Women in leadership in the church
Some helpful considertions when tackling the issue of women in leadership in the church.
Note: This is a long post which meant as a resourcing post to give you things to think about as a reader and open up new possibilities you may not have considered. It’s not written as a definitive post on my position.
Like many men, I took the position on women in leadership in the church based on what my leaders had said to me and on the English translation of the Bible. Unfortunately, for too long, I didn’t do solid work of my own.
The original position, in short, was that women could function in all ministry areas but could not be elders, and that men set discipline, doctrine, and direction.
Having been asked to write on the subject by a reader and having had several conversations with people about the subject, I decided to put some thoughts down on the issue.
As a blog post I’ll be expressing some firm opinions. I’m also going to attempt to come at the issue for some perspectives that aren’t always featured prominently in this discussion. If you the reader find some things which are strongly worded or challenging, that’s OK. I encourage you to roll with it and then decide where you agree or disagree with what I have written.
Given the depth of the issue, there is too much to cover so I picked several things to zoom in on and the videos are intended to be watched later to give you insight into some of the material I have digested on this issue. If you want a short video, watch the NT wright one here. Its 13 minutes.
Interview length: 13 mins
Interview description: NT Wright answers a listener question on whether the Bible allows women to teach in churches, including the passage from 1 Timothy 2 v 11-12 “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”
It’s a complex issue to navigate when the same scriptures are used with so many different schools of thought to back different viewpoints, it’s initially hard to see the wood from the trees. But there are some things which really helped me to get clarity and I have listed them below.
Let’s get back to original language and meaning in context
We really need to look at the original Greek here. The English translations are not helpful in giving a clear picture of what is going on at the time and what the scripture clearly means. We also can’t build theology a few verses but need to look more comprehensively at overarching narratives.
For example, the word for authority (root authentein) in 1 Tim 2:12 (do not permit a woman to have authority over a man) is only ever used in this scripture. It's not the word Jesus used when He said all authority had been given to him.
Authentein originally meant murder and later maybe something like to have controlling power over. Given it's only used once in the Bible in this scripture, we can’t build a theology off one verse. What it clearly doesn’t mean is women don’t have the power to tell men what to do.
The other thing I would say about the original Greek is that if you don’t read the language like me, then you’ll need to find trusted voices on the issues – people whose interpretations resonate with your own journey of seeking Jesus. Practically, there are so many examples of one scholar quoting the original Greek and saying one thing and another quoting the same verse in Greek and saying the exact opposite.
Interview length: 1 hour 20 mins
Interview description: Andrew Bartlett is a lawyer, judge, and international arbitrator. He has a degree in theology from University of Gloucestershire. He has served in several churches as elder or churchwarden and is the author of the book Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Texts, which forms the starting point for our conversation on what the New Testament says about women in church leadership. We focus on 1 Corinthians 11, the meaning of kephale (“head”) from 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:22-24, and we also dabble briefly in 1 Timothy 2:12-14.
The metanarrative
NT Wright teaches on the power of metanarrative and when you look at the whole Bible, as well as how Paul speaks holistically about women, then the whole picture seems to cast new light on the specific issues which are being debated.
In other words, if women are spoken about as prophesying in one place in scripture, then verses like "I do not mean a woman to teach" can't mean that when the word prophecy was also used to mean proclaim the gospel or preach in Greek.
So, there must be something else going on here as Scripture can’t contradict itself.
And when you piece the metanarrative together around what life was like in Eden, together will all the other scriptures concerning women in the Bible, then a very different picture begins to appear.
3) We can’t think in binary terms.
Generally, when people argue between binary terms, then they’re on thin ice theologically and rationally. The reason is that the arguments become exclusive in their presentation, disregarding obvious issues for the sake of trying to win the point.
This issue is a classic example of a binary dilemma and in my case, I have concerns about both complementarians and egalitarians’ positions.
The complementarians rightly point out that men and women are different, which I agree with, but then assume that because they are different, they must have different roles (to support the male elder position) and men do this and women do that.
But there are too many scriptures that cause problems for this position, including women using gifting in leadership positions and scriptures like Gal 3:28 (no male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free).
The egalitarians argue that men and women are equal in the sight of God, which is also a position I would agree with, but then miss the differences between men and women. This sees both men and women moving into roles they’re not suited for when gender equality overshadows being suitable for leadership.
Both sides often come across as trying to use scripture to defend the position they have already taken and are now trying to explain.
The point is that the answer is far more complicated and nuanced than the two binary scenarios make it out to be. We need to look at people from a 360-degree perspective taking into account their giftings, skills and suitability for a specific context.
Video length: 38 mins (episode 1 of 9)
Video description: Tim and Rachel Hughes look back over the years and fill you in on how they ended up at this moment where they are both ordained ministers and co-lead Gas Street Church in Birmingham. A brand-new podcast with Tim & Rachel having honest conversations about life, leadership, family and the lessons learned along the way.
4) Power in the church
As per my previous post, we can’t talk about this issue of women in leadership without understanding how men have exerted power in the church. We also can’t talk about this issue without understanding what the church looked like before 313 AD when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The role of the male priest at the front of the church explaining the scripture because they could read it changed the way the church functioned on a power structure level. It framed the positioning of 1 Tim 3 around an elder being a man of one wife, but that does not mean the early church actually operated that way.
We can’t assume that the administrative implications of such a power shift correctly undergird a correct theological perspective that lines up with scripture.
The early church functioned very differently to the way it did post 313 AD and the way it does today. Understanding the context in which the scripture was written and studying how the early church operated practically in the cultural context paints a very different picture.
Interview length: 1 hour 17 mins
Interview description: It's no secret that modern American Christians are deeply divided over politics. This division raises important questions about the influence of Scripture on political beliefs. To make sense of this, we invited renowned scholar NT Tom Wright, theologian, professor and star of the "Ask NT Wright Anything Podcast" along with New York Times bestselling author Dr. Preston M. Sprinkle host of the Theology in the Raw podcast. Tom Wright stresses the need for Christians to prioritise the kingdom of God and embody its values within the church. Preston talks about how Israel’s exile to Babylon, Jesus’ mission on earth, and the teachings of Paul all shaped the church’s relationship with politics and can inform our own relationship with politics today.
5) Women in the Bible
When we start to look at the stories of women in the Bible including Eve, Deborah, Mary at Jesus’s tomb, Phoebe, Junia, Photini [the woman at the well in John 4 according to church history], Lydia, Nympha etc., and who they were and the kinds of lives they lived, then it broadens the discussion on this topic.
The references to Junia who was outstanding among the apostles and possibly one of the 72 and Photini who is referenced in church history as equal to the apostles or an apostle to the apostles, really do require careful consideration.
Jesus’s own actions of revealing himself to Mary at the tomb but not to the likes of Peter and John require reflection. It is, in fact, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James who take the news of his resurrection to the apostles.
The role of Phoebe as a letter carrier as Paul’s direct representative and the leaders of households like Lydia and Nympha need to be understood within the context of the times.
Leaders of households could be in charge of as many as several hundred people and often took decisions to lead their households into faith, which is one of the reasons why whole households were baptized.
Some scholars estimate that as many as one-third of the households in Rome had female heads. It’s highly unlikely that Christian women who were heads of households did not hold positions of authority in the churches which met in their homes.
Interview length: 1 hour 17 mins
Interview description: Dr. Rick Warren explains why he shifted his view on women pastors and why he thinks the SBC was wrong to kick Saddleback church out of the denomination.
6) My position
Well, it’s something I am still figuring out.
I think Nijay Gupta probably has some of the clearest work I have seen on this issue.
Interview length: 1 hour 17 mins
Interview description: Dr. Gupta teaches New Testament courses at Northern and works closely with the Master of Arts in New Testament and the Doctor in Ministry in New Testament Context cohorts. Dr. Gupta is the author of the forthcoming Tell Her Story, which addresses women’s roles in the church from an egalitarian perspective.
My approach would be more along the lines of what I think biblically based leadership should be. I would then think about how specific men and women may be a good fit for the calling and skillset required for such leadership. My definition of what biblically leadership looks like is a topic for another time.
Lastly, I’d suggest readers become familiar with Kadi Cole’s testimony as an executive pastor and the work she’s done subsequently including her book, Developing Female Leaders: Navigate the Minefields and Release the Potential of Women in Your Church.
Kadi’s first interview with Carey Nieuwhof can be heard here. She shares her story. Her LinkedIn profile is particularly illuminating in terms of the things she has done and her leadership capability. A follow up interview exists below.
Interview length: 1 hour 17 mins
Interview description: Kadi Cole on Whether the Gender Pay Gap Actually Exists, the Challenges of Hybrid Offices, and Finding Your Leadership Voice. Is there actually a gender pay gap? What are the challenges of hybrid offices, and what happens when you find you're leading an unequal workplace? Kadi Cole returns to the podcast to discuss all these things and help you discover your leadership voice.
You can read my follow up post entitled, Where to next on the gender/leadership journey? here.
As I've explored this topic on and off, I think what both complementarian and egalitarians have failed to reckon with adequately is the concept of mothering and fathering in the church. My other pet peeve is how the conversation often opens up with 'power', and I think that in church leadership, we shouldn't be asking "who gets power over the other"? but should be asking, "Who gets to stop lording it over others?" (Answer: everyone.)
The complementarians (of the American conservative kind, especially) relegate mothering to something merely in the home, and don't seem to take into account how much of being a mother is being a leader. If this concept was explored more, not only do I think it would benefit the home, and benefit women in general, but having mothers in the church who lead would be a no-brainer. And in all honesty, we need proper mothers in the church - women who can lead in a womanly way, and who actually are recognized as mothers - as leaders.
Egalitarians have failed to think of mothering properly at all, in my opinion. By taking away the clear differences between men and women, I note that (often enough), the women tend to lead like men. Christian egalitarians tend to be a bit softer - many of them do recognize the differences, but they don't account for them properly, in my opinion. In other words, they think installing a woman as a pastor fixes the problem of power dynamics (which, again, I think is the wrong starting point) without asking the question of what woman leadership looks like. Here's the dynamic they seem to adopt: Men have had too much power over woman, we fix that by installing woman in the roles the tradition has insisted is only for men, and that should fix the power dynamic. Only some go so far as to ask what the role looks like in a womanly way (like the Wesleyans) but most of the time, I don't think people are honestly reckoning with what mothering looks like.
It's for this reason that I do believe that the role of 'elder' in the church is a role for fathers, as I think that's how the Bible talks about it. But this does not mean mothers are not leaders! What we have failed to do is recognize mothers, or recognize that this is a leadership role. We think their job is to put up the decor and (in more healthy scenarios) pastor the women; or perhaps sing and take care of the children. If we acknowledged that the church needs leaders, both men and women, and think of these as fathers and mothers, I think we'll come much closer to the Biblical vision, and we'd get to jettison complementarianism and egalitarianism completely for something less institutional and much more human.
Taking into consideration the impending minefield that this subject matter can trigger, especially in the context of a postmodernist viewpoint, you have raised some interesting questions and points to explore. You have also successfully managed to get me out of my seat, hunt down something akin to a notepad and a writing implement, and start doing some reading and research of my own. No hard feat for someone as complacent as me.
Good piece, one I’ll come back to often...