I grew up in a church that didn’t talk about women in ministry. Women were Mary and Martha (of Bethany). That was it. We could help in the kitchen, type memos in the office, take care of babies in the nursery, or show hospitality by greeting people who came to church. We could attend studies, read the Bible, and pray. But nothing else.
I’m not disparaging those roles because they are important in the church and the Christian life. But they aren’t the only roles for women. Truthfully, the way that a woman’s role in the church was presented to me, sounded boring. Out of the things I was “allowed” to do, I didn’t have interest in many of them. Church felt restrictive.
In contrast, outside the church, I had the opportunity to teach anything I was competent to teach, to heal others who were in pain, to write anything I wanted, to speak my mind, to lead, if I chose. But these activities seemed beyond my reach at church. Sit still. Don’t talk. Girls can’t do that. That’s the message I got from church.
I remember finding a pamphlet in the office once titled, “Why Can’t Women be Pastors?” It seemed there were only things that I couldn’t do because of my gender. And church was the only place that was so.
It took a long time to discover that being a Christian doesn’t actually mean adhering to a laundry list of rules about what not to do. It’s actually freedom to bear witness in the image of God. Men aren’t the only image bearers. God has feminine qualities that He creatively expressed in Eve, and in me.
There is nothing I can’t do for God because I’m a woman. I can lead – like Deborah. I can proclaim Jesus – like Elizabeth. I can witness – like Mary Magdalene (and countless others). I can teach – like Priscilla. I can have faith and courage – like Rahab. And I can also serve and learn – like Mary and Martha of Bethany. I can also love like Jesus.
While we definitely need to learn from the men of God in the world, it is just as important to learn from the women of God. Because only with both can God’s full nature be revealed.
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