Positional Statement:  Women in Ministry. 

 

Cross Community Church licenses and ordains women to serve in our church and teach our congregations. Gender does not disqualify a person for any position.

 

Scripture has many accounts of women leading in the church. Scriptural examples of women leading in the church include:



  • The Gospels
    • Mary and Martha – (Luke 10:38-42) Mary sits at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught (a role reserved for only men in Judaism). Meanwhile, Martha prepared the dinner, the typical role for women. Martha is upset by this, but Jesus commends Mary for her behavior.

  • Resurrection Narratives – The resurrection narratives have the women as the first preachers of the gospels. The women are the first to go to the tomb, see it empty, hear about the resurrection from an angel (Matthew 28:5-7; Mark 16:5-7; Luke 24:5-6), and then go and tell the disciples. Women were not considered reliable witnesses in antiquity, so the fact this is included is very important.

  • Acts
    • 1:14 – Mary, the mother of Jesus, and several other women are among those who met together to pray right after the ascension. 

    • 18:26 – When Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos preaching they take him aside and correct him. Priscilla is mentioned before her husband, which is significant since the man is always mentioned first in antiquity.

 

  • Romans 16
    • Phoebe – Bearer of the important letter to the Romans and the one who was meant to read and interpret it for the audience. Paul also calls her a deacon (or minister) in the church in Cenchrea. See Romans 16:1-2.

 

    • Priscilla – Paul calls her and her husband his co-workers in ministry.  Again Priscilla is mentioned before her husband.  See Romans 16:3-5.

 

    • Junia – Paul calls Junia in Romans 16:7 “highly respected among the apostles.” Junia is highly regarded by the apostles and some scholars suggest that she may be an apostle herself. Regardless, Paul saw her as an important co-laborer in ministry.

  • Philippians 4
    • Euodia and Syntyche – Here are two women whom Paul is trying to reconcile in his letter to the Philippians. He says that “they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News (4:3).” 

           

1 Timothy 2:11-15 is the only place in Scripture that prohibits women from teaching.

 

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

 

Paul tells his Ephesian audience that women must learn quietly and submissively. They are not to teach men or have authority over them. The question for our purpose is, is this a general prohibition for all women across time in every situation or is this something specific to Ephesus? Some say Paul is giving a general prohibition. We believe that Paul is speaking to a specific audience addressing a specific situation.

 

Ephesus at the time was having trouble dealing with false teaching (see 1 Timothy 4). These false teachings were promoted at times by women (2 Timothy 3:6-7) who were largely uneducated. Women in 1st century Asia Minor, like most places in the ancient world, were not privileged to receive an education the way men were.  Because of this, those who were not discipled in Ephesus were falling prey to false teaching and spreading heresy, thus the rationale for Paul’s prohibition. In this specific circumstance in Ephesus, women were uneducated and spreading false teaching. Therefore Paul instructed that they should not teach until they had learned. Paul is prioritizing order and orthodoxy in the Ephesian church. If women listen and learn, then they will be able to lead and teach.

 

Paul develops his point on the importance of women’s discipleship through the illustration of childbearing. Childbirth was a very challenging time for families in the ancient world, where the infant mortality rate was between 30-50%. Difficulty in childbirth was seen as woman’s punishment for deceiving her husband in the fall (Genesis 3:16). So, when Paul says “But women will be saved through childbearing…” What he means is, an uneducated woman can overcome the consequences of the fall through discipleship in Christ. Discipled women are educated and will not lead others astray as Eve did. Consequently, it is better to translate 1 Timothy 3:16 as “She will be delivered safely through childbirth if they continue in faith, love and holiness with discipline.” This translation better represents Paul’s argument and the cultural situation of 1st century Ephesus.

 

            Gary Hoag gives important historical evidence that was important to the context addressed in 1 Timothy:  https://youtu.be/tsyQlaC0btY

 

I Corinthians 14:34-35 must be considered in conversations about women in ministry.  Paul says that women must remain silent in church and ask their husbands questions at home.  The cultural context in Corinth is similar to that of Ephesus. Women were not educated at the same level as men, therefore they asked a lot of rudimentary questions that disrupted the flow of worship. The point of Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor. 14 is order in worship, not gender; therefore, it should not be seen as a once and for all time prohibition of women speaking in church. Rather, Paul is addressing a particular issue in a particular context.  Notice also that Paul states in I Corinthians 11 (only 3 chapters earlier) that women are allowed to pray in a worship service as long as they do it in an orderly fashion (in this case covering their hair which for women was known as their glory, therefore praying in a worship service is for only God’s glory). 

 

            New Testament Scholar Dr. Ben Witherington III gives great perspective on the issue of ordaining women in ministry in the following two 7-minute videos that articulate a Wesleyan theological approach to ordaining women in ministry consistent with the teachings of Cross Community Church:

 

In conclusion, ample evidence exists in the New Testament of women in prominent ministry positions, including teaching and preaching the Gospel. Therefore, it is Cross Community Church’s position that we license and ordain women who display God’s anointing and calling. This examination of one’s anointing and calling takes place through our licensing and ordination process.

 

The above positional statement includes multiple direct quotes from a positional paper from The Orchard Church written by Reverend Wes Schrickel, May 4, 2020.