Recently, Modern Reformation published a thought-provoking and excellent article entitled, “Is There a Place for Priscilla In Our Churches?” over at their online magazine, The Mod.
In this article, Rachel Green Miller challenges us to consider the various roles women can have in the church in a non-ordained capacity. Please read her full article to hear her full argument, especially if you are not yet persuaded that women should have any place within the church besides the nursery, kitchen, or leading “women only” or children’s bible studies. I hope you will be challenged to consider (or re-consider) the view that a woman can do anything that a non-ordained man can do in the church.
What I would like to do now is build upon Rachel’s article, with some very specific and practical ways that women can and should be able to serve in our churches.
In this way, I hope to respond to and answer her initial question “Is There a Place for Priscilla In Our Churches?.”
A Big Big House, With Lots and Lots of Room
Back in the day when Audio Adrenaline was a thing in Evangelicalism, the group sang a song to spotlight God’s kingdom as being a “big big house, with lots and lots of room” for all kinds of people—orphans, the lonely, and the under-loved.
It’s corny, but there’s a lot of truth to it. And the most significant truth it shares, again and again, is that this is “my Father’s house.” Or as we say this in the Lord’s Prayer on Sunday morning as the church gathered, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
God is not just a King or a Judge, but in Christ, he is our Father. This father has enough room for both men and women in his living room of grace. That living room is the church—it’s an embassy of grace and love and fellowship.
I believe that there are many women in our churches who feel like they are spiritual and actual orphans in the church. They don’t feel like they belong because there is no place for them in the house.
We say, sure, “come with me to my Father’s house,” but once you get inside, by the way, you can’t come with me into the living room or the dining room, and definitely don’t hang out on the back porch with me and the good old’ boys. And you can’t make use of my bathroom while you’re here, and you can’t find any rest in any of the bedrooms, just know your place. To put it bluntly, we in effect are saying, “Stay in the kitchen” or “Watch the kids while I hang out with the guys.”
And this is seriously distorted and wrong. So I’m sorry to women who feel or who have felt this way within the walls and halls of Christ’s church. You should never have to feel like this, especially when our Lord had such high regard for women.
He esteemed you so highly, in fact, that he was “born of a woman” (Galatians 4:5) and he first appeared to a group of women before any men saw him raised bodily from the dead!
Why you can’t feel the same love from us men who are living and breathing in the 21st century is beyond me— and it truly is shame on us. So I’m sorry, as a man, and on behalf of us men. We can and will try to do better because you belong in Christ’s church as much as any of us men do.
What Women Can Do in this Big House
Too often, men send the wrong message. We start with what women can’t do. “You can’t be ordained.” And we begin with fear, “Well, if a woman does that, then it’s going to lead us down the path of liberalism. And we don’t want that happening, so let’s keep them far away and take away any chance for us to slip.”
It’s a lot like how rabbi’s used to make new laws around the Torah, in order to safeguard any chance of breaking God’s actual commandments we create man-made laws to enforce and break so that we are “safe.” Doing this sends the message, loud and clear, that we don’t think women belong anywhere. After all, we go, Saint Paul did say a “woman should keep quiet.”
But what if we started with what women can do? I want to frame the conversation that way. Yeah, what can women do in the church?
Women can do anything that non-ordained men can do. Anything. Everything.
What follows below are merely my suggestions for other churches to consider when looking at current church practices and how to encourage and invite women into greater participation in our churches. This includes, but is not limited to:
Being invited to attend a session meeting. (That’s an elder’s or board meeting, for those who aren’t presbyterian reading this, and that’s a consistory meeting for those who are continental Reformed reading this.) to give godly advice and counsel to the ordained men leading a church made up of both men and women. This is still under the oversight and authority of the men, however, it allows for us to be better informed and equipped in the task of caring for sheep. Statistically, every church in America is made up of more women than men, so in order to shepherd all of God’s people well it would be wise to consider female voices while making decisions that affect the whole church.
Being allowed to share churchwide announcements. If a man can get up front and share with the congregation about the next church event coming up, why can’t a woman do it?
Reading Scripture publicly during a worship service. If your church allows for non-ordained men to read Scripture from the pulpit, consider having women read Scripture. Licentiates/interns are non-ordained men, and yet, they read the Bible publicly. And, beyond just that nitpicky rule that we have put into practice in some churches, are women not also equally fellow partakers in Christ? Do women not also possess sonship as daughters through Jesus Christ? As Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 ). If a believer can read Scripture and doesn’t need to be ordained to read the Bible, why can’t both men and women be asked to read Scripture during a church service? Do only ordained men have the ability to read? Or do we affirm in practice the priesthood of all believers?
Singing music or leading in music.
Playing musical instruments to aid congregational singing.
Passing the elements during the administration of the Lord’s Supper. In many churches, it’s common practice for the elders to pass the plate down the aisles or rows of congregants sitting. Men are seated next to women, and so non-ordained women are in effect “passing the elements” and administering communion to men. This is done, and we are never alarmed, so why do we get alarmed when a woman is standing and passing the plate along with men? Does standing up magically make a difference?
Our church practice is for me, as an ordained minister and officer, to physically pass the elements to a male and a female on each side of the communion table, who then will serve communion to a line of believers who walk up to grab the elements. In this way, we showcase our belief that only an ordained officer can rightly administer the sacraments (I physically hand the trays to others who then pass the elements to others), but that men and women are both equally created and redeemed in the image of God, yet are distinct even as we celebrate the Lord’s death until he comes.
Serving on a hospitality team, bringing a meal, or organizing such ministries/activities.
Greeting visitors and guests.
Setting up and/or tearing down equipment and/or sound.
Doing sound, audio, or visual (depending on practices of the church).
Teaching Sunday School, children’s ministry initatives, middle school or high schoolers, etc.
Being nominated by the congregation, trained and examined by the session to be equipped for such a task, and appointed by the session (i.e. elders) to serve in the ministry of deaconess. Our denomination does not ordain women to the office of deacon, but in our Church Order we do have the option of appointing women to serve the whole body of Christ with our ordained male deacons.
As the PCA’s Book of Church Order says, “It is often expedient that the Session of a church should select and appoint godly men and women of the congregation to assist the deacons in caring for the sick, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners, and others who may be in any distress or need. These assistants to the deacons are not officers of the church (BCO 7-2) and, as such, are not subjects for ordination (BCO 17).”
The best way our church and other churches in the PCA have done this is by setting up a ministry of deaconess, so that the women we appoint to help assist our deacons are well equipped to better care for those in need among us.
No, I am “Not Liberal” and Have Not “Gone Liberal”
I’ve often found that there is never any disagreement with people as long as we camp out in the abstract. The abstract is a safe zone. But as soon as someone gets concrete, the arms go up. By advocating for women to have a greater place at the table in order to better help us men and lead God’s people, I’m sure some people will automatically assume that I must be a liberal. That’s fine, but please don’t make an ad hominem attack for no good reason.
I’m an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), and this is not a liberal denomination but is confessional and conservative. We believe in the authority of Scripture, have an orthodox Trinitarian and Christological theology, and the rest. For a full summary of what I believe, you can read the Westminster Standards.
But generally speaking, it is true that the PCA is a denomination with a much broader range of worship practice than is typically found in more strict and formal denominations like the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). So for example, many of my brothers who are OPC tend to view themselves as “more Reformed” than I am because their Sunday worship practice is much more strict and male-centered than the denomination (PCA) I serve in, which might vary to a wider degree. In our denomination, we do have “Old School” Presbyterians, and we have churches that look and feel a lot more like Evangelical churches.
But before we embrace that difference, I’d like to point out that the OPC has an official study report on Unordained Persons in Worship, in which it sends a different message: that we aren’t so different, after all, and that there is unity in diversity among us.
The report is called, “Unordained Persons in Worship: Report of the Committee on the Involvement of Unordained Persons in the Regular Worship Services of the Church submitted to the 58th GA (1991)” and can be accessed on the denominational website. Please read the full report if interested, as it is extensive. As presbyterians, minority reports (there were two minority reports for this report—we presbyterians love to disagree!) do exist where we allow our brothers who disagree with the decision of the body to take note of their disagreement. But I would like to point out that this was part of the majority report. In other words, more people believed that unordained persons (both male and female) should be able to do a lot in public worship.
Here are some small nuggets taken from the report:
“Our conclusion, then, is that 1 Corinthians 11:4-5, 13 plainly imply that in some form public prayer and prophecy, by both men and women, were accepted practices in the churches known to Paul (see verse 16; cf. the four daughters of Philip the evangelist who were known by the fact that they prophesied, Acts 21:9).”
“I Corinthians 14, 11:4-5, 13 provide the precedent, with apostolic approval, for unordained persons, both men and women, praying in public worship. That is as we should expect in congregations where all share in the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:17-18; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:3; Philippians 2:1).
“The authority of the minister is no more compromised by such activity than is the headship of the father when, during family worship, he asks his wife or children (or a guest) to "lead" in prayer.”
The reason I share this with you is to demonstrate that to encourage women to participate in ministry is anything but a “liberal” idea. Rather, to encourage women to serve more in ministry is a biblical idea. We need to move past simple categorizations of others as being “liberal” or “conservative” when we disagree with each other, and instead embrace ideas that transcend those simple, unhelpful, name-blaming categories and embrace what the Bible actually teaches. I confess that I have often failed in this regard in my conversations over the years with others, and I regret that.
I love how Michael Horton, my former professor, boss, and friend, put it recently in an episode of Core Christianity, and as Rachel pointed out in her article:
“If the apostle, who represents Christ, in infallible, inerrant Scripture says women cannot exercise authority in the church, meaning, as you say, pastor or elder, but he gives an example of them teaching with their head covered, prophesying, under the authority of the elders then, if that’s what Scripture teaches, I can’t raise an objection to that. Scripture is the last word on this.” —Michael Horton (emphasis added in bold)
The final word on what place women have in our churches is not personal preference, historical practice, or our own church’s current/contemporary practice, but it should and must be the Word of God.
Let’s Encourage Our Women
We don’t want to send the wrong message. Women are held in very high esteem according to God. So before anyone responds to this article with sharp words of rebuke, I would ask for caution and remind us as we ponder these things, that some of us do have daughters. A question worth asking ourselves as we examine our own practices is: What message are we telling them if we only have a place for them seated in the pew or serving in the nursery?
There are a host of other things that women can do. We have to consider if there really is any room for Priscilla in our churches, as our sister Rachel Green Miller has asked us.
This means that we need to get specific and particular. It means we need to diligently look at our practices, conversations, culture, and values to ensure that we are encouraging the women among us.
Looking at the makeup of our leadership team, does our leadership consist mostly of men? Is it all-male leadership? If so, does this best represent and serve the greater interest of stewarding the mercies of God and shepherding the flock of God that is entrusted to us? I have found that there’s no better way of shepherding women than by listening to and learning from godly women.
I am indebted and grateful for all of the women at Redemption Church who have taught me over the last three years about the value and importance of women serving in ministry. You are my co-workers and partners in ministry, and you know who you are. Thank you for helping me to see your worth and for helping me grow in so many ways.
