A husband and wife wanted to step into a serving role overseeing the small group leaders at one of our locations. They were excited and felt like this was something God was putting in front of them to do. They began serving in this capacity, and were doing great.
It wasn’t until a couple of months later that one of our (male) pastors was reading through the book that outlined our small groups ministry that it came to the leadership’s attention that our guidelines stated that only men could be in the role that the husband and wife were in. It was brought up in a pastoral meeting, briefly discussed, and decided that all the (male) pastors should read and study their Bible so that they could vote on if a woman could hold the position in question–the main reason for this being because the position was a step above small group leaders, many of whom were men.
A few weeks went by. The (male) pastors did their homework, and then reconvened to discuss and vote on if they would allow women to hold that specific position within the small group ministry. Their conclusion: a woman could hold it since it was administrative, almost secretarial, and held no real “authority” over the men that would be “under” them. Plus, they would only allow the Director, the true head of the ministry, to be a man.
The verdict was in, the book of guidelines updated, and the issue resolved.
And not one woman was brought in to weigh in on the topic.
Not one woman was invited to sit in on the meeting.
Not one woman was allowed to have a voice on a decision concerning women.
It boggles my mind, the ease in which we allow ourselves to buy into the idea that men and women are equal, but only in all the intangible ways. When the rubber meets the road, we say that men are the ones called to lead, to be in charge, to have authority over. It becomes a hierarchy. It becomes life ruled by the Fall and not the Resurrection. It doesn’t look like the Kingdom of God.
What would it look like if we finally lived what will be true in eternity, here and now? How much more could we reflect the Kingdom that Jesus is building if we lived in light of His resurrection? Where there is a priesthood of believers, not defined by gender but by adoption into God’s family? Where we recognized that gifting from the Holy Spirit is not based on one’s sex? What would it look like if we recognized that the same word that is used to describe God over and over again, is used to describe woman, and we are missing the voice of half the family of God when we exclude women from the full scope of leadership within the bride of Christ?