ROLE OF WOMEN IN FELLOWSHIP, CHURCH AND AS INDIVIDUALS By Kevin Stoda, Germany a bilingual and bicultural fellowship Dear Church of Christ, ICOC, Mennonites, and Conservative Evangelicals or Pentacostals, http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/womensrole.html
I will summarize what I have shared with you before:
1 Timothy 2:12 (New International Version)12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.I shared with you that this later verse of Paul's is a clarification on an early set of verses""in Romans for example--which Paul has made in various writings.
In this verse, we have Paul doing something he rarely does: Paul clarifies that it is a personal preference of his.
No amount of arguing that Paul is speaking in terms of apostolic vision. Paul clarifies that it is his preference that in his own services this rule-of-thumb should apply.
Paul is older by this time in his writings and has gained some greater insight into many more fellowship communities, and he has cultivated some room for tolerance to the implementation of the rule-of-thumbs to which he had held once so dear.
In this writing, Paul does not refer to anything in the old testament of God to make the rationale for his clear. Paul simply interprets, as a former Pharisee would, the status quo belief and practices of how a community of believers functions.
IN FIRST TIMOTHY
However, the now-more-mature Paul of Tarsus is making it clear that it is HE who is speaking by doing what he did not do in Romans--i.e. he is distinctly using "I"- not as a prophet but clearly as teacher or guide to the younger Timothy. (By using this "I"-, Paul is giving advice or at lease relegating his advice to the status of the sort of advice Christians and even non-believers recognize from the Book of Proverbs.
As Christians, and with the old testament example of Judge or Leader Deborah (in Judges 4-5) glaring in our face, we can see that the Lord appoints whomever, he/she wants to lead his people and to speak up or give counsel. This makes it clear that women can certainly give advice or counsel to males--even publically.
I, therefore, encourage all church women and our more conservative church, itself, to encourage greater wisdom for all members and provide training to women to step up when there is a clear time for them to do so--i.e. certainly when they feel called to do so.
For example, if the English church does not have enough male leaders to fill slots, women need to feel comfortable in their training and in their knowledge of the scriptures to take over the slot""i.e. with one important caveat being that wisdom and prayer of the community support her.
I foresee that at some point in the next decades, this will become normal so that our Kingdom will expand with more women voices sharing in leadership.
However, education is the key.
The common lack of female education in the time of Paul was certainly one reason those women asked so many questions at the back of the church during the fellowship, i.e. negatively impacting church meetings.
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