Women and their callings

Annette, my dearest friend for 21 years now, has always wanted to preach, and now God is opening the door for her to become a Methodist pastor, as is her husband. Her dad, who is a retired Lutheran pastor, doesn't approve of women preachers, so she's doing it without his blessing.

She's here visiting and I've been reading a book that helped her in her decision. Some of you may be interested in it, too. It's called "Why Not Women?" by Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission.

Here are some excerpts:

The devil knows his time is limited. He is doing everything he can to delay the completion of the Great Commission. One is his tactics is simply to cut the number of workers.

I see this issue of women in ministry from the vantage point of being a leader in missions for 4 decades. Two-thirds of all Bible-believing Christians are women. When two-thirds of the Christians are excluded from the work of evangelizing, the loss for God’s cause is so great that it can hardly be described.

Many Christians fear women preachers because they associate such change with radical feminism. Pastor David Johnson from the Christian Missionary Alliance said, “All my life I heard that the acceptance of women preachers was a spineless accommodation to feminism. However, the elimination of women from ministry is actually a sinful accommodation to a culture that isn’t all that different from the male-dominated Jewish culture Jesus came to blow up. “

Can God use women in public ministry? People who ask this question are actually debating which God-given gifts they will give women permission to use. How presumptuous! Think of the implications! God’s Word says we are not to touch His anointed ones or do His prophets any harm. God warns us not to quench the Spirit. Yet people routinely “touch” God’s anointed women, harming their ministry and quenching the Spirit’s work through them. I believe this is what happens when people deny women the right to minister. I have watched through the years: Those who oppose women in ministry often see their own work wither.

We are talking about releasing millions of people to obey God, to fulfill the destiny He created for them in their mother’s wombs. We are talking about doing whatever God tells you to do. When you stand before God, He’s not going to ask you, “What did your family tell you to do? Did you do what your father or your mother said? What did your culture say was appropriate? Was everyone happy with your career choice?” No. He’ll ask you what you did with what He gave you. He’ll ask whether you obeyed his call.

There is only one Body of Christ, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. How can we read Eph. 4, then separate the gifts listed there into male and female categories? Wouldn’t that make us two bodies? Does God gift a woman just to teach other women in a female Body of Christ? Or is she part of the one Body? Paul said that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus—one body, not two or three or more.

Sometimes God surprises us and shakes up our way of looking at the world. He does what we would never give him permission to do! That’s what happened in Acts 10. God gave the Holy Spirit to Gentiles. That wasn’t supposed to happen, according to the apostles, who called Peter in to explain why he had allowed it. But Peter answered, “Who was I to think that I could oppose God." Some may think God shouldn’t use women in certain ways either, but if he chooses to, can we stand in His way?

One of the most gifted evangelists of our time is the daughter of Billy Graham, Anne Graham Lotz. She is an itinerant speaker whose growing ministry puts her before auditoriums and stadiums packed with people who have come to hear her anointed preaching. She says that sometimes, “It’s like the fire falls, and the Lord just pours out.”

Her father and her brother Franklin both say Anne is “the best preacher in the family.” But not everyone has accepted Lotz’s ministry with open arms. When she spoke at a 1988 pastors’ conference, some pointedly turned their chairs around so as not to face a woman pracher! Lotz doesn’t try to convince such people. She merely says, “When people have a problem with women in the ministry, they need to take it up with Jesus. He’s the one who put us here.”

Interesting, huh?