An Authentic Calling: Representing Christ and His Kingdom through the Church

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An Authent i c Ca l l i ng: Represent i ng Chr i s t and Hi s Ki ngdom through the Chur ch

The Role of Women in Ministry, continued

argument would be to show that the Spirit simply would never even consider giving a woman a gift which was not suited to the range of callings which she felt a calling towards. Women would be forbidden from leadership because the Holy Spirit would never grant to a woman a calling and its requisite gifts because she was a woman. Some gifts would be reserved for men, and women would never receive those gifts. A careful reading of these and other related texts show no such prohibition. It appears that it is up to the Holy Spirit to give any person, man or woman, any gift that suits him for any ministry he wishes them to do, as he wills (1 Cor. 12.11 “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills”). Building upon this point, Terry Cornett has even written a fine theological essay showing how the NT Greek for the word “apostle” is unequivocally applied to women, most clearly shown in the rendering of the female noun, “Junia” applied to “apostle” in Romans 16.7, as well as allusions to co-laboring, for instance, with the twins, Tryphena and Tryphosa, who “labored” with Paul in the Lord (16.12). Believing that every God-called, Christ-endowed, and Spirit-gifted and led Christian ought to fulfill their role in the body, we affirm the role of women to lead and instruct under godly authority that submits to the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and is informed by the tradition of the Church and spiritual reasoning. We ought to expect God to give women supernatural endowments of grace to carry out his bidding on behalf of his Church, and his reign in the Kingdom of God. Since both men and women both reflect the Imago Dei (i.e., image of God), and both stand as heirs together of God’s grace (cf. Gen. 1.27; 5.2; Matt. 19.4; Gal. 3.28; 1 Pet. 3.7), they are given the high privilege of representing Christ together as his ambassadors (2 Cor. 5.20), and through their partnership to bring to completion our obedience to Christ’s Great Commission of making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28.18-20).