The Holy Spirit is not bound by scripture, nor is it instructed by scripture. Scripture is God-breathed but scripture is not God’s boundary. As believers, we interpret and debate and learn from and seek wisdom in the scriptures. They are words from God, not parameters for God. They are a place we come to develop a deeper understanding of God, but God is bigger than the Bible. We have been given the Holy Spirit for a reason.
As we seek and find guidance within the Bible, we have to be careful to leave room for the Holy Spirit to move within us and within our body of believers as a people. It is dangerous to place more authority in man-made structures and interpretations than in the Spirit. Even Satan knows the scriptures and can twist them and has twisted them. Look no further than American slavery defended by the church to see that full well. A “Biblical” defense does not equal a Holy one.
Churches need some structure, some boundaries, and some rituals to ground believers in their faith practice and to distinguish them from the secular culture, but churches need to be careful that they are not making so many boundaries that they have made God small and boxed God in. Or, attempted to box God in (God is unboxable). When this happens, it’s not that God is any less big or any less expansive, it’s just that the people under those systems stop seeing God as God is. Instead, they have a small god: a god ruled by their ideas and preferences, a god who upholds their social norms and cultural structures and hierarchies. A god who is not God at all. And their church looks more like the empire of this world than like the family of God.
There are plenty of things to disagree about when it comes to religion, even amongst those of the same religion. Endless time and energy can be spent “proving our point” on one matter or another, if we let ourselves spend our time that way. It’s just, there are so many other ways we could be spending our time as believers. The world is groaning for the hands and feet of Christ to move within it. The earth aches for us to bring heaven to earth as we spread the salt and light. It’s not that none of the things we debate matter, it’s just that other things matter more.
I believe if we trust the Holy Spirit more than our own back and forth, we will start to see the revival we long for. God is bigger than apologetics and hermeneutics and proof-texts. God is bigger than the Bible.
We don’t get to tell God who God gets to anoint to lead.
Patriarchy is not reflective of the life or teachings of Christ. It is a cultural standard, not a Holy one (regardless of how hard people work to convince us otherwise).
God has always called women to teach and preach and lead. When Christians harden their hearts and close their ears to authority from the Divine because they have decided that the messenger doesn’t have the “right” to bring that message, it is both arrogant and foolish. We don’t choose our gifts and God doesn’t answer to our systems – even ones inspired by letters written thousands of years ago by Christ’s disciples.
I pray for repentance within those places and redemption for all the unheard messages and for the messengers who eventually had to shake the dust from their feet and leave their people. So much damage has been done, and I pray for repair. I pray for eyes to be opened and hearts to be softened and policies to change. I pray mercy and grace flows from those women who bore such disrespect and injustice and in some places, spiritual abuse. I pray healing over their gaping wounds. It is no small thing to be told who you are is wrong. To be told you don’t know the Holy Spirit’s call when it is vibrating within your core.
If we cling harder to God’s word than we do to God’s Spirit, then we can’t be sure that what we take from God’s word is aligned with God and not the world. Without the Holy Spirit, we are at risk of creating a worse world and turning people from Christ, instead of furthering the kingdom of heaven and drawing people towards the Light.
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If you want to read some regarding scriptural support for women as leaders in the church, or about the topic in general, here are a few links to get you started:
https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/mutuality-2012-posts : Rachel Held Evans did an entire series on mutuality/egalitarianism
https://juniaproject.com/case-women-pastors-new-testament/ : The Junia Project
https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/what-does-bible-say-about-women-ministry : Sojourners
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_egalitarianism : Wikipedia on Christian egalitarianism
