Advice for Revisiting the Conversation about Women in Church Leadership
Drawing on the findings of Dr. Lucas Rogers
Last semester, I finished serving as a reader for the now-Dr. Lucas Rogers as he wrote his dissertation on “Hidden Factors in Church Debates on Women’s Public Leadership: An investigation into the often overlooked and unacknowledged influences behind decisions on women’s public leadership in conservative churches.” If we consider the words of the LORD God that “it is not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18), we will not be surprised that Dr. Lucas’s research demonstrates that male/female partnership influences how we interpret and apply the Scriptures for the life of the church. At my request, Dr. Rogers has summarized his findings below for you. If you or your church would like to speak with this pastor/shepherd/scholar on the subject, he welcomes you to contact him at lrogers at ebc.org.
By Lucas Rogers
In 2023, I set out to study three different churches—theologically conservative, elder-board led, and multi-generational—each of which had wrestled with the question of what Scripture teaches about women’s public leadership in church. Through these churches’ respective investigations, however, each one reached a different conclusion. One church removed all limitations on women’s leadership in the church. Another reserved all elder, deacon, and pastoral roles for men only. The third took a middle position: women were empowered to serve as pastors, but not as elders.
The difference of their conclusions raised a question for me: How is it that churches which seem so similar, at least on paper, could read Scripture so differently on this topic? Over the course of two years, I interviewed dozens of leaders from all three churches to better understand what had led them to their different conclusions.
As a result of my study, I found three largely overlooked factors that significantly shaped the outcomes of the churches’ determinative processes:
1. A church’s history or collective experience
2. A church’s approach to cultural engagement
3. A church’s openness to alternative hermeneutical models of biblical interpretation
The two churches that moved toward increased freedom and opportunity for women to teach and lead shared a striking similarity in their openness to new insights contributed by these three factors. Conversely, the church that remained restrictive toward women’s contributions within the church was largely closed off to any perspective offered by experience, culture, or biblical scholarship that did not confirm their already-established commitment to a sex-based hierarchical interpretation of Scripture.
Experience
Both churches that moved away from a sex-based hierarchical interpretation of Scripture had women on staff who were gifted in teaching and leadership. Both also created opportunities for the elders to listen to women about their frustrations and hurt serving in churches. In interviews with these churches’ elders, these experiences they heard about helped to shift the elders’ focus away from protecting the church from cultural influence and toward empowering the women—while remaining faithful to the teaching of Scripture.
In contrast, the church that retained a sex-based hierarchical interpretation of Scripture had always limited women’s opportunities to teach and lead to women and children. Thus, the all-male elders lacked personal experience with women using their teaching and leadership gifts. These elders also did not seek opportunities to learn from women about their ministry experiences. Instead, several of the elders described historical precedence—a kind of collective experience—as their primary interpretational lens, which they considered the church’s greatest safeguard against what they considered the slippery slope of biblical and theological “progressivism.”
Cultural Engagement
Both churches that adopted a less hierarchical interpretation of Scripture were committed to building a bridge with those outside of the faith by engaging with questions raised by the culture. Rather than attempting to either attack culture or hide from it, both churches expressed their desire to remove non-essential obstacles that could prevent people from hearing the gospel. Consequently, these churches were open to hearing viewpoints that might otherwise have been perceived as dangerous or threatening to the churches’ commitment to biblical truth.
Although the third church expressed a desire to reach unbelievers, several of the elders were skeptical of interacting with questions raised by a culture they believed constituted an immediate threat to biblical truth. Several believed the topic of women serving in the church was purely the product of the secular feminist movement. Consequently, they felt that any interpretation that seemed to align with modern cultural values was a move toward theological progressivism.
Biblical Hermeneutics
Both churches opting for less hierarchical positions considered alternative hermeneutical models. Their exposure to different hermeneutical paradigms for biblical interpretation, in particular trajectory or progressive models—such as those proposed by William Webb, Gordon Fee, and R.T. France—significantly influenced how they read key biblical texts. Both churches ultimately opted for trajectory-based models that advocate full-participation of women in church leadership and teaching.
For the third church, commitment to long-held views of biblical interpretation discouraged the elders from engaging with hermeneutical models that were unfamiliar to them. Without alternative models with which to open new possibilities for biblical interpretation, the only option for these elders was to conclude that their traditional reading was the only viable reading of the Scriptural text.
Conclusion
Based on my investigation, it seems fair to conclude that these three largely hidden factors—a church’s experience, its approach to cultural engagement, and its openness to alternative hermeneutical models—played a significant role in each church’s deliberative process. My hope is the insights provided by this study will help church leaders seek to better empower women to use their gifts in accordance with the teaching of Scripture, both for the benefit of our churches and our witness in the world.
For church leaders, seeking to make a self-aware and well-informed inquiry into this crucial topic, here are several questions to consider before you begin:
· Am I/are we open to learning from other perspectives that may not align with my/our current views?
· What experiences have I and/or the church had that may influence how I/we think about this issue? How do I/we know that the conclusions derived from those experiences are valid?
· Am I/are we open to investigating questions raised by culture or do I/we believe questions posed by culture should be feared and avoided within the church?
· What is the church’s adopted hermeneutical model for biblical interpretation? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this model, and should I/we consider others? Why or why not?
Recommended Resources
For church leaders interested in beginning their own investigation, here are some books to help get started:
Barr, Beth Allison. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2021.
Bartlett, Andrew. Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Text. London: InterVarsity Press, 2019.
Beck, James R. and Craig L. Blomberg, eds. Two Views on Women in Ministry. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
DeYoung, James B. Women in Ministry: Neither Egalitarian nor Complementary: A New Approach to an Old Problem. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010.
Dickson, John P. Hearing Her Voice: A Case for Women Giving Sermons. Revised ed. Fresh Perspectives on Women in Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.
France, R. T. Women in the Church’s Ministry: A Test-Case for Biblical Interpretation. Didsbury Lectures. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.
Grudem, Wayne. Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth: An Analysis of More Than 100 Disputed Questions. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012.
Lee-Barnewall, Michelle. Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian: A Kingdom Corrective to the Evangelical Gender Debate. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016.
Payne, Philip Barton. Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.
Peppiatt, Lucy. Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019.
Photo: Marble art in Monte Cassino Abbey crypt, Lazio, Italy; photo by Sandra Glahn
