Are you sick of debating whether a woman can be a senior pastor, teach a man in church, or has to give her husband authority over her? I am too. But it’s trending so we gotta talk about it. Maybe I can set the record straight once and for all.
Here’s what I know: the organized church, denominations, and Christian leaders are under attack. But this particular attack is not by Satan. It’s by Believers who are finally waking up and testing everything they’ve been taught. Institutions are falling because they are being put to the test by the people they are supposed to serve.
After the pandemic, George Floyd’s death, riots in the street, and election fraud Believers want to know why the church didn’t stand up for them. They want to know what made their churches so afraid to take a collective stance. And as a result, they have lost faith in leadership and are beginning to question everything.
And the inevitable will happen—pastors will refuse to answer for their missteps in order to save their reputations, finances, and egos, especially in the area of women’s roles in the church.
The debate over what women are allowed to do in church is centuries old. It’s been hashed out a hundred ways to Sunday. And it’s a question I had to grapple with myself. I felt the call to preach when I was sixteen years old. But for years I hid behind operational roles in the church. And because we are drawn to only what we are willing to perceive, I was drawn to churches that didn’t open the path to preaching for me or recognize the potential gift in me. They gave me the perfect place to hide the calling I was so afraid of.
Because I was hiding from my calling I didn’t bother looking intently into whether or not I even believed a woman could preach in a senior role or teach men at all. Once God got a hold of me and started steering me into accepting who He made me to be I had to answer these questions for myself. In fact, I had to answer a lot of questions for myself. It was time to stop believing whatever I heard from the pulpit and put it to the test. We test what we hear by taking the whole council of scripture and by testing scripture against scripture.
I had no idea how quickly my foundational beliefs would totally unravel.
Ninety percent of what you hear in a sermon is commentary.
Yep. Many pastors that serve have never had theological training or, perhaps, more importantly, they’ve had zero training in the original language of scripture and Semitic culture. And on top of that, you never see them do the things Jesus did that He said we would do like heal the sick or raise the dead. A disciple cannot live on what the preacher says alone. A disciple proves in scripture what he/she hears and then puts it into practice to bear good fruit.
A disciple is a doer, not only a hearer. And as the world continues to spiral out of control it will be harder and harder to find disciples who know how to use their faith to move mountains, make the blind see, the lame walk, or survive any famine or evil regime.
I don’t say this to cause fear but to encourage you that a new day in the walk of a Believer has dawned! Resources are more available now than ever before. You don’t have to accept traditions handed down by those who refuse to challenge (and often practice) what they preach.
And ladies… you can stop being unsure of God’s divine destiny for you, whether or not you have to stay in a controlling marriage, or if God wants you to run a Fortune 500 company or plant 500 churches. I’ve put every argument to the test. I’ve studied it from every angle.
I’ve got you.
Check out the podcast this week for part one of a two-part message on women’s role in marriage and the church. You are going to learn WHY God made us and I am confident it’s not the reason you think it is!!!
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