Women Pastors

Just the other day I was sitting with a Pastor who, not knowing that I had been so outspoken on the subject, asked me what I thought about women having places of leadership in the church. When I told him that I had sponsored the original motion to invite women to serve on our Presbytery and Executive Presbytery in the Southern California District of the Assemblies of God, he proceeded to tell me that God intended for women to submit to men, and this was not consistent with women in leadership. I could not get a word in edge-wise in the ensuing conversation, but I eventually asked him to send my his scriptures that he thought forbade women from places of leadership in the church. His first was 1 Corinthians 11:3-10. The key verse is where Paul says that man is the head of woman, and that women needed to have their heads covered in church when they prophesied or prayed. I won't go into all the details, but as I pointed out to him, the Greek for man and woman in this passage can also be translated husband and wife. Which word is always determined by context. And in this context, the head covering is the key to understanding what Paul meant. Because the head covering was a sign of marriage in the ancient world. So, when Paul told women to wear head coverings in this passage, he was only addressing wives - since unmarried women would not wear a head covering. Since Paul is talking to wives and husbands in this part of the passage, it would be inconsistent for him to have been referring to the more general "women" in the same passage.

There were other things he brought up as well, but the point is that all of us want to think that there are others who are not as worthy as we are in some area. But that is not what God says. As Paul himself said, in Christ, "there is not slave or free, Greek or Barbarian, male and female." We are all equal in his sight! In fact, what we are actually called to do is serve each other as Christ served and died for us. So let's all go out and serve someone today!

Pastor Ken