by Sandy » Tue May 01, 2012 9:28 am
I have no doubt there are many churches which would not be around today had it not been for the work of women in the congregation. Gene keeps arguing as if the perspective of women serving pastors is some kind of "all or nothing" proposition. It's not. The involvement of women in the ministry of Southern Baptist churches is at as high a level as it is in any other kinds of churches, and perhaps higher than in many which claim to be more "progressive" because they slap an ordination label on them and give them a pulpit. You can equate what women do in a Southern Baptist church with those who followed Jesus during his public ministry, with Mary and Martha, with those who were with him at the cross, with Mary in the garden at the tomb, and with the other women who are named in the New Testament as servants of the church. Most of those I know who serve their church do it gratefully and joyfully, and with a sense of fulfilled calling. And since it's more of a Protestant thing for the pastoral ministry of a church to be connected to the teaching and preaching via the "sermon," fewer women find themselves in a preaching role, but I've not encountered very many Southern Baptists who deny their "daughters" the ability to practice their prophetic gift. You don't have to be a pastor to proclaim God's word or exercise your gift of prophecy.
But there is no instance where Jesus called a woman into leadership, and made her an apostle. Perhaps you'd like to blame that on his Jewish maleness. It would be hard to reconcile that with his perfection as God's son, but then, if you think divinely inspired scripture could be tainted by that perspective, why not?