Women's Role in the Church

As many of you know I have been spending some time examining the requirements for Elder, Deacon and Pastor. During this study I have been wrestling with the issue of women in the church. After much study and reading I believe that I have come to some conclusions on this issue especially with regards to what we read in 1 Timothy 3.

First, by no means do I believe my position to be the definitive one yet it is the one that seems the most plausible and likely to me. There have been many people much smarter and educated than I am who have come to a variety of conclusions and it would arrogant of me to think that I have somehow finally found the real answer. At the same time these are my convictions and conclusions and I must be willing to faithfully live them out while also living with a willingness to hear Scriptural arguments that differ from my understandings.

Second, I believe that for us to properly understand the role of women in the church we must first understand that there is a distinct difference between elders and deacons. They have separate roles and separate qualifications. Simply put elders have the duties that are "centered around teaching, directing and protecting the church from error." Whereas deacons have duties that are centered around caring for the physical needs of their church family. These two roles are equal in value and necessity but they are distinct in much the same way that husbands and wives have distinct roles yet both are equally valuable. This understanding helps us when we begin to look at church authority and women. In particular it opens the door for women to not be exercising authority over a man (some still see this as an issue, I however do not) yet still serve as a deacon.

Third, (based on the above definition of deacon) women can serve as deacons. In fact, I believe churches would do well to have a greater balance of women and men in their deacon councils. As church seek to meet the physical needs of people we would do well to have the input and perspective of women. Being generally wired differently than men it would only serve to reason that having a different view on the world would only enhance our ability to minister to people. I believe that we see a number of different women serving in this type of capacity in the Scriptures and we see it from the earliest stages of the church. In particular in the book of Romans we see names such as Priscilla, Phoebe, and Persis listed as workers for the Lord. I believe Paul would have seen these women as fulfilling the role of deacons whether they had the title or not is for the most part unknown.

Fourth, the issue of having authority over men found in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 has a number of different methods of interpretation. Most of these have substantial exegetical backing and therefore seem plausible. One of the most compelling is to view the passage in light of Paul's teaching of husbands and wives found in Colossians and Ephesians. This connection is at the very least implied by Paul's use of the relationship between Adam and Eve (verses 13-14) who were of course husband and wife. Using this logic it is possible to interpret this passage not as some sort of edict for all women but rather a furthering discourse on how wives and husbands should relate to one another in the context of church and worship. You may not agree with this conclusion but I think you can see how there are a variety of interpretations and therefore this is one of those passages which will continue to be a source of disagreement until the end of the age.

Fifth,at this point I do not believe women should be senior pastors and this based on the idea that I do not believe women are to be church elders and that the senior pastor should essentially be the lead elder. I could be wrong on this issue as it by far my least researched idea so stay tuned for further developments on this one. I have recently read a number of different articles that present some arguments for both sides of this debate.

Finally, I have a certain set of beliefs on these issues but these beliefs should not prohibit me from working with other born-again believers to further the Kingdom of God. I believe we are called to be unified in the Spirit which does not mean we all share the same beliefs (outside of some core beliefs such as there is only way to Heaven and that is through Christ) but it does mean that we should share in one purpose which is to proclaim the good news to every tribe tongue and nation.

In the end, do not take my word for it. Take some time and research these issues on your own and see what conclusions you come to.

Do Things Differently

Ever had one of those days when just feel this need to stop with the busyness of life and just think some? I am kind of having one of those days today. So far my mind has been all over the map (I am sure this is of no surprise to some of you) yet I keep coming back to one idea. This idea is one that is beginning to radically shift how I approach and think about ministry. So here is the idea:

If you want to reach people that nobody else is reaching then you have to do things that nobody else is doing.

In other words be different! Do different things and do not be afraid of failure. I do not believe that God ever intended for all churches to look, sound or act alike. I believe He created each local body to reach a particular group of people and if we are to do this effectively then we need to be willing to be different in our community. We must find who exactly it is that God wants us to reach and then figure our ways to do that. We must move beyond being jealous of the success of other churches. We should look at their success and rejoice the impact (provided it is biblically sound if even we do not totally agree with it) they are having.

So the question for you today is ow can you do things differently to reach people in your community that nobody else is reaching? Are you willing to be bold and step out and be different?

Do Not Fear

"Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, for I am with you," declares the Lord. "Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only with justice; I will not let you go entirely unpunished."

Jeremiah 46:28

God's Purpose

In the past when I have given a sermon I can give you a wonderful outline to help you follow along. This one is different. It was one of those times where God lead me on a wonderful journey to His message. If you were not with us last Sunday I would encourage you to take some time and listen not because I gave a great sermon but because God had something to tell you and/or our church. You can find this sermon along with others by visiting the UBC Sermon Page here. The sermon is from October 12 and is titled "Fulfilling God's Purpose."

I would love to know what you think.

Trying to get your attention...

Do find yourself constantly doing the same bad thing over and over again? Does it really matter to you that you are in this pattern? Do you know that is wrong yet you continue to do it? Have you suffered mighty consequences yet continue to go back to the well? If so you would not be alone.

Jeremiah 44 tells us how God's people continued to worship other gods despite the fact that they were told that the reason Jerusalem had been conquered was because they had refused to follow the One True God. Their actions were not the result of ignorance rather they were the direct result of absolute defiance and blinded logic. The evidence for this is found in verse 17 when the people attempt to make the argument to Jeremiah that when the gave sacrifices to the queen of heaven then life was good and when they stopped life was bad. The people had failed to see how bad it had gotten for them even when they were worshiping other gods. They had forgotten how wonderful life was in the Kingdom when they did worship the Lord. They also refused to see how those choices were causing them problems in the present. Essentially what they were doing was looking back at the good old days and trying to recreate those times.

We are quilty of this many times in churches. We look back into the history of a church and see how great things were back then. We take this 'knowledge" and attempt to replicate it. When we look back however we tend to not look at how our choices have negatively impacted our church. We usually only see the short term gains and not the long term losses. We must always be vigilant to not allow ourselves to get caught up in this trap and remember that there are consequences to our choices and that there really is no such thing as the good old days. Each era has it issues and problems. We must alwaso remember that people and cultures change and that just because something has worked in the past does not mean it will ever work again. We must always be on the look out for those new ideas, strategies and thoughts that will allow us to be better prepared to reach our current generation. To do this affectively we must not only allow but encourage the youngest among us to become leaders. We must be looking to them for ideas, visions and solutions for the problems we face today.

The Word of the Lord..

Just a simple thought for you today. Never be afraid to write down, speak or act out the Word of the Lord. When God teaches you something and He burns that belief into the heart of who you are then you have no reason to be ashamed of that truth. In Jeremiah 36 God commands Jeremiah to write down everything He had ever told him Jeremiah obeyed but eventually this scroll was thrown in to the fire by the King. God then told Jeremiah to create another scroll in spite of the fact that the King of Judah was opposed to the message. In the end, Jeremiah was more concerned with God's plans and desires than in man's.

So what it is that God wants you to be telling someone that you are not? What are you afraid of?

Worship...

What does worship look like to you? What is suppossed to look like? Is there one way or time that we are suppossed to gather and worship?

While I know that worship goes beyond Sunday morning, I wanted to speak to exactly what Sunday morning worship should look like for each of us. Worship is not about the music, songs, sermons or anything else that we bring to the table. Worship should be about each of us individually and all of us corporately seeking to be in the presence of Yahweh. We should be doing seek out the physical presence of God. God is real! God is tangible. We can literally feel the presence of God. When we gather for worship we should be seek this tangible encounter with God. If you are not seeking this when you sing praises to His name then I would simply ask what are you doing? What is that motivates you to sing? Some may answer that it is out of love and thanksgiving but within that do you not also want to be in the presence of God so as to thank Him in person and to know that you have thanked Him in person.

Many of us are church leaders and many of us are actively involved in the planning and execution of Sunday morning services. Ultimately I believe that is our responsibility to do all that we can to help lead people into God's presence. God does not care what songs we sing or the music we play. He wants us to come before Him with everything that we have and are. As you look towards the future and your times of worship I hope that you are willing to give Him and everything about you and that you, whether you are a church leader or not, are willing to do whatever it takes to help lead others into His presence.