A number of years ago, I was contacted by a young man who was writing a
paper on women in the ministry. He asked
if I would be willing to answer a number of questions; these are my answers. I have used them over the years when people
have asked me why I believe that women are allowed to preach.
I am sharing them now because of a discussion that we had today in a
meeting of clergywomen who are lead pastors.
One of the issues we discussed was the need to have “elevator answers”
to the questions that we get from people.
In addition, we need to teach our laypeople those elevator answers to
use when they are accosted on the soccer field by folks from non-denominational
churches asking them how they can attend a church pastored by a woman. I am
including all the questions and answers, but the “elevator answers” can be
found under #4. Comments and questions are, as always, welcome. But, as always,
please keep it civil or I will remove your comments. I don’t mind disagreements (even relish
them!) but I will not allow verbal attacks.
1. What schools have you attended, and
what types of degrees do you have?
I have a B.A. degree in
Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt
University. I have a MTS (Master of Theological Studies)
from Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a PhD in Hebrew Bible from SMU
2. What led you into the ministry?
I think that I always was led to
do ministry. When I was in 6th
grade I was on the Missions Committee at church. I helped teach Sunday School and helped out
with Vacation Bible School
when I was in youth and I was involved in everything the church did.
What led me to enter seminary was
Disciple Bible Study. At the end of this study, each member of the
class is asked to reflect on what gifts they have for ministry (in the United Methodist
Church we believe that everyone has gifts for ministry, though
not everyone has gifts for ordained ministry).
I wasn’t really sure at the time what my gifts were, but I thought
probably teaching. I volunteered to help
with the Disciple class the next year
and by the end of that year I had felt a call to professional ministry. At first I thought I would go into Christian
education, but I finally accepted the fact that God was calling me into
ordained ministry, i.e. preaching.
3. What led you to become a pastor?
In the United Methodist
Church, we have to go
through a long process of discernment to determine just what our call is. At the same time that I entered seminary I
also began the Ministry Inquiry process.
I did Bible study with a Mentor pastor, interviewed four or five pastors
in different kinds of ministries (large churches, small churches, hospital chaplains,
etc.). I went before our District
Committee on Ordained Ministry and interviewed with them. I went before my home church and they had to
vote to recommend me for the process. In
other words, a long process.
I didn’t like a lot of the
process at the time, but it did help me understand and articulate my call and
helped me understand that I am definitely called to pastoral ministry and not
to a specialized ministry such as teaching or chaplaincy.
Basically I am a pastor because I
feel called to share the Word of God in preaching and teaching. I feel called to administer the
Sacraments. (The sacraments have always
been very important to me; I memorized the communion service when I was twelve
just because I wanted to be able to remember it.) I also feel called to provide leadership for
the church.
I tried to ignore my call for a
number of years because I was very shy and did not like to speak in front of
people, but God was very persistent!
4. How do you feel about the
controversy of women in the pulpit?
I understand and respect those
who are opposed to women in the pulpit, but I think that they are ignoring
important parts of the Bible. For
instance in the Old Testament one of the judges of early Israel was
Deborah. In fact she is the only judge
about whom the Bible says that she actually made judgments for the people
(Judges 4:5). Then there was Huldah, a
prophetess to whom King Josiah sent the manuscripts found in the temple. She is the one who proclaimed them authentic
and warned the King to obey what they said.
Since she was called a prophetess, by definition she spoke the word of
God. (2 Kings 22:14-20)
In the New Testament, several
women around Jesus clearly did preach.
For example in the Gospel of John, where Jesus speaks with the Samaritan
woman at the well, after the conversation, the woman goes back to the village
and witnesses to the villagers who then come to Christ (John 4:28). This seems to me the definition of preaching
– sharing the Good news in public so that people come to know Jesus.
Also the first person in the
Gospel of John to whom Jesus speaks is Mary Magdalene. Peter and John have been at the tomb, but
Jesus chooses to speak to the woman and says to her “Go and tell,” thereby
commanding her to preach to the other disciples of his resurrection (John
20:17).
Paul has often been thought to
deny women the opportunity to speak and certainly some texts do seem to indicate
that, specifically1Timothy 2:10-12.
However, a number of scholars dispute that this is truly written by Paul
(for reasons that are too complex to explain here). Regardless of whether or not Paul wrote this,
it is in the scriptures, so has to be taken seriously. I believe that this text
is referring to a specific situation in a specific church where women speaking
would have offended people in the surrounding culture.
One reason I don’t believe that
this was Paul’s general attitude is because in other cases Paul clearly regards
women as fellow workers: for instance Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2) and Priscilla
(Romans 16:3, see also Acts 18:26 where she helps to instruct Apollos). And certainly Paul never distinguishes
between gifts for women and gifts for men in his lists of gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
In summary, there is some
evidence in the Bible that argues against women being preachers, but I think
the weight of evidence is in favor of women being called as well as men.
5. Does any of the controversy directly
affect you, and how do you handle it?
Very little of the
controversy directly affects me.
Occasionally in my early ministry I would encounter folks who were not
happy about having a woman pastor (these were very small churches in rural
areas), but after hearing me preach for a while and experience my pastoral
care, they usually came around. Since my
name is on the sign outside the church, most people know when they come to Oak
Grove that a woman is the Pastor and if they don’t like that they just don’t
visit. I have had a number of people who
come to weddings and funerals here say that they were not sure what to expect,
but that they realized after they heard me that women can preach about Jesus
just like men do! I think that when people
realize that I am not a rabid feminist and that I just want to be a faithful
and competent pastor, they get over the “woman pastor” thing.
I never try to argue with those
who think I shouldn’t be preaching (other than simply laying out my point of view
as I have done here). I don’t think such
arguments further the cause of the kingdom.
I know that I am called and that people are coming to Christ through my
ministry and that is all I care about .
I cannot control the judgments of others; I answer to God.
This part of my answer would change now. The controversy has directly
affected me in two of the churches that I pastored. At one of those churches I was the second
woman in a row, so most of those who didn’t like women preachers had already
left. However, the pastor at the largest
Baptist church in town actively tried to recruit our youth, telling them that
they were doomed for 2 reasons: they had a woman pastor and they were not baptized
(i.e. dunked). In the most recent church
I pastored, I had people leave the church because I was a woman. Thankfully others were glad to have a woman
because they felt that I was a good role model for their daughters. Overall, I was pretty well accepted in the community,
but being a woman was still a handicap. (I know some women clergy will resent
me saying this, but it is the truth.) It
was clear that some people simply did not take me seriously as a pastor, no
matter how well I did.
How did I deal with it? That
answer is still the same: competence and grace are the only ways I know to deal
with negative attitudes. I continued to be as kind and gracious as possible to
those that left the church. If they wanted to discuss the biblical issues, I
would give them my point of view, but I rarely changed minds by arguing the
case. I did change minds by being a good
pastor.
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