A Biblical Basis for Women in Ministry

Does God delight in women in ministry, in even ministries of apologetics and evangelism both here in America, as well as abroad? Answer: Yes!

Consider this excerpt from Sharon James. (Sharon James and her husband, Bill, are members of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood):

 Ultra conservative churches have read the Bible through the lens of the two so-called prohibition or silence texts:

“As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches…” 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man; she must be silent…”

1Timothy 2:11-14

These two texts have been used to filter out of existence the women who pray and prophesy in 1 Corinthians 11, the fact that Paul named women among his fellow-laborers, and the fact that Priscilla was used alongside her husband to teach Apollos. Reading the Bible through this lens has even prevented women ministering to women. In many churches there is little effort to put Titus 2:3-5 into practice. The minister does all of the teaching and does not train women to teach in the way commanded by Paul…Looking at the whole of Scripture through the filter of these two texts has meant that in some churches women are passive. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century many Baptist churches allowed no congregational singing at all, as they believed the “plain sense” of 1 Cor. 14:34 prohibited women from singing. And still today in some churches there is reticence to allow women any active role in case these prohibitions are infringed. Yet even in the most conservative churches some women have been so outstandingly gifted that their calling could not be denied. What do you do with such women? One way out of the dilemma is to send them abroad. This may be why women have outnumbered men in foreign missions. It is not that women are intrinsically more dedicated, brave, or mission-minded. But women with clear gifts in evangelism and teaching have not been given the opportunity to serve full time at home. They have gone abroad by default. And the most traditional of churches have been happy to send them and support them. The double standard involved in this would be laughable if it were not so tragic. [(Emphasis added). Source: God’s Design for Women, Sharon James, p. 82-84; Evangelical Press, 2004]

The evangelical feminists would lead us to believe that all complementarians are against women (such as myself) in ministry engaging the lost in apologetic ministries such as Lighting The Way www.ltwinternational.org . However, there are many traditionalists who do support women in ministry. (I am the first traditionalist who comes to my mind, for example)!

I am not against women in ministry. I am against the spirit at work which is out to demean men, talk down to men in and out of the home, as if women are superior to men in general. I am vehemently against calling God “mother”, and I am not the least bit offended by the “patriarchal language” of the Bible. Therefore I would make a compromising evangelical feminist these days, at best.[1]

I recognize that women are depraved, just like men are depraved, and I love chivalry and consider the differences in men and women and different roles. I don’t believe there were women apostles, and I don’t believe that Jesus would have come as a female “but the females have suffered enough”, and I don’t wake up every morning living and breathing for “WOMEN”.[2] I want to live for Jesus, and there is a big difference. Ephesians 5[3] does not leave me feeling “betrayed by the church” and God, and I have never cried a river on behalf of feminism or humanism endeavors. However, only God knows the tears I have wept when the Lord has given me the privilege of feeling His hurt over sin. I don’t believe in the “New Perspective on Paul”[4], and I loathe it when women make fun of men, especially their husbands and demean men for being just being “males” publicly.

After hearing CDs and tapes from Christians for Biblical Equality www.cbeinternational.org it is safe to say that I am no “egalitarian” and was never saved to be known as an evangelical feminist, painting “traditional” women (such as myself) as weak, old-fashioned, “needy”, and even labeling them misogynistic[5]…just because we believe Adam truly was a “specifically male human” before the Fall, and, furthermore, we are hoping and praying the men will be real men today![6]

For when it comes to sin, “there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28), and the women are in need of a Savior, too.

Dwayna Litz

By Dwayna Litz Click here for bio and archived articles