Women in Leadership -- Page 1

Nota Bene

This position paper does not try to be an exhaustive discussion of all of the issues surrounding women in leadership. Instead, it seeks to give a brief overview and summary of the main points as we understand them. For those who want to dig further, the references and some selections for further reading can be found at the end of the text.

Introduction

The church has wrestled with how to function with men and women in leadership since its foundation. Sometimes this struggle has been characterized as a question about "women in ministry." However, we know that all believers are to be in ministry and such a description of the topic misses the key issue. What is really at the core of the debate is "women in leadership." This position paper will demonstrate why we believe all areas of leadership should be open to men and women alike.

Some would say changes on how the church operates with women in leadership are due to the church being affected by our culture. What those same people fail to realize is that the church has always been affected by our culture! Even the current position of the traditional view of women in leadership has been impacted by our culture for over 2000 years! When one looks at the church's view of women through the centuries one would find views of top leaders that would say women are inferior to men, women are made of weaker "stuff," women are not as intelligent, and women are not made in the image of God. These views would influence the theology text books which in turn would influence the church's preaching and practice. For example, Martin Luther's thinking included:

Women were seen as lower than males in the hierarchy that made up the universe. They were less rational than males in a scheme within which rational equated with better; ... Like Eve, they could be more easily led astray than men. Their reasoning faculties were less engaged than men's and were less capable of high development - Little girls did not require and could hardly master higher learning, and their limited schooling should train them in piety, housekeeping, and upright motherhood. For Luther, women's anatomy bespoke their destiny as mothers rather than thinkers. He describes women's broad hips as suited to giving birth, and their narrow shoulders as symbolic of their lack of weight in the upper quarters, that is, in their heads.[1]

Calvin, in like fashion, saw women as less than men, especially when it came to being made in the image of God. He has said,

women are "by nature . . . born to obey, for all wise men have always rejected gunaikokratian, the government of women, as an unnatural monstrosity."[2] "Certainly it cannot be denied that woman also, though in second degree, was created in the image ofGod."[3] Calvin concludes that because the woman "seduced the man from God's commandment, it is fitting that she should be deprived of all her freedom and placed under a yoke." To woman, he says, is to be imputed "the ruin of the whole human race."[4].

By quoting these great men, we are not attempting to denigrate their contributions or legacy. It is only to realize that they were men of their times and greatly influenced by their culture. When one realizes that in the U.S., a free and open society, that women were not even able to vote up to less than 100 years ago, we recognized attitudes about women, their intelligence, and their roles has been a major factor on society, culture, and the church. The church has reflected this view of women for years in the ways scripture has been interpreted. To say now, that the church is being influenced unduly by our culture is to ignore the role of culture on the church for millennia.

Our task today is the same as it has been for centuries. We need to discover what the Bible teaches about women in leadership and obey it. The process of understanding the text and interpreting it for our day requires rigorous understanding of the culture and the occasion for the writing. A key question that must always be raised is asking what practices were culturally limited and what practices were universal. Once we reach that understanding we are charged to obey what the Word says. That is the practice of The Gathering By the Bay.

Overview

When one examines how the Scripture views women in leadership, a cursory glance would be very confusing. It is better to break down the span of time into four distinct periods to make more sense of how the Scriptures deal with the role of women in leadership. Those four time periods would be:

before the Fall,
after the Fall and before Christ,
from Jesus till His Second Coming, and
eternity onward.

It will be the premise of this paper, that women were created to be co-rulers with men. We find that as the initial condition at Creation and we will see women co-ruling with men in the final chapter in the consummation of the kingdom. First and last, women were meant to co-rule with men. After the Fall, women lost the battle of the sexes and were placed in a subservient role. This was neither God's design nor His intent for the post-fall condition. This was a reality where men and women battled for control and dominance after moving out from under God's loving rule. Women lost the battle and rarely were able to exercise the leadership God intended. With the coming of Jesus, we see that He did not overthrow the status quo in regards to the role of women, but He did undermine it. Just as in the Bible we never see the overthrow of the institution of slavery, so the social condition of women was not overthrown. However, the foundation was laid to undermine the existing inequalities so that radical change was brought with the coming of the gospel and the kingdom of God.

Go to: Women in Leadership -- Page 2

Gathering Blogs:

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Brian's blogs

Grace Children's Home:

Jim Gordon: Mission in Nicaragua

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Suggested WebSites:

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