Will It Never Be Settled?
As I finally got the chance to start some leap-blogging, I was amazed to see a series of discussions on the place of women in the church. (Dave the Rave has a good listing of the posts.) My first reaction was, "Oh no. Not again!" The second was "Won't this issue ever be settled?" The third was to ignore it. The fourth is to blog it.

For me this issue started- and was settled for me- over 30 years ago. I graduated from seminary with the first woman to be ordained a pastor in the American Moravian Church. She was ordained 29 years ago. Nineteen years ago my wife, who had been trained as a teacher but was not working in the field, heard the call to ordained ministry. This June she will celebrate the 15th anniversary of her ordination. We have worked in a team ministry for all but the last three weeks of that time. She is now on her own as the full-time pastor of the church we had served together for four years.

In short, what's the issue?

Yes, I know it is all about scripture and the authority of scripture and the inerrancy of scripture. If you can throw out a few passages about women in leadership you have to throw out the whole Bible. If you can't trust every word, how can you trust any word? If you don't know which passages are culturally biased, how do you know which ones to follow?

It is also all about culture and interpretation and who's in power and who doesn't want to give up power. It is all about the changes in the world and society. It is not about equality. It is about listening to the call of God in one's life and the work of the community to allow the call of God to work in the community. Who am I to say that a person cannot serve out the call that they perceive from God? Who am I to say that God doesn't call whoever God wants to call?

Here, of course, is where my struggle gets real. It has nothing to do with women in ministry. It has to do with what I just said and how it may apply to other people. (No, I am not about to enter the Bishop Robinson debate again.) There is a logical extreme to which ANY argument can be taken and which will go somewhere we don't really want to go. But that is NOT a reason to exclude women from the work and word of God. Nowhere in scripture that I know of is it sinful to be a woman. Nowhere does it say that it is a sin for a woman to have leadership. It was a religio-cultural issue. It was not a question of right and wrong. It was a question of socialization.

Yes, I am biased. After working with women pastors in all kinds of ministries over these 30 years, there is no question in my mind that God calls them into ministry and leadership in the institutional church. I am not going to argue about it. Been there- done that. I am not going to respond to those who may feel otherwise. Been there- done that. I am going to celebrate the gifts of ministry of all the people of God. And praise God for all that the men and women called into leadership are able to do.