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Y&R Discussion Group
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This is slightly off-topic, but my first encounter with a female minister was a Gal Preacher with a local liberal Methodist church in about 1990. I had never heard of a Gal Preacher before, since I'm a Catholic, and all our priests are boys. We don't allow women to step into the sanctuary, unless they have dust cloths and Lemon Pledge in their hands. Girls clean the church and make it pretty, so that boys can preach in it. That's just the way it works. Anyway, some of the ladies in the Methodist church were bound-&-determined that I was gonna take their new Gal Preacher out on a date. You know how old widows are; they wanna get all the young single women fixed up with boys. So I took the Gal Preacher out like twice, and she about drove me crazy. She had a very one-track mind about women's rights, and that was pretty much all she could talk about. I understand why --- she was the only Preacher-ette in a male dominated clergy, and it was an all-consuming issue for her. I haven't dated any more Preacherettes. I'm sure there are plenty of nice well-rounded Preacherettes in the world (hello, Misspm) but this girl definitely wasn't one of them! She was a Pastor-ette with a HUGE chip on her shoulder.
One of my old friends is now a Gal Priest in the Episcopal church. I always call her "Father", which drives her nuts. Also, I've observed that she doesn't enjoy being referred to as a "gal priest". I don't understand why not ;-)
Seriously, I've got nothing against female ministers. In fact, when I need to consult with a member of the clergy, I usually find just as much comfort (if not more) from a female preacher as I do from my own priest.
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The word evangelical comes from the Greek word for "good news." Some people might equate the term Evangelical with right-wing and some Christians probably fit that mold. But ALL believers are called upon to share the good news of Jesus Christ, so technically that term should encompass all Christians.
Our church labels itself evangelical and I've never heard anyone say women can't be pastors. Our senior pastor happens to be a man but several of our ministry leaders are women, and women frequently teach in our church. I know the scriptures people often use to say women shouldn't have leadership positions in the church but I don't believe that was the original intent. Women leaders are mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus flouted the religious mores of his day by having female disciples. The Apostle Paul refers to women who led churches in their home, or otherwise helped spread the Gospel, and commends them for their work. There is a passage in Corinthians which exhorts the wives of the prophets to remain silent when their husbands have the floor, but I don't think this can be used as a "proof text" for women not being pastors. Another passage states that ALL believers (including male and female) are "one in Christ Jesus." All believers have a special office to fill in the Body of Christ and it doesn't make sense to me that Christ would stifle the gifts of female Christians simply because of their gender.
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Pronoun, there's a scripture that the Apostle Paul states in the bible that says, I forbid a woman to exercise authority over a man. That scripture has been taken out of context for a zillion years.
What Paul was saying is that He forbids a woman to rule over a man. And if a woman is a Pastor, she would be ruling over him because a Pastor is in a place of authority over people.
There are women who minister the word of God and teach the bible, but they're not Pastors. Joyce Meyer is one of them.
A woman can preach and teach the word of God, but she cannot be a Pastor. Simply because God said so. The apostle Paul quickly reminds us that it was Eve who was easily deceived. God just doesn't want the woman to rule over a man, after all, we are the weaker sex and I know I'm going to get slammed for saying that. Weaker meaning gentler and sweeter.
Hope that helps.
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