Women in the Church: so the issue of women in the church is not a minor or marginal one.
So what I’m inviting us as a church into is the opportunity to discern how we as a local church in the 21st century can best live out the gospel in our day to the glory of God – particularly in relation to women in the church. This is the work of the Holy Spirit as we seek to be transformed by the renewing of the mind as He influences our values toward the values of the Kingdom of God.
One of the Brethren theological gurus that made me think “if he thinks this, then i’d better think some more” was F F Bruce – “If, as evangelical Christians generally believe, Christian priesthood is a privilege in which all believers share, there can be no reason that a Christian woman should not exercise her priesthood on the same terms as a Christian man.” (Saint Paul, Apostle of Freedom for women and men”
Our difficulty (as those who hold a high view of Scripture) is that: one set of New Testament texts appears to say ‘yes’ to women, while a second set appears to say ‘no’.
The second difficulty is whether the texts that say ‘no’ are to be taken for all women for all time.
Whilst there is a strong male leadership presence throughout both Old and New Testament Scriptures, there were clearly significant women in positions of leadership and in the early church.