Can a She be a Pastor?

Many of the topics studied in seminary aren’t necessarily issues we deal with in our everyday lives.  Very rarely am I stopped on the street and asked if I’m a premillennialist.  In fact, I can’t remember a single time the grocery cashier has asked me about demon possession while scanning my coupons. Of course I believe these issues are important, just not as commonly interacting with the day-to-day happenings of life.

But one seminary topic seems to pop up everywhere I look: The role of gender in marriage, the church, and the world.  The specific issue in seminary, of course, is Can a woman hold the office of Elder/Senior Pastor?  But this is one small tip of an enormous iceberg that is Gender Roles & Equality, and how we interact with this issue will greatly affect how we interact with the gender issue at large.

I’ve written before, at length, about Why I’m a Complementarian.  Believe me, I’ve tried not to be.  Consider–I love to preach, teach, and be in charge. Hmm…all the things I supposedly cannot do.  Tricky.  But more than ever I am convinced that there is no better and more beautiful plan than God’s specially designed complementarian relationship between the male and female genders whom He created in His image.  I’ve already noted the key scriptures and issues in the post above, so here are just a few more thoughts, in general, on the topic:

1. The Trinity.  We would be in big trouble if the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all in a huge fight about who had to die on the cross.  We know from all study of the godhead, that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God. They exist in relationship with each other, making up the Almighty One God.  Jesus cannot be the Father. The Holy Spirit could not die on the cross.  They are all fully equal, yes distinct in person and purpose.  To say that creating a distinction of role implies a hierarchy of value is contrary to the trinity.

2. The Body.  Every time we read of the Body of Christ, and specifically spiritual gifts, Paul emphasizes over and over that just as we are not all eyes or noses or feet, we all are different parts of the Body and we all play different roles.  Greater modesty is required for some parts of the body, and not all are particularly beautiful parts, but all are equally important and necessary.  The most basic understanding of the body of Christ makes this clear.  Therefore, to say that a distinction of role implies a hierarchy or value is contrary to the clear teachings of the Body of Christ.

3. The Creation Account. If it is true that God’s original intended plan were that there were “neither male nor female”, then why on earth did he create them male and female?  Adam is created first, from dust. Eve is created second, from Adam.  Adam names her.  She is called his helper.  Adam is given the responsibility of hearing and carrying out the mandates of God.  Before the fall.

Responsibility

Here’s what I see missing in both side’s arguments.  The key is responsibility.  Just this past weekend, Joel’s message on marriage addressed the key to leadership: responsibility.  And responsibility is key to this debate.   Though Eve was the one who listened to the serpent, ate of the fruit, and influenced her husband to do the same, who is held responsible?  Adam.  Through Adam came the curse.  Adam is responsible.  This tells me that God has chosen the man as the one who bears the primary responsibility to carry out the mandates and directives of God.

But this word responsibility isn’t used much.  Instead, we all toss around the world “authority” (because it’s used in 2 Timothy–Authentein). But while Authentein is important, true leadership isn’t about authority, it’s about responsibility.  There is no authority without responsibility.  The reason that I have authority as a parent is that I’m responsible as a parent.  I choose to take the reins, without apology, with my children because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am responsible for training up those precious children.  God will hold me responsible, which means that with humility and confidence and great seriousness I assume the authoritative role in their lives.

What men and women are fighting over is authority. They’re fighting over authentein and what that means. No one is fighting over responsibility.  When was the last time you heard someone insisting, “No, I want the responsibility! I want to take the blame!! I want to carry that load! I want to bear the brunt of that problem!”  Hardly.  No, we are fighting over who gets to tell the other what to do.  (Now I understand that not everyone engaged in this debate is fighting over authority. I know a great many men and women of God, whom I love and admire who wholeheartedly embrace egalitarianism, and I respect them greatly.  I’m speaking of the Battle-of-the-Sexes at large.)

I believe that God has laid the final and ultimate responsibility for the spiritual well-being, in the home and in the church, on the shoulders of men.  I don’t envy that.  Of course they aren’t responsible for the rest of us using our free will to go against their leadership. But there is a huge responsibility there.  So many of the papers I read and grade (on this issue) simply talk about “who gets to have the highest level of authority in the church.”  That’s not it!  You’re missing the whole point!  The issue isn’t the hightest level of authority, it’s who bears the greatest weight of responsibility. If men assumed their God-given responsibility, shouldered that burden with courage and humility, and if women took the role of helper in order to come up under those men and help them, encouraging, cheering for, strengthening, praising–imagine how much stronger we’d be!  We’d actually lift some of these burdens instead of fighting over who gets to stand behind the podium.

Whew!  Good thing I”m not allowed to be a preacher because I’d be too long-winded!  Those are my thoughts and now naptime is over…

I just thought I’d tell you that at this moment Dutch is sitting on my lap tying a giant lobster around my neck.  Someday I believe he’s going to be a mighty man of God–today, it’s lobsters around my neck.