A Reflection on Women in Ministry

Oct 20, 2017 by Jill

by Katherine Ruch, Virtueonline:

The following was submitted to the ACNA House of Bishops in August 2017

As the ACNA continues to navigate through the choppy waters of how to embrace women in leadership at a time when the province is in process on women’s ordination, I think it important to zoom out and remind ourselves of our goal and the means to that goal.

The foundation of this entire conversation needs to carry forward the fundamental truth that men and women together image God. One of the creational intentions for man and woman is to share in the dominion of God’s creation. They are to be one. When women and men partner in ministry, great fruitfulness and joy are the beautiful result. They are living out God’s design. It isn’t difficult to agree that this partnership is the desirable end, the question is always how God designed that partnership to be embodied in the Church. Does each bring something unique to the partnership? And does the uniqueness fall along gender lines? The answers to these questions matter because God’s way is always the blessed way, the fruitful way for both men and women. If we can discern and embrace God’s way, it will be a joy and blessing for both men and women, but more than that, their union will be a beacon to the world, where men and women live in a power struggle marked by resentment, loss, and division.

The difficulty of having this conversation in the current atmosphere is that many women in the evangelical church have felt that they have been shut out from meaningful roles in the Church. The question of women in ministry has often been answered in practice by something less than a true partnership with men. Men have done the heavy lifting of shaping, strategizing, and leading in the Church, and women have had certain supportive roles that rarely tapped into the wealth of meaning and capacity women could have brought to the table. Understandably, women with gifts to lead and shape have suffered hurt by being shut out of important conversations.

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Read also: Our Culture Degrades Women by Trying to Make Them Men by Annie Holmquist, Intellectual Takeout