I know it’s been a minute since I sat down and took the time to blog, but it wasn’t intentional. In fact, I have written quite a few blogs, and I mean, I put some real time in it, but upon completion, I ended up deleting them as opposed to publishing them. This happened at least 3 or 4 times over the past month or so. I have no idea why that was the outcome. I mean, after I wrote them, and looked them over, I just didn’t want to publish them. It was not because the content was bad either, I guess I’m just funny that way. Writing is actually therapeutic for me, so sometimes I like to write, just because.
Anyway, a lot has gone on since my last blog, and I have really been keeping my eye on the culture war, church affairs and spiritual warfare. These are topics my mind has been on a lot lately. So, this morning I woke up with the craziest topic on my mind. Perhaps it’s not really crazy, but it is a topic that I find before me quite often. That said, this blog is really me sharing my thoughts as it relates to this topic. As always, it will be therapeutic for me, but if indeed you are reading this one, it means that I decided to actually share this one, rather that deleting it after completion. If this be the case, I pray it blesses you in reading it as much as it blesses me in writing it.
Growing up in church, we weren’t necessarily a religious family in the sense that many were at that time. However, we did go to church weekly. We very seldom missed a Sunday service. I was pretty much what they would jokingly call today a “drug baby”, in that my parents drugged me to church every Sunday. Because my parents were not that “religious”, I really didn’t learn much in those years other than what I consider to be foundational to the faith. I knew that YHVH was God, who had a Son named Yeshua, who for some reason came down from heaven to die for my sins. Back then, I had no idea what a sin was, let alone what my sin was that the Son of God needed to die for mine. And so for 18 years, that was the extent of what I knew about God.
Most of my other friends at the time had a much different experience in church compared to mine. Many had family members who were very active in the church, and went at least 2 to 3 times a week. Being active in the church, many became accustomed to “church doctrine”, which would ultimately be with them for the rest of their lives. Many of these church doctrines or rather church theology would ultimately form foundations in their minds for what is and is not acceptable in the Kingdom according to their church theology. Again, because this was not my experience, I found it much easier to not be influenced by it.
Although I didn’t learn much as a child, I am actually happy about it because as I became a man and established my own relationship with YHVH, it was not intermingled with church doctrines, but rather on the written word of God. Since then, I have come across countless people that after having conversations with them, I noticed that many were still guided partially by church theology, and as such, found it very difficult to let them go. Again, I am so grateful that this was not my story. One of the most pressing of church theological doctrines is that of women in ministry. Based on personal experience, I would say 85% of the people I have encountered in my life time firmly disagree with women in ministry. This topic is the basis for this blog, but I encourage you to read it in its entirety before commenting on it.
As I said, I was not in a church that taught this, at least from what I can recall. In fact, I can still remember having a woman minister in our church. I was very young then, and to be honest I have no memory of what all she did in the church, I just remembered we had one, that was the point. This stayed with me all of my life, and for this reason, I have never really had a problem with women in pastoral roles. In fact, years later, as an adult, I came to know Yeshua as Messiah, and the first church I connected to had a woman as the Pastor. It was a bit weird in the beginning, not so much because I had a problem with her being a pastor, but because it was my first time as an adult encountering one.
I can happily say, I did not judge her calling or position based on her gender, but instead, I purposed to sit back, watch and listen to her teaching to determine if she was legit or not. Although I was a new believer, I understood the importance of checking the anointing of the person behind the pulpit. I was determined to never allow myself to be deceived by any one regardless of gender. As time went on, I found that this woman pastor was dead on point. Funny that most of the men pastors of that town had issues with her being a woman, yet her church was among the biggest in town. As for her teaching, she taught straight Bible, called out sin and didn’t hold back on anything as it relates to Scripture. I wanted to point that out because most large churches tend to have pastors that teach a watered down gospel. Not saying all, just a good amount of them.
I eventually came back to Cali, and what do you know, the church I connected to there, also had a woman pastor. I was batting two for two. I stayed with this church until once again, I was reassigned to another duty station. All of my pastors after that were all men. But from my experiences, I had come to accept both men and women as pastors, my focus was on the anointing and not the gender. As time went on, from encountering a majority of believers that were against women in leadership roles in the church, I felt the need to research this for myself. Yes, I could have asked these people instead, but in my line of thinking, if I ask you, you are going to focus more on what you believe as it relates to how you interpret the Scriptures, rather than what the Scripture is really saying. Because you believe a certain way, any revelation you share will go along with your perception.
This is why it is important for us to read and study for ourselves, because when we do, we have the opportunity to understand the word minus personal bias’s. Now there are times that we can also read the word and have our own personal bias’s to how we understand the texts. We need to learn to allow the text to speak for itself and not the other way around. I had this exact same problem when I got on the path I am on now. I was at a standstill in my growth because the new revelation I was getting was conflicting with my pre-existing bias’s as it related to how I understood Scripture. I had become totally frustrated. It was not until the Spirit revealed to me the problem, which was my refusal to let go of what I thought I knew, so that I get the true revelation, that I was finally able to move forward. I believe many of us need to do the same.
So, in my studies, I found that it was in a couple of letters from the Apostle Paul, where we find that he addressed some of the Gentile heavy churches on women in the church. I can see how we have come to understand his words to mean that women can’t operate in leadership roles in the church. However, there are a few things we need to really consider before we make this issue a matter of “church doctrine”. The first thing I would point out is this, and for those of you who follow me on my podcast, you should know what I am about to say. Before anything can become doctrine, it needs to first have the “witness of agreement”. What is the “witness of agreement” you ask? That’s a good question. Let’s get into it.
The concept of the witness of agreement can be found in the teachings of Torah. Torah teaches that before anything can be considered truth, there needs to be 2 more witnesses to confirm it. The same can be true when studying Scripture. When I read my Bible and feel I have revelation, I like to confirm it before running with it. So, if I read something in the New Testament, I will go back to the Old Testament to see if there is anything there to confirm it. This is the biblical witness of agreement. If I can find it in the Old and New Testament, then it can be considered truth. The problem I find with most believers is that many of them read something in the New Testament, often times out of context, while failing to consider the context, culture, times and history, and then run wild with it. I have found that in a majority of conversations I have had with most believers, when discussing theological doctrines, things they present in their argument, can be easily shut down when searching for a witness of agreement in Scripture.
I have learned that when in discussion with most of these people that any point I bring to the discussion, I need to make sure I have a witness of agreement for everything, and in doing so, my points tend to stand a lot firmer than theirs when it comes to trying to disprove it. That said, when addressing this issue with women n leadership roles in church, the argument always stems from the Apostle Paul. It is interesting that none of the other Apostles address this issue. Why is that? When considering Paul as a source, I challenge most believers to site sources supporting their stance from people other than Paul. The reason for this is because when reading Paul outside of context, he appears to be very unstable. One moment, it appears he is opposed to Torah, the next he praises it. It would appear that he flip flops a lot in his opinions.
If you were to site one opinion of Paul, chances are, I can find somewhere where he says the complete opposite. Am I saying Paul is conflicted? Certainly not! But to understand his words, we first need to understand him. Paul was very complex. According to the Apostle Peter, Paul’s words are hard to understand, and those who are unlearned, the unlearned being those who do not understand Torah, twist his words to their own demise. We must learn to read Paul in context if we truly want to understand why he says what he says. We also need to consider that when looking at his letters, he is writing to address specific incidents happening in these various Gentile churches. It is very likely that just as he wrote them, they too wrote back to him, however, we are only given half of the conversation, being his side. We must remember that these were not Jews he was writing. Being Torah observant was foreign to them. They still wrestled with their own customs and practices, which in many cases were contrary to Torah.
When looking at the idea of women in leadership roles in the church, the Old Testament, which they read from daily neither confirmed or denied this idea. In fact, we find that in the book of Judges, one of the kings refused to go to battle unless the Prophetess Deborah went with him. Women prophets were not a foreign concept to the Jewish culture. There may not have been many, but the fact that there were a few means that YHVH clearly had no problem using the, especially since He was the one who called them. Even in the New Testament, there was a female prophetess present when Yeshua was born. That said, clearly YHVH doesn’t care about gender. So why does Paul seem to be so opposed to women in leadership roles? None of the other Apostles seem to have an opinion on this. Did Paul get a new revelation that wasn’t shared with the twelve?
When considering everything said up to this point, we should also remember that YHVH is NOT a respecter of person. Scripture makes it clear, that we are all one in Him. There is no Jew nor Greek, bond or free, male or female, but we are all one in Him. So if we are one in Him, and He is no respecter of persons, then if He is against women in leadership roles, isn’t that being a respecter of person as it relates to gender? If we hold this view that women can’t be in leadership roles simply because of their gender, then we also reject the idea of YHVH not being a respecter of persons. Is this really our stance? There is no witness of agreement anywhere to confirm this flawed doctrine. That said, let’s take a closer look at this doctrine.
About a year ago, I actually did a study on this topic. I am sure it’s somewhere in my podcast archives. Anyway, what I found out was that in some of the pagan cultures that churches were being established, these same cultures worshiped various deities, and as such, many of the women were priestess’ and held high positions there. Seeing that they held high positions, their authority placed them above the men. The men were not always the head, but rather these women. Because this was a cultural norm for them, it was accepted by everyone. When the gospel was brought to these places, many of the people gladly accepted it, however, along with their practices came their social structures. The women who were held in high degree before, assumed they remained in the same status as a believer. Many of them were disruptive in the church and as such, became a hindrance to the other people. Seeing this distraction, Paul shut it down by telling these women to be quiet, and if they had any questions, ask their husbands at home.
There is a lot more to it, but that was the gist of it. Paul just wanted to shut the distractions down so that everyone else could learn. With this in mind, we need to remember that some of what Paul wrote was not necessarily about faith based doctrines, but rather to address things going on in the church. Paul never intended to hinder women from being in leadership roles. If this was indeed his intention, he single handedly blocked the hand of YHVH from using women by saying this. This also means that YHVH really is a respecter of persons, and this be the case, what other areas is He a respecter of persons in? Since the first century church was ran by all Jews, how can we as Gentiles be sure that just as He is against women in leadership roles, that He is not equally against non-Jews in leadership roles? It could happen, if this were truly the case. But if what Paul said in Romans stands true, that He is NOT a respecter of persons, than just as we as Gentiles can be in leadership roles in church, so can women.
We need to take our focus off of the gender of the person behind the pulpit and focus more on the anointing of that person. Being a respecter of persons can cause us to miss the move of God, all because we refuse to see beyond the gender. I believe that as believers, it is imperative that we learn to let go of old church theologies taught to us as children and allow the teachings of the Bible to become our new theology. I understand that some of these doctrines were taught way back when we were children, but we need to learn to re-visit some of these same things taught to us back then and see if there is a witness of agreement to support. If none can be found, then we clearly need to change our views on this matter. We also need to consider what it means to be a respecter of persons, as it relates to YHVH. We cannot add or remove things at will, based on our former views. If He is not a respecter of persons, it has to be towards any and every aspect that comes to mind. Likewise, if He is a respecter of persons, then the list of areas could be limitless. Considering the character of YHVH, I am inclined to believe that He indeed does not concern Himself with gender.
Yes, the man is indeed the head of the household, as it relates to marriage, however, marriage and church affairs are two totally different things. A woman being a Pastor does not make her a ruler over man, any more than a man as a Pastor, making him a ruler over men. Leadership positions simply mean that the person is the chief servant, and has a greater responsibility as well as a greater expectation. It is not about ruler-ship, in that Pastors are not kings. Once we get that revelation, things tend to look different. If indeed you left a church because of the gender of the pastor, it is not that Pastor that is out of line, but you, seeing as you have judged the anointing of the person by the gender of that person. If you left a congregation over someone’s gender, the gender can’t be the underlying problem, there is definitely something else going on, or perhaps your true colors are being revealed. Either way, it would appear you are the one out of line, and not the female behind the pulpit
