A Phone Call to Remember!

My husband, Tony, and I were enjoying a weekend lie in when his cell phone rang.  It soon became apparent from his end of the conversation that the person the other end was interested in publishing a book called An Army of Ordinary People that I wrote some time ago.

“Put it on speaker,” I whispered to Tony, eager to hear what was being offered.

The conversation continued.  Then the person on the other end said, “Of course, we’ll put both your names on the front cover.  This book is far too important to have been written by a woman!”

It was at this point that I lost my sanctification.  It wasn’t that I minded Tony’s name on the book—we’ve written together before.  It was the insinuation that a woman could not write anything of significance that frustrated me.

(Thankfully, An Army of Ordinary People has been rewritten and updated and is being republished by Tyndale House Publishers in May of this year.)

Sadly, even in these days when our society generally recognizes women as equals, the attitude towards women in the church is often medieval.  Over the years, I remember being told:

• A woman can lead—she just does it through her husband.
• A woman is equal to a man.  It’s just that her role is different and, by implication, not as important.  Kind of like George Orwell’s “All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others" (Animal Farm).
• God will use a woman—but only when there is no man available to do the job (my personal favorite!)

Christendom has long been patriarchal in nature.  For the most part, I don’t believe this is deliberate misogyny.  A patriarchal interpretation of the Scriptures has led to the belief that women cannot hold any position of strategic leadership within the body of Christ.  For some women (as for some men), this does not matter to them.  However, God has placed in the hearts of many of us women a longing to hear His voice, to think strategically and to lead out—not in any lording it over sense, but in humble service to His body—to be of significance. 

However, in many churches, women are limited in what they are allowed to do.  They can make the coffee, (actually a specifically male role as exemplified by the book of He Brews) and teach a children’s Sunday school class.  But it is what women are NOT allowed to do that is the problem.  In many situations, women are not allowed any role that carries “authority.”  For example, I have a close friend who has been trained to teach a disciple-making course.  But sometimes, when a church hears that one of the presenters of the course is going to be a woman, they refuse to allow her to come.

God has given me (and many other women) certain desires and gifts that have always led me to be a strategic thinker.  I love listening to God, particularly in the context of a group that is seeking His face for what He is doing within the Kingdom.  As a physician, I was capable of making life-and-death decisions, but for years I was not allowed to take any kind of leadership role in church because of my gender.  This was a huge source of sadness for me.

Thankfully the Holy Spirit is beginning to change all of this.  There is an increasing understanding that the Scriptures do not prohibit women from leadership roles.  God is using women all over the world to extend His Kingdom.  Women have started over 80 percent of the house churches in China.  A similar situation exists in Dr Yonggi Cho’s church in Korea where again women lead over 80 percent of the cell groups of the largest church in the world.  Think of Heidi Baker, who with her husband, Rolland, is responsible for more than 10,000 churches in Mozambique and other African countries.  In India, recently, I met a middle-aged housewife who, with the team she has trained, has started more than 6,000 churches.

What can God do with a woman who is yielded to Him? 

The Hemiplegic Body 

The body of Christ in this country is frequently hemiplegic.  Hemiplegia is a medical term used to describe a paralysis of one side of the body, as for example, after a stroke.  The voice of the female half of the army has been silenced. Obviously there are notable exceptions to this, but in general women are not allowed to develop to their full potential within the church. 

It has not always been that way.

In the ministry of Jesus, women played an important part.  Some women traveled with him and helped to support His ministry (Mark 15:41; Luke 8:1-3).  A woman anointed him for burial (Matthew 26:12).  The women did not desert him at His crucifixion (Matthew 27:55).  After his resurrection, the first people Jesus revealed Himself to were not the disciples, but a group of women; He entrusted the message of His resurrection to them (Luke 24:1-11). 

Jesus did not treat women as second-class citizens.  Some of his most strategic conversations were with women.  These were not dumbed-down monologues.  They were deep, theological discussions.  Think, for example, of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, or his dialog about the resurrection with Martha in John 11.  Jesus treated women as valued equals—in a day when most people regarded them as mere possessions.

Women were included in the gathering in the upper room after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:14).  Joel’s prophecy in that context specifically mentions that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on both men and women and they will all prophesy (Acts 2:17-18).  Phillip’s four daughters were examples of this (Acts 21:9).

Phoebe was a valued minister in the church in Cenchrae, one whom Paul commended to the church in Rome (Romans 16:1).  In fact, of the twenty-seven different named people in Rome mentioned in that chapter, eight are women.   Six of them are described as laboring in some way with Paul.  One of them, Junia (verse 7), is even singled out as being an apostle.  Her name has sometimes been changed to Junias, a man’s name, to avoid the issue of her gender.  According to British theologian, Martin Scott, in his book about women For such a Time as This, Junia was a very common woman’s name at that time.  Quoting Lampe in World Commentary Series by James Dunn, he states that there are over 250 contemporary references to Junia (a female name)—not a single one to Junias.

What about women teaching?  Priscilla and Aquila instructed Apollos in Ephesus (Acts 18:26), Priscilla’s name being mentioned first in the original Greek manuscript.  Actually, in four of the six times that Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned as a couple, Priscilla is named first—unusual in a time when women were often not even counted if the number in a crowd was being assessed.  She may well have had the more dominant role of the two of them in the church.  When Jesus chastised the church of Thyatira in Revelation 2, it was not because a woman was teaching, but because she was promoting immorality. 

Society is often prophetic for the church.  Think, for example, of the business trend towards a much flatter and participatory leadership style, and compare that with the simple/organic church movement that the Lord is using throughout the world.  Nowadays women function as doctors and lawyers, business executives and politicians.  Any group that prevents women from functioning in leadership because of their gender will be dismissed as archaic and irrelevant by today’s world. 

What could happen if women took their rightful place co-laboring alongside men in the Kingdom?

Felicity Dale, of House2House Ministries, is author of An Army of Ordinary People and co-author of The Rabbit and the Elephant. You can read her blog at www.simplychurch.com.