GREASE THE WHEEL – Male Dominated Faith? MEN ONLY

I recently received an email meant for a colleague and friend who is also an elder in the church movement that I am a member of. It read: “There is an elders meeting scheduled for Thursday evening 5 May, 19:00. Men only.” Something stirred in my heart again when I read those words men only. Not anger or resentment – but a kind of deep sadness at what the church is missing when it is led by a single sex leadership team. The Jesus I am coming to know had no hidden prejudices, power issues or worldly attitudes regarding gender. On the contrary, he went against the status quo and reached out across cultural strongholds. I felt sad that the church has been so powerfully affected by the world's tendency towards discrimination and subtle forms of sexism. And I felt sad for the men and women in the church who live under this teaching which at the core, seperates us from genuine 'team' ministry.

One of the first things that is often said in this discussion is that it's only eldership that is exclusive to men, that any other leadership role in the church can be either male or female. The eldership issue is one that could take a book to deal with on its own (my church movement believe that eldership is male only) – I am not challenging that issue, mainly because I know that one could argue scripture back and forth, contextualising and saying that we have to take it for what it says on women or that it was for that culture and time only. (It is interesting that it was only in AD 343 at the Council of Laodicea that it was decided that women could not be elders.) But that is not the purpose of this. What I would like to challenge is how this theology trickles down in the form of male domination, modelling something that is not, in my opinion, Kingdom or team, spirit-led ministry. From the start it's important to state that, similar to race issues, those who are not directly affected (or affected to their knowledge) will generally not see it initially.

I was talking to a male friend of mine who belongs to the same church movement and he said “I just don't see that women cannot run with their gifting in the church”. I had to respond in a way that he would be able to relate to, being black ... we have had conversations in the past where we have discussed how in some environments where racism still pervades, it's only if you are black and feel some of the subtle forms of prejudice that you would understand it. In the same way, unless you are a woman and have felt that 'glass ceiling' or caught yourself shying back (uncharacteristically) in the presence of men, it may be difficult to understand. I asked him how many women had preached in his church during the last year. He said that women do teach and preach --- that there had been a women preacher once in the last year. In a body that is at the very least 50% female, over 52 sundays with two services a week, this is not only bizarre, but a clear indication of how male dominated most of our church leadership is. From the worship to the notices to the preaching to the staff. One only has to look at the paid staff on most church teams to see that men are being raised up to minister in the church context on a far larger and more intense scale than women. How many women are employed by the church? (and I don't mean as secretaries).

I believe it's in the big things, such as the church only employing men in pastoral and leadership capacities, and in the small such as the language used in church meetings. If I preached and kept saying, “We are all the daughters of God.” it would seem weird to men and no doubt, they would feel excluded. It would even feel strange to me to say it, and yet women listen to that language week after week and think it's normal or just say, it's the generic term for humankind. It does not help. And were it the other way around, it would not have lasted this long. Some have said that the call from some women in the church for equality is born out of a tainting from the rise of feminism in the western culture around us. I would say that the sexism in the church is born out of the initial belief system (that most men I know would say is archaic and untrue in theory) that pervaded society over the first centuries of our world's development. So both sexism, which has formed much of the roots of many of our church foundations, and feminism, which is a rising up against that, are worldly, both power-driven systems that I would not espouse to as a Bible-believing Christian.

The world models both extremes – chauvinism and feminism. The church is the community through which God would model something different – something 'kingdom', something 'together', something inclusive that sets people free in their gifting. Not clutching to theology that is somewhat dubious in its interpretation that feeds into the world's way of thinking. We need to guard against cloaking chauvism in scripture and then presenting it to the church as Biblical doctrine (as South Africans we know the danger of that. For decades racism was cloaked in scripture in the form of apartheid). Male domination (chauvinism) in the church is no better or less dangerous than feminism in the world. We are called to be light. Satan seeks to divide – rich and poor, young and old, black and white, male and female. God is breaking through and bringing His kingdom to rule and reign in all of these areas, going against ungodly popular culture as well as church tradition that is unbiblical and exclusive.

So many women I know are leaders in NGOs, development organisations, visionaries who have pioneered ministry in social action and poverty alleviation, and yet their leadership within the church community is almost zero because of this 'eldership is male' teaching, or rather, what trickles down from this theology. As slavery, we would all agree, is an out-dated practice, but one that the Bible neither condemned nor praised, so there are other cultural issues that need to be put in context before the scriptures are used to proport a doctrine that affects the very soul of the church. Should women be blossoming in the workplace and shrinking back in the church? I believe not.

On a purely practical level, can men (or women) alone make the wisest decisions and seek God wholly for the church on their own? The concept of men only meetings (or anything) does not make sense in the light of the rest of scripture or the needs of society today. On the whole, It seems petty and pointless to be trying to work out which parts of ministry I can be involved in in a leadership capacity, and which I would have to 'sit out on' because I am a female. I am convinced that ministry happens best in team. A men-only team lacks the vital ingredient of women, and a women-only team, lacks the equally vital ingredient of men. The Holy Spirit fell on all men and women, young and old. It's the Spirit of God that anoints us for ministry. The Bible is full of so many stories of women who were raised up to fulfil God's purposes for their lives – from Deborah in the Old Testament, to Lydia in the New Testament. At Pentecost the Spirit of God fulfilled prophecy when it fell on all present. “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days ...” Acts 2:18

Men Only – that is not God's heart. I believe it's time to throw off anything that is hindering us – and throw petty arguments aside, and humble ourselves and ask God how best we can serve His purposes for our generation. We need to be asking God how we can best free every person in Christ to be the most fruitful and liberated man or woman that they can be. If we hold onto a subtle worldly philosophy that, at the heart of it, is rooted in superiority of a gender over another, or race over another, or tribe over another – we are going to miss what God has called us to, and we are going to miss out on the freedom and joy of advancing His Kingdom on earth at this time.
Linda Martindale