Half the Church and Half the Harm

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Half the harm that is done in
this world 
Is due to people who want to feel important.
T.S. Eliot

Individual gifts and their proper place within the church have been a source of contention since its inception. So much so that Paul addresses the Corinthian church on issues of differing gifts, how we ought to think about them, and what should be done when sin rears its grotesque head and we begin to think of ourselves as more important than we ought (1 Corinthians 12-13). As Eliot observed in The Cocktail Party, great harm can be done by our desire for importance. And our craving for recognition does not just harm the world at large, but the church itself.

Eliot’s observation of the human longing for importance comes to mind as conversations swirl about the roles of women in the church. It’s an issue that sits in controversy today–and seems to have been in Paul’s day as well (1 Timothy 2-3). For those of us who hold the Scriptural imperative Paul addresses to Timothy, that women are not to hold positions of teaching and authority over men*, we must ask, what does this mean for women’s roles in the church? Is our contribution to the church less than men because we cannot hold the position of elder? Is the gift of teaching unused if we don’t set foot in a pulpit? Are we limited in our ability to use our gifts, particularly those who excel in the areas of thinking, teaching, and leading?

In the early 1980s, as second-wave feminism swept the nation off its feet, and pressed into the doors of the church to challenge the traditional orthodox view that women should not hold offices of church authority, missionary turned author, Elisabeth Elliot, stood unmoved and dared to push back:

“We discern in ourselves certain propensities or even gifts and, without thought for possible restriction which may be placed upon their use, start wielding them [...] Men and women who have used their minds, their talents, and their genius to move multitudes to evil have used the minds, talents, and genius given to them by their Creator. But they have not asked what God has commanded” (Let Me Be a Woman).

The mere existence of our talents or gifts does not give us instruction on how we might use them. If someone has the majestic voice of an operatic soprano, this does not mean she ought to use her voice that way to lead worship on Sunday. Our gifts have proper context, and we use God’s word to determine what that context is, joyfully submitting to it.

The mere existence of our talents or gifts does not give us instruction on how we might use them. If someone has the majestic voice of an operatic soprano, this does not mean she ought to use her voice that way to lead worship on Sunday. Our gifts have proper context, and we use God’s word to determine what that context is, joyfully submitting to it.

Yet, clamoring for positions of authority and perceived importance seems to be currently en vogue; not only permissible, but practically commanded to women in our culture. We’re taught we ought to take from men these positions they have held poorly. We’re underrepresented, unrecognized, overlooked, and forgotten, so the narrative goes. And certainly, this is true in some church contexts. It would be dishonest to deny the horrific abuses of some men in leadership, or–though less horrific, yet still damaging–the neglect of women from men who ought to be shepherding them and encouraging them to use their giftings in church life appropriately. However, the damage done by men who have disobeyed God’s command to them as leaders does not permit women to invert God’s commands for them. A woman clamoring for a position of authority in the church is no more obedient than the unqualified men who occupy them. Faithful women seek to do great work for God, undoubtedly, but we would do well to be certain we are seeking to do so as he has allocated. If we are reluctant or bitter toward prohibitions, it may be a sign that we seek not a great work for God, but greatness for ourselves.

A woman clamoring for a position of authority in the church is no more obedient than the unqualified men who occupy them. Faithful women seek to do great work for God, undoubtedly, but we would do well to be certain we are seeking to do so as he has allocated. If we are reluctant or bitter toward prohibitions, it may be a sign that we seek not a great work for God, but greatness for ourselves.

There are indeed women who have had selfish-ambition, and men who have failed in the exercise of their authority, but a third facet may lie beneath some of our confusion over women’s roles in the church. Our landscape of life in the church may be tainted with lies about positions that women have traditionally held. We may have lost sight of the beauty of given roles. We may see the offices of elders and pastors as enviable because we do not rightly look at the Body of Christ. Even as our modern sensibilities flinch at the existence of a hierarchy of authority, we’ve ironically saddled to it a hierarchy of importance. This is precisely as Paul warned the Corinthians–and us–not to do. I have heard women bemoan that they are only allowed to teach women and children, as though teaching these fellow image bearers is beneath their education, a waste of their gift.  

It is possible that we have bought the serpent-tongued lie that to be a woman is to be brainless? That pursuits women traditionally have held in the church require little skill, or they are neither worth excelling at nor challenging? Hospitality, teaching women and children, encouraging and exhorting men in informal ways, caring for infants and toddlers, fostering fellowship among women, these–and a myriad of others that I haven’t the space to list–are service opportunities wide open to women in the church; yet we often look upon them with disdain, and I think it is because our vision has been skewed by pulpit-envy. We are not unlike Eve who was given the whole garden of trees from which she could eat freely, and yet she only looked upon the one that she could not. We know how that ended for her. Yet we continue to believe that somehow the one boundary we are given means all other areas are somehow less worthy of our effort. That certainly isn’t how the kingdom of God works–this upside-down world that Jesus tells us makes the last first and the first last, where the hidden things are often those of greatest value, and the greatest act of service begins in the heart, not the seat of power. 

We are not unlike Eve who was given the whole garden of trees from which she could eat freely, and yet she only looked upon the one that she could not. We know how that ended for her. Yet we continue to believe that somehow the one boundary we are given means all other areas are somehow less worthy of our effort.

A  woman who makes people feel welcome in her home, who creates a safe environment where others feel they can share their sins and failures, victories and joys, and feel at peace when the world outside feels like war; who gives well-timed godly advice; who offers biblical encouragement and exhortation; she is a life-giver. A woman who teaches other women the value, truth, and complexity of God’s word; who affirms the godly, faithful men in leadership, shares her testimony, opinions, and what the Lord teaches her in informal yet powerful ways; and passes on her experiences as a single woman, widow, wife, or mother to the men and women around her; she is a helper. A woman who can calm a fussy baby to free parents to listen to a sermon and sing with free hands; who employs her knowledge of theology and scripture to help 11-year-olds connect complex dots of doctrine in their burgeoning faith, or introduces Christ to 4-year-olds in ways they can begin to grasp; she is a woman who builds the house of God. 

Our service must begin not by looking for positions of importance, power, or recognition, but by surrendering ourselves to the God we serve. Concurrently, we ought not look at the positions we can occupy with apathy, or half-heartedly, but with an enthusiasm to use God-given gifts passionately for his glory and gladly within his good design. We begin where we always must, at the cross, where we look upon the One who bled for us. We trust in Him who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). Surely if Christ was obedient to death, we can submit to his designation of roles. If he had the humility that bore him to the cross to die at the hands of those he came to save, and shouldered the burden of our sin, we can have the humility to see no act of service is beneath us. 

Half the harm done in the world is by those who want to be important. The greatest good done in the world was done by the One who left his position of true importance to rescue his people. Beauty, life, and truth flourish in the church by the work of the ones who set themselves aside and aim to follow Christ, whatever he asks of them. We must submit our gifts, ambitions and desires to his designation for his kingdom, his glory.

What a magnificent calling. May we rise to meet it. 


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*For a full defense of this position see Women in the Church: An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 By Andreas Kostenberger and Thomas Shreiner





 






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Reading Guide for “(A)typical Woman”

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Reading Guide for “Men and Women in the Church”