“When my daughter was in fifth grade, we visited my home church in Oakland, it was communion Sunday, and the preacher—male—got up and preached the sermon, then after the sermon, 12 men in their dark suits came forward to serve communion. And my daughter—fifth grade—leans over to me and she says, “Dad, where are the women?”
I seized the opportunity to interview Dr. Wallace, a complementarian, on the topic of women’s leadership and the Bible. He graciously and enthusiastically engaged with me. Here is part of our lively dialogue.
In the first of my series on Historic Women of Faith, I’d like to introduce you to the twin “Lady Bible Hunters.” Scottish twins, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson were born in Irvine, Scotland in 1843. They were raised by their father after their mother died tragically when they were only two weeks old. Agnes and Margaret lived extraordinary lives—like Indiana-Jones-in-a-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark kind of lives. They were called “Lady Bible Hunters” because they spent considerable effort, expense, and time to travel to hunt for ancient manuscripts. And, their incredible accomplishments have been acclaimed across the world. Curious?
Did God choose only a few “exceptional” women as leaders over men? In the evangelical church, some complementarians believe that the accounts of women leaders in the Bible were a “special case” to the “general rule.” That God only chose a few “exceptional” women but predominately favored male leaders. Those who hold this view prescribe male leadership as a “general rule.” They believe the Bible teaches a hierarchical leadership system both in the church and in the home. The Collins Dictionary defines “hierarchical” as a “system or organization in which people have different ranks or positions.” Under this system, men’s rank is leadership, and the position of women is support to male leadership. Let’s look at the three arguments supporting the premise, “God chose women leaders because they were “exceptional.”
What is a prophet? How many women prophets prophesied in the Bible? Prophets were God’s authorized spokespersons. Both women and men communicated God’s direct revelation to designated people.
Widows were not only a class of people in need of defending. Bonnie Thurston asserts that certain women in the early church were organized into a clerical order of widows—an order of women established in the church within the second century. Thurston’s book was the first to focus exclusively on ancient widows in the Christian church, with scholarly research on the order of widows.
Can a woman be a deacon? Will an in-depth survey of the biblical text and church history provide convincing evidence that the evangelical church rightly should install women as deacons, and perhaps ordain them too? Answering these questions in the affirmative is the premise of the book A Case for Female Deacons.
I follow Aimee Byrd, speaker, and author, on Twitter. She tweeted an announcement about her newest book, Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Having twice read John Piper and Wayne Grudem’s book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (1991), I was eager to read what Byrd had to say. Based on the book’s provocative title, I expected Byrd to challenge Piper and Grudem’s explanations of “biblical manhood and womanhood” head-to-head or Bible passage by Bible passage….
Introduction An associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Biola University, Michelle Lee-Barnewall is the author of Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian. She takes a fresh look at the theology of gender in Scripture. Barnewall challenges her readers not to merely align with the egalitarian’s focus on rights or the complementarian’s focus on authority. Rather consider the overarching theme of unity—signified by an other-centered orientation of love—as it relates to men and women. A second theme in the book is…
Journey with me to learn about women in the Bible and women in church history. Develop your theology of women. Decide what you believe about women in leadership in the Church.