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Ordaining Free Methodist Women: Reflections on My Calling and Vocation

Ordaining Free Methodist Women: Reflections on My Calling and Vocation

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In an earlier post for Seedbed, I tried to summarize all I have learned and experienced as a woman in my career in vocational ministry in three simple “tips.” I opened with a story of a former student of mine and how surprised she was to encounter strong bias against women in ministry leadership when she started at a Christian college – “surprised” because having had me as her youth pastor, she had not realized this was even an issue for some.

I start this post with another story, this time from my first seminary course in 1984. I started out in vocational ministry working for an international para-church youth ministry, and in the Foundations course we learned the fundamentals of our particular organization’s mission and practice. One of those core commitments is to women in leadership, and a persuasive apologetic was laid out by our instructors.

Not having grown up in the church, and having been raised by two parents who always told me that I could anything I put my mind to, I accepted every leadership opportunity offered to me. So I sat comfortably in a row with several male colleagues in class, and on one fateful day, my heart filled nearly to bursting as we learned the fullness of Galatians 3:28 as it was expounded upon by the instructor:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

This seemed immensely empowering to me personally, and enlarged my understanding of the gospel even further. But imagine my surprise when at the end of this section, I heard one of my colleagues whisper to one of his friends, “But when it comes down to it, Jesus was a man.”

This captures my experience throughout my career: I have always worked with organizations who confidently assert a commitment to egalitarian leadership; yet experience in real time has proven to be more of a mixed bag, dependent on the decisions and actions of individuals in a given context. In the past thirty-plus years, I have mostly enjoyed fruitful ministry, though some experiences have been occasionally tarnished by overt and covert sexism, sometimes to a damaging degree.

I came to the Free Methodist church in 2009, and was soon immersed in her fascinating history. According to Wikipedia, “The word ‘Free’ was suggested and adopted because the new church was to be an anti-slavery church (slavery was an issue in those days), because pews in the churches were to be free to all rather than sold or rented (as was common), and because the new church hoped for the freedom of the Holy Spirit in the services rather than a stifling formality.” Sign me up! I was enamored of all of these, and saw them being lived out in many of the Free Methodist churches I encountered here in Southern California.

Additionally, a huge part of my draw to the Free Methodist Church was its stated stance on women in leadership. One of our superintendents enthusiastically endorsed me as a potential leader, and I soon met several gifted women who were serving in leadership. However, because of my past experiences, I remained a bit skeptical. As I read more about the history of Free Methodism, my skepticism proved somewhat founded as I learned that the founding pastor, B.T. Roberts, had strongly advocated for ordination of women, even writing a book arguing for it way back in 1891! Nevertheless, as Dr. Ben Wayman tells us in his Introduction to a new and updated edition to Ordaining Women,

“his [Roberts] approach did not effect a widespread reconsideration of women’s ordination in its time. Roberts’s Ordaining Women could not overturn the ruling made against the ordination of women by the 1890 General Conference of the Free Methodist Church, and it was not until 1974 that the Free Methodist Church finally resolved to ordain women, in agreement with Roberts.”

Fast-forward to 2016 and I would say the Free Methodist Church is still a work in progress, albeit a very earnest one. There is deep commitment from our bishops and superintendents for living out our commitment to empowering women who are called to leadership. In the past few years, female superintendents have been appointed and women function at all levels of church leadership, apart from bishop, at this point. But in the same breath I will acknowledge that the percentages are still small, and anecdotally I know there are pockets around the country where there is subtle resistance. Nevertheless, I am very encouraged.

That is why the aforementioned new edition of Dr. Ben Wayman’s Ordaining Women is so necessary now. As our denomination is “leaning in” (to quote Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg) on this more than ever, I am grieved that American Evangelical Christianity is still struggling over this doctrinal question in many quarters.

What Ordaining Women brings to the table is an amazingly expansive argument, not only drawing powerfully on scripture but also on significant figures and events from history, ranging from Greek philosophy to the Spartans of the Roman Empire to Joan of Arc to Victorian scholars. As Wayman says, it is “a dizzying array of classical, historical, literary, and theological sources.” It is impressive to see the depth and art of Roberts’s exegesis of scripture, word analysis, approach to translation problems, recognition of cultural tensions and deconstruction of historical traditions, originally written back in a time when modern biblical scholarship was relatively new. What is even more interesting is how pertinent his examination still is to our discussions in the 21st century.

So if you want to read a surprisingly “fresh” take on the theological and doctrinal question of women in leadership, pick up the newest edition of Ordaining Women by Dr. Ben Wayman, published by Wipf and Stock. It is unlike anything else I have read regarding the role of women in the church, and it is my hope that B. T. Roberts’s prophetic leadership will receive full appreciation, albeit late in coming.

Comments

2 Responses

  1. If you approach this item from the standpoint of ethology – the understanding of the development of group behavior – I believe God had a precise role and function for each gender, with wide latitude within the role and function. Nonetheless, looking at all species created by God and the human species, every species has one gender that plays a “dominant” role in the hierarchy for purposes of protection and provision.
    The issue for God is not one of capability nor skill – He designed people and His church to represent a healthy, functioning family in which a “husband” (male) serves as family shepherd – not in a dominating nor domineering manner – but nevertheless in a form of leading that functions best for wife and children. Husband serves wife and wife then can more beneficially and holistically serve children when she has received the building up in love from her husband.
    Women speaking on Sunday mornings in the place of male leadership can have a chilling effect over time because it sets the wrong standard both for the church, and for the home. Men are to love their wives sacrificially, and women to respect/subject themselves under God to their husband. This is the model for both family, and for the larger extending Body of Christ manifested in His local church – a mirror or reflection of God’s design for men to lead – providing and protecting.
    It is not about an individual man’s ability to provide and protect, it is the overall biologic design for men and women.
    In this day of much confusion about gender identity in marriage and in life, it is an aspect of Godly community to recognize God foreordained certain functions for each gender.
    Jesus (easily or not easily) could have chosen a woman as an apostle to lead formation of his church – nor did the early church planters do this – and from the standpoint of biology it makes sense.
    We go against God’s plan and design to ordain women as the church-family shepherd – it sets a poor model and weakens the men’s position in the church, when many men need building up. It has a divisive and chilling effect on the Body of Christ to ordain women, in part for the reason that not enough men step up to their leadership responsibility.

    1. Well said. Amen

      For more consideration on this the scriptures outline the requirements for these leadership roles in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus.

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