Sarah D. Shearer

All over social media, all I see is Beth Moore and John MacArthur.

John MacArthur is a jerk, Beth Moore is out of the will of the Lord.

Women should go home.

Women should preach.

As a woman, I have long wondered where indeed I belong.

I have learned much from women speakers, but feel there is something off about a woman pastoring a church by herself. I have read and reread the scriptures, hoping for some lightbulb moment where I say, “oh THAT’S what Paul meant.”

I have not had this moment.

There is nothing new under the sun. This issue has been tossed around for centuries, ever since the days when Jesus came and turned all our paradigms upside down. We have embraced women and excluded them. We have given them voices and we have silenced them.

But no one solution has been found.

I want to share the one revelation I have on this issue, and that is that perhaps this whole argument is a straw man. Our entire theology of women in ministry is based around a Sunday morning church with a pastor in a congregation with a stage and a pulpit.

We have no concept of women in ministry outside of a typical western church service.

So I ask you this: what did Paul call ministry, and what came to his mind when he exhorted the “church.”

I have a hunch we can’t find a solid answer to the question we are asking because we don’t have a right view of church.

The early church met in homes, where it is clear that the head of the household is the husband. The concept of a pastor standing on a stage preaching to a congregation is not in the Bible. It’s something we invented all on our own.

So when you say women shouldn’t be pastors, are you saying women don’t have a pastoral gift? Because those are two totally different things. I know plenty of women who are walking closely with Jesus who have an immense pastoral gifting but they aren’t preaching any sermons.

I know plenty of women who are teachers, but they aren’t teaching Sunday school anywhere.

Try for a moment to unlearn your church theology. Imagine that a church meeting is in a home, where the father of the house presides. His wife is closely beside him, his co heir, and they lead in their own God given capacities.

There is no struggle over who’s going to preach, who’s going to give announcements, and if there are any men within earshot. It’s a family, operating as a family, and a husband operating as a husband, and a wife as a wife.

Imagine that elders aren’t guys in suits, but rather fathers and husbands who are compelled to lead and guide their friends and family in their walks of faith.

Imagine women weren’t so concerned with having or not having a title because they were busy loving and leading the people in front of them.

Maybe as we unravel our preconceived notions of what church is, we will instead seek to find what family is, and how Christ is best reflected in our relationships.

Food for thought.

Recommended reading.

finding church by Wayne Jacobson

Pagan Christianity: Frank Viola and George Barna