we have prayer (probably), discussion (definitely), a “hint of humility” (hardly)! More like the height of hubris! Actually … maybe not exactly the height. There's another JM to contend with yet.
Just like the maxim "a door opened for a demon invariably lets in another," a video by John MacArthur slithered its way into the algorithm of my news feed, catching me unawares. He says: "women pastors and women preachers are a disgrace and they openly reflect opposition to the clear command of the word of God"... Clear command? I guess the pastors and scholars and theologians who disagree aren't so smart after all. I should probably just listen to JM for all of my theological insights from now on. But which one? James Merritt or John MacArthur?
Merritt asserts that women don't hear right from God and MacArthur asserts that they do and choose to rebel. I just can't choose! Let's split the difference. I call BS on both. Pluck them out of our generation and send them back a few hundred years and they'd be screaming 'witch!' and rallying the troops. Okay okay, too far. The witch-hunts were responsible for the execution of something like 50,000 women, this is no way that extreme.
Or is it? Do we know the opportunity cost in unsaved souls by depriving the church of its gifted women ministers and leaders? How many thousands will miss out on listening, attending, reading and responding to the Word due to churches limiting the roles of those serving not by giftedness but by gender? I know my own faith-life would be poorer for it.
But hey, it's not the first time strong, vicious, arrogant language has been used in the name of the Bible to support shameful behaviour. In our not-to-distant past the Bible was also used by some to support slavery, until those passages in the Bible fell into the that was then, this is now, category of Biblical passages. (Not that the Bible EVER condoned slavery, that is a topic for another time, my point is that Context matters!) Of course many people spoke up about the injustice, and this in the midst of the American civil war which meant treachery and death depending on the side of the state lines you fell. Speaking up could get you killed, yet people did anyway.
Now speaking up simply gets you cancelled, which must be just as effective because not many people are doing it. My social media feed is full of the chest-beaters posting videos, the comments' section full of vitriol towards those who would dare question them. But where are the other voices? Probably busy tending their households because they see through the cultural imposition (masquerading as Biblical teaching) that says it’s the wife’s job (gasp).
Let's face it, the evangelical cancel-culture is strong. As a male pastor I feel pressure to not post this article. The thing is:
1) I put my principles above my pay;
2) I have a wife who is a gifted pastor and daughters for whom I want a better future;
3) (admittedly) I find the chest-beaters obnoxious and irritating (what can I say?), and;
4) I find this quote convicting: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke).
So where are the good men? Who is speaking up on this?
It seems that many good men prefer to be Switzerland when it comes to this issue, probably because they simply don't have enough skin in the game to warrant shaking the tree. Or they're too nice to say something that another person might be offended by. Or they've got too much to lose.
Maybe I'm not nice enough, or smart enough to keep my mouth shut (probably both true). Or maybe nice gets us nowhere. Jesus wasn’t always nice. Much evil occurs due to niceness. Why do pastors have to be nice? Men and women of God need a fresh boldness in my opinion. God gives us minds to think and mouths to speak.
Yet I will also say this: there is reason to hope. Not all who oppose women in ministry are chest-beating self-appointed gate-keepers to the kingdom of God. In my experience, Godly, sincere men and women are also led to this belief. Among them there are those who are open-hearted and genuinely seeking clarification. For I too was one of them only a handful of years ago, being in a conservative church with no other reference or theological training, for me too it seemed to be simply "what the Bible said."
My views changed over time as I studied the Bible in its context, along with studies in theology and church history and ministry and hermeneutics. The Bible contains many bold women who lead, teach, plant churches, and proclaim the Gospel - it was, after all, women who first preached the resurrection! I also spent years working in ministry alongside gifted women, learned from gifted women Professors, and received a call to pastor with - alongside as equals - my wife, where to this day we serve in way that complements each other's gifting and in a ministry which would have a deficit if either of us left.
What a privilege it has been, having Godly women in my life alongside Godly men! I wonder if at the end of it all, I will be barred from heaven for not interpreting those Bible passages in the same way as the honourable JMs do? I wonder if God is upset at me for not heeding the wisdom of one particularly zealous church elder who screamed at me "you need to rein your wife in!" (as I handed in my resignation at that particular church).
Or I wonder instead if God is pleased with these women for using the gifts that He gave them, for preaching the Gospel and expounding the kingdom of God, for bringing freedom and love to their churches, seminaries, households, and communities; all in the face of deep resistance. To those women, I salute you, I stand with you, I stir you to fan into the flame the gifts you've been given. I say to you: "well done, good and faithful servants."
We need you, the church needs you, the new generation of Christ-followers need you, us men need you. After all, God created us then looked at us and said, "Ahhhh... this is not good," and then created you lot. God's design is for us to work together for His glory. The church deprives itself of your gifts at its own detriment, and your perspective at its own peril.
My wife and I face great challenges, yet as we've progressed in ministry and study our conviction has only deepened: God didn't make any mistakes, gifted women have not 'misheard' Him regarding their call, and they are certainly not 'rebelling' against God. Instead, God calls, gifts, equips women to do His will in all areas of the church, complementing the otherwise limited perspective and reach of men, as they together bring the Gospel to bear on souls in need.
I am blessed to be in a church that has both male and female pastors and in a tradition that encourages the full liberation of women into all areas of church ministry and leadership to promote the Biblical ideals of the church as: "neither Jew nor gentile, neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). It's taken 2000 years to get the first two right, it's high time we sort out the third, treating men and women as equals, celebrating and making use of their differences to enrich ministry, championing men and women both to use their God-given gifts for the glory of God.
I'll finish with this: whatever you believe about what Paul did or didn't say to a church in the 1st Century AD, and whether that applies to all churches thousands of years later, know that all of our theology is at best an approximation of truth. As Anselm said it is merely, "faith seeking understanding." It’s a process and a search that must also allow itself to be shaped by scripture and tradition and reason and experience together, lest due to our own hubris we miss out on what God is doing in our midst.
My guess is that we all have bits of it wrong, and at the end of the day God's grace is big enough for all of us, even the chest-beaters. So why let the non-vital parts (such as the genitalia of the person preaching) get in the way of gospel-salvation? What’s the end-goal here? God's explicit will is that all would be saved, and I infer thereby that we need all hands on deck, male and female alike!
As for me, whether by active agreement or silent consent, I will not stand for discrimination against women in ministry. It is unbiblical, unwarranted, and (frankly) unattractive.
But hey, it’s just my two-bob, as usual.
