Vintage21 Church

jrhammlett · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Raleigh, NC

(This post isn't to spur on a debate, just offering a bit of scripture to digest and wrestle with... comments welcome!)

In reference to women being in leadership positions in the church, or in ministry, we see references to that in 1 Corinthians 1:11 which speaks of "them which are of the house of Chloe." Chloe is a female. This reference is similar to several other references for churches in people's homes. 1 Corinthians 16:19 and Romans 16:5 talk about the church in Priscilla and Aquilla's house. Colossians 4:15 speaks of the church in Nymphas' house and Philemon 2 speaks of the church in Philemon's house. There is no indication that those of the house of Chloe were simply a family and not a church as in the three other home-churches mentioned.

When speaking about a church in a person's home, Paul would refer to the Pastor(s) or head of that church. So he's not speaking about her family living in her house but rather he is referring to her as the head of that church. Priscilla and Aquilla were a husband and wife who had a church in their home. They are always mentioned together in the Bible. You could say they co-pastored together. So because of these other scriptural references to female pastors and co-pastors you could say the scriptures in 1 Timothy 3 which discuss qualifications for leadership in the church apply in the female gender as well as in the male gender. Since we see this reference in the gift of Pastor, the other ministry gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist and Teacher apply equally to women as well.

Additionally, It can be said that all churches with married male elders have women elders regardless of their beliefs. In Matthew 19:5 Jesus says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' implying that the married couple is ONE in everything they say and do. Therefore, if the husband is an elder in the church the wife has equal parts responsibility and influence for her husband's position.

Rob Davis · Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 90 Location: Raleigh, NC

Here are some articles that address your specific points:

http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Articles/Women-in-the-Pauline-Mission
http://www.cbmw.org/Resources/Articles/A-Female-Apostle
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jrhammlett · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Raleigh, NC

Those articles give very interesting statistics... I mean wow 18% of people mentioned in Paul's writings are women... that's huge! Considering the time and culture when women basically had no human rights, God must have been doing something pretty big for Paul to mention that many women in his writings.

Def. a thick article but ultimately I think we'll all be surprised when we are in heaven with God and there are no elders, teachers, preachers, deacons, etc.... just God!

Regardless of Vintage's position on female elders, I know God uses the church to impact our culture. He understands that we will never completely understand his perfect will but the fact that we strive to do so brings him joy. He loves all of his children and will do whatever it takes to reach them, regardless of our theological positions. I believe if it takes a female elder to lead one person to Christ he will use a female elder. There are only a few absolutes that I know to be true... one of which is God will never do anything against his nature. (i.e. He isn't holy because He doesn't sin, He doesn't sin because He IS HOLY! He is completely incapable of sinning... he is all things perfect, good and true!) Outside of God's nature everything else is just trivial... even things we consider to be absolutes. (i.e. gravity, science, math, church doctrine) If he chooses to contradict it all he can and he will still be God!