If Women Only Knew...

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 1 Peter 3:1-2

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 27-29; 1 Peter 3

If women only knew even a little bit of the power they had with the men in their lives...

Female Leaders: They're Fantastic!

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. – Romans 16:1-5

Today’s Reading: Psalms 97-99; Romans 16

At the end of Romans Paul starts giving shout outs to random folks in the church. I’ve always found these chapters to be fascinating as they reveal to me hints about how the early church worked. In these shout outs he leads off by giving all kinds of props to women. In fact a third of all the shout outs are to women.

The women must have been holding it down jack!

When I look at the passages above it is clear to see that women held important leadership positions in the church. The church at Rome was told to assist Phoebe in whatever business she had need of them. The Romans were told to greet the church in the home of Priscilla and Aquila.

Paul clearly viewed these women as powerful assets to the church and as people worthy of authority.

So what happened? How come so few of our churches are led by women? What happened to this very visible presence of female leadership in our community?

Sure, there are many women who are pastors and leaders in churches. I am not trying to pretend that female leadership does not exist at all, but at the same time let’s not front here. Don’t Paul’s shout outs indicate a role of leadership for women that for a LONG time disappeared in the church?

I think so.

I’m no Church historian so I can’t break down exactly why this may have happened. I’m sure it is some mixture of age old sexism, pulling out individual passages in the text to substantiate said sexism, and many other factors that have led to the perpetuation of our male dominating society.

But one thing is clear… women are clearly as capable of leadership as men are. Holding women back from these positions is not only wrong, but also detrimental any organization, entity, or society that chooses to do so. According to the World Bank “societies that discriminate by gender tend to experience less rapid economic growth and poverty reduction than societies that treat males and females more equally.”

Must this not also be true for churches and other religious institutions? Wouldn’t it be more efficient, not to mention just and right, to utilize 100% of the potential human resources rather than roughly half?

Some might say that men hold the majority of the leadership positions because that is precisely what the people want. They would rather follow a man than a woman.

That’s hogwash.

This is a paradigm that can and needs to be broken. I can’t wait to see what the church will look like when women are granted the leadership roles they deserve. I imagine that so much of what we hold true about our faith would be changed by this shift. By becoming more loving and accepting of women we will naturally become more capable of loving and accepting others as well.

So I just want to take a moment to thank Phoebe for all that she did some two thousand years ago. Her life is a reminder that we have a lot to learn when it comes to how we view women in our communities.

Let’s continue to grow and learn by acknowledging everyone’s potential to contribute to the good of all. 

Two Super Women of God

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."

"Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. – Judges 4: 8-10

So now we are in the period of Israel’s history where the judges are running things. Joshua has died and when the people fall away from God, a judge rises up to help lead the people back to the right path. In this case it was a prophetess named Deborah.

She tells Barak to get some troops together and go out and wage war for Israel’s freedom. But there’s one problem with this strategy.

He’s scared.

He won’t go unless she comes. So, she obliges.

She leads the Israeli forces in battle and they slaughter the enemy. The last thing left to do is capture and kill the general of the other army, Sisera.

So Barak is hunting him down; but, who actually gets him? A woman named Jael.

Sisera sought refuge in her house because her husband was friendly with his king. Little did he know how gangsta she was…

"Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "

But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died. – Judges 4: 20-21

Goodnight Sisera.

How ruggedly down for the team was she? Hey, it was rough times in Israel. Many of the Israelites had turned away from God and the neighboring countries have invaded the Promised Land. And in a moment of desperation who comes through?

The women.

There’s that saying that behind every great man is a great woman. That may be true, but that does not mean that the woman must be behind.

We need strong female leadership now just like Israel did back then.

Plus, is there anything sexier than a strong woman of purpose?

Rhetorical question…

Today’s Reading: Judges 4-6; Luke 4:31-44