What Can Women Do For the Church?
a question and some thoughts
WARNING: reading this post may ruffle some feathers. If you don’t like standing in wind tunnels, don’t read.
Can women edify the Church body in all the ways that Jesus taught?
I realize this might seem like a silly question, but some cultures and church’s do not allow women to serve in all areas. Does this prevent women from practicing all that Jesus and the epistles taught? Let’s see.
First, let’s summarize what the Jesus taught the body of believers to do for each other. When I say Church, I mean gatherings of Christ's followers. When I say lowercase “c” church, I mean organized congregations that probably have a non-profit status. Here are some things off the top of my head that I recall Jesus instructing the Church to do. BTW, this isn’t going to be an exhaustive list.
Witness
Christ’s followers are to witness. This includes sharing, preaching, and proclaiming the gospel. This could be done between two women over a cup of tea. This could be done in the middle of the jungle in sign language. This could be done from a podium, street corner, or grocery store.
Sometimes a man speaks best to a man; sometimes a woman speaks best to a woman; sometimes vice versa, but both men and women are called to do this. Thus, this task doesn’t seem specific to men or women.
We are not excused from this task if a certain culture doesn’t allow Christians authority to witness. We will simply have to be more clever about how they do it. However, we can rest assured that the Lord will orchestrate those divine appointments at the proper time for those willing to share and those ready to receive.
Encourage
Christ’s followers are to encourage one another. Encouraging one another includes various kinds of exhortation, praying, prophesying, and singing together. Again, these are tasks both men and women are called to do, the Bible doesn’t specify that only men are to do these things.
Sometimes a man needs another man to encourage him, and sometimes a woman needs another woman to encourage her, but both men and women are called to encourage each other. Again, I think God arranges divine encounters among his saints so that they might encourage and receive encouragement from one another.
Baptize and Take Communion
Christ’s followers are to baptize and take communion. Jesus commanded his followers to do this during the Last Supper and at the Great Commission. At a very basic level, to baptize and take communion simply means to aid in Christ’s work of cleaning and feeding people to prepare them for the Bridegroom who is himself.
Jesus literally washed his disciples’ feet and passed out the Last Supper bread to show that this washing and feeding were akin to the work of a suffering servant, not an elite clergyman’s job.
In the first-century church, washing others’ feet and passing out food in fellowship with other believers were traditionally assigned to servants and women. However, over time and as Christianity became a means of power, baptism and giving communion became ceremonies only done by clergymen in church.
This doesn’t mean that women were then off the hook for washing and preparing one another for the bridegroom. It simply means that in places where a church has turned baptism and communion into a ceremony only for clergymen, women will simply have to wash and feed the body in ways probably more akin to the way women and servants did so in the first-century church.
Equip
Christians are to equip one another. This includes teaching and instructing. Teaching might be formal or informal, to big crowds or small groups. Again, Jesus doesn’t specify that this is only a task for one gender.
When Jesus sends out his disciples in Matthew 10:1-42, Mark 6:6-12, and Luke 9-10, he doesn’t seem to be restricting his instructions just to men. Thus teaching doesn’t seem like only a male or female task. It does, however, make more sense for mature Christian men to teach young Christian men how to be Christian men; and for mature Christian women to teach young Christian women how to be Christian women, but the characteristics of Christ-followers will be the same for both: sacrificial, gentle, loving instructions, standing up for what’s right with compassion, patience, kindness, and long-suffering, etc.
What about those passages where Paul seems to say women can’t teach men? In regards to those, I think we have three options: Paul and Jesus contradicted each other, OR Jesus didn’t mean his instructions to apply to women in the case of teaching men, OR Paul probably meant something specific to those churches he was writing to. I think that last option is the most valid. We run into BIG problems if we say Jesus’ teachings have a limited application for women. Albeit, if we’re missionaries in a country with a male hierarchy or in a church where men refuse to listen to women, women will need to be more clever with how they teach and instruct. They shall have to learn to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the women. In fact it will sharpen and humble them to be more like Jesus.
To read more on that 1 Timothy 2 verse, click the link below.
WARNING: These next two tasks deal with gender stereotypes. I recognize not all men and women fall into these stereotypes. I myself don’t naturally fall into these stereotypes. In using these stereotypes, I’m not saying these things define men and women, but rather that I believe these strengths are usually associated with one gender more than another.
Serving the Least of These
Christ’s followers are to look after, pursue, and serve the least of these. Jesus talks about welcoming others as children, leaving the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep, and feeding, clothing, healing, and caring for the sick, naked, and imprisoned. This is a task for all Christ’s followers.
Yes, characteristically throughout history, women have made and washed others’ clothes, dressed the injured and ill, made and served meals, and been the primary nurses, childcare-givers, and caretakers, but this doesn’t mean that men must be excluded or are excused from positions of this nature in a church. Jesus instructed all his followers to serve like slaves and servants to the least of these. Churches can help equip men to be more servant-hearted to the least of these by having them partner with women serving in church positions of this nature.
NOTE: Because this is something women tend to do more than men, a woman will most likely step in to compassionately serve if someone needs gentle, servant-like care. However, this doesn’t mean women ought to take these tasks away from men, shoo men out of their way, or make a martyr of themselves by refusing men’s help—”Don’t bother. I’ll handle this.” Or “Out of my way! This is woman’s work!” Or “We women are better equipped to do this. We’ll do it so you don’t have to.”
If women refuse men’s help or if they refuse to teach men how to do this, they are failing to join God’s work in growing men in preparation for eternity. Instead of excluding men, women can take the lead in inviting men to learn how to be servants in the menial day-to-day gentle caregiving of the weak, sick, and immature.
Discipline
Following Christ means learning how to correct, cut out sin, decipher falsehoods, and confront other Christians who sin against us. We often call this church discipline.
Jesus teaches this in Matthew 18-23. Traditionally, church discipline has been established as a power reserved for clergymen and not for women. However, Jesus tells all his followers how to approach a sinning disciple, how to distinguish false teachers from real ones, and how to cut out what causes us to sin.
Likewise, the New Testament’s Epistles instruct those in the church to put out the sinner from among them (1 Cor. 5:4-5), to reject false teaching (1 Tim 4:7-8), and to put off the sin that trips us up (Hebrews 12:1-3). Slaves and women were often the recipients of these first-century letters. Thus, I think it’s safe to assume that both men and women were to practice church discipline in these ways.
This isn’t a special task for those higher up in church authority or for one gender only. Churches can help equip women to be more confrontational to sin and threats by having them partner with men serving in church positions of this nature.
NOTE: While policing, confronting, and guarding are generally jobs men are more inclined to do than women, this just means that if there’s a threat or false teacher in a congregation, a man will be more likely to step up to confront the threat than a woman. This doesn’t mean that men ought to take this task away from willing women, scorn women’s help, or make themselves a martyr by refusing women’s help. “No, no, I’ll do it.” Or “This is man’s work! No women allowed!” Or “We men are better equipped to do this. We’ll take care of it so you don’t have to.”
If God calls women to cut out sin and confront sinners or false doctrine, and a church refuses to teach women this or allow women to practice this in the church, that church is teaching women that women don’t have to practice all Jesus commanded at church. Not only this, but they’re failing to prepare their sisters in Christ for their Bridegroom in this way.
Instead of excluding women, men can take the lead in inviting women to learn how to stand up to threats, protect others, recognize false teachers, and cut out sin in their midst. If clergymen fail to teach women how to do this or if they teach women that this is only a man’s job, I think women, generally speaking, will shrink away from confronting false teaching and men who sin against them in the church. This creates a breeding ground for the abuse of women by men in the church.
Submit
Perhaps the most overlooked kindness a Christian can give another is submission. This includes laying down one’s life for one’s friend and breaking our bodies for each other. This could be done physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Giving up our will might be done while performing the above services: equipping, encouraging, discipling, serving, teaching, witnessing, baptizing, or giving communion. It might also be done in deference to another’s spiritual gift. We give up our will to serve others, and we give up our will to allow others to serve us. This is something both men and women are called to do.
Men submitting to women and women submitting to men allows us to learn from each other in the areas where we are weak. When we submit to another’s service, teaching, encouragement, admonition, or discipline, we submit to what God would give us through that person. Submission is what a young Christian does when following the instructions of his elder. Submission is also what a wise teacher does when allowing a newbie a chance at the pulpit.
Because submission says, “Your will above my own,” it assigns a greater value to another. It is vital to the survival of a church that everyone be in submission to one another. If a certain class of people is encouraged to submit less than another, then we assign greater value to one class’ will above another, making it impossible for the different classes to treat others as they would like to be treated.
Summary
So what can women do for the church? I think we can do all the Lord commands. God wants both men and women to witness, equip, encourage, teach, serve, and discipline. While some men and women might be more inclined to one task than another, I don’t think this means we’re excused from some of Jesus’ teachings. Rather, we can teach one another so that the whole body is unified and equipped for following Christ.
If churches systematize these jobs to exclude certain genders, I don’t think this means we’re excused from certain tasks either. Preparing one another for eternity can still go on despite man-made systems. It just means we’ll need to be more clever about how we do it. For women, this might mean that we need to look outside a certain church system to receive training and practice in certain areas. The Lord has provided a whole world full of ways in which we might grow; the organized church is only one of those places.
This might seem counter-Christian-cultural, difficult, unsafe, and inefficient. But discipleship takes a lot of courage, patience, and time. Our objective isn’t a visible organization right here on earth. Our objective is to sharpen one another regarding all Jesus’ ways so that we’re made ready for that eternal Heavenly kingdom. This might mean finding new ways to follow Christ in countries, cultures, or churches where following Christ in all things isn’t encouraged for all genders.
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