Female Pastor?

We pick up where we left off last week, as Abbe continues responding to the question: How did we get from there [church tradition/polity that prohibits female church leadership] to Pastor Jessi?

A few examples of passages that few, if any churches take literally:

Deuteronomy 21:18ff states that stubborn or rebellious teenagers must be stoned to death. Leviticus 27:31-33 requires that everyone give one tenth of everything they grow and produce to God, or else. Leviticus 19:19 prohibits livestock and seed cross-breeding or hybridization, as well as fabric made from more than one type of fiber. Literal interpretation alone would mean that countless adolescents, missing contributions to the church of incalculable value, hybrid seeds/animals, and polyester fabric have all escaped proper church judgment, if not death/punishment.

The New Testament is not exempt from selective literalism. If we believe that Paul’s words are definitive with regard to prohibiting women in church leadership (instead of, say, the words of Jesus against women, which, incidentally, are non-existent), then shouldn’t we also follow his admonition to cover or shave all women’s hair (1 Corinthians 11:6)? If not, why not? Who decides which is first century custom and which is essential biblical teaching? In Paul’s defense, we must also not forget all the women that he commends as saints and leaders in the early churches which he helped form: Philippians 4:2-3; Colossians 4:15; 2 Timothy 1:5.

All this talk of evolving and selective scriptural interpretation notwithstanding, the church has not taken the parameters of its call to ordained leadership lightly. Our Book of Order—one of the essential guiding principles for church government—reads: Both men and women shall be eligible to hold church offices… As persons discover the forms of ministry to which they are called… they and the church shall pray for the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit upon them and upon the mission of the Church. (G-6.0106) Our Book of Confessions—source of our most important historical faith statements and second only to the Bible as a document influencing our faith and practice—has this to say: The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles, rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church. (A Brief Statement of Faith 10.458ff)

Things finally changed when congregations, sessions, and presbyteries began to see that both men and women possessed the gifts and skills for leadership and ministry. When we finally recognized the reality of Pentecost: In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. (Acts 2, quoting Joel) the question of Peter (Acts 11:17) demanded an answer: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”

See you at Pastor Jessi’s installation service and celebration?

Abbe