What does the Bible teach about men and women in ministry? That’s an important question for all of us who hold to Scripture as the final authority for faith and practice. It’s also a question that leaders in every local church must answer. When I was serving as the lead pastor at the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa, I drafted a document to assist our leaders in thinking through this important issue. Over the years, I’ve been asked by pastors and Heritage students for a copy of the document. So I’ll post the various sections of the paper in this short series called Partners in God’s Household. Here is Part I.
Partners in the God’s Household
“In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman” (1 Corinthians 11:11).
These words, written by Paul, come in the middle of a discussion of men and women in the church. Men and women are designed by God to be interdependent, not independent of one another. There is to be a partnership, not partisanship, between the genders.
In recent years, there has been much discussion and debate about how this partnership between men and women should play out in the church.
Our commitment is to be biblically faithful in what we believe and how we behave. We stand convinced that God’s Word, not tradition or culture, is the final and faithful guide for faith and practice. Therefore, we must allow God’s voice in the Scripture to be heard above the many other voices that speak to this issue.
Another core value we have is to be “people developing.” We are called to develop and deploy all the believers who call our church their home. This means we want to help all men and women maximize their kingdom contribution.
This determination to be biblically faithful and people developing means we must give careful attention to the issue of the partnership between men and women in ministry. We want to see each man and women equipped for service. We long to see each man and woman fulfill God’s design for his or her life. And we want to do this within the biblical parameters set forth in God’s Word.
Sorting through these issues is not easy, but it is essential. Thankfully, we have God’s Word and His Spirit to direct us. This paper will explore biblical instructions about men and women in ministry. It will also begin to consider some of the practical implications of these instructions. Our goal is to work towards a partnership in ministry that is both faithful to Scripture and fruitful in ministry for both men and women.
In tomorrow’s post (Part 2), we’ll consider how the metaphor of “God’s household” (1 Timothy 3:15) points us towards a biblical understanding of men and women in Christ’s Church.
Rick and Linda Reed 