Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 8/24/2009

Question
May a woman speak at a business meeting to ask a question or express a concern with regard to a business matter before the church subject to a vote? I am a member of a Southern Missionary Baptist Church in which women are not allowed to speak at the monthly business meetings other than to ask for prayer request. Women are allowed to teach men in Adult Mixed Sunday School classes as well as to teach young adult men ( ie High School and College age students)in Sunday School. I have studied I Timothy 2:11 and I Corinthians 14:34 and understand that not all Baptist Churches interpret those passages the same. I am struggling to understand how women are allowed to teach adult men but are not allowed to ask a question or voice a concern at a business meeting.

Answer
blessings and thank you for your question.

First of all, I do not believe that this is right.  Women should have the right to speak in a business meeting.  After all, even the scriptures that admonish women to keep silent deal with worship not "business meetings."  

Frankly, I don't understand how they can justify this view.

The apostle Paul’s view of women in ministry, as defined in Scripture, is neither restrictive nor exclusive. His writings have been twisted and misinterpreted for centuries by simple-minded men (and some women, as well) who want to keep women in a limited place. Let’s consider the facts:

1. Paul had women on his ministry team. The Bible clearly records the names of the women who served as deacons, pastors, prophets and apostles in the New Testament church. They include Priscilla, Phoebe, Euodia, Syntyche, Nympha, Traephena, Traephosa, Philip’s four daughters and Junia (see Rom. 16:7)—a female apostle who spent time in prison with Paul. (Her Roman name was always listed in early biblical manuscripts as feminine until the 13 th century, when some translators decided a woman couldn’t possibly be a church planter.)

2. Paul supported these female ministers fully. Fundamentalists claim that Paul pushed women to the back of the church and muzzled them, but that is far from the truth. He traveled with Priscilla and her husband, Aquilla, and the Bible says Priscilla taught the man Apollos and launched him into ministry (in other words, her ministry was not just to other women; see Acts 18:24-26). Paul said of Phoebe the deacon, “I commend to you our sister,” instructing early Christians to back her (Rom. 16:1-2, NASB). He praised Traephena and Traephosa as “workers in the Lord,” obviously because they labored diligently to expand Christ’s kingdom (Rom. 16:12).

And when Euodia and Syntyche experienced friction in their relationship, Paul did not order them to get out of the ministry. Instead, he told his colleagues in Philippi to “help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel” (Phil. 4:3).

3. Paul’s restrictions on women were not universal. Bible scholars have varied interpretations of 1 Timothy 2:12, which demands “silence” of women. Many agree that Paul was dealing with a specific situation in Ephesus in which a woman or a group of women were teaching heresy. If Paul had believed in a blanket prohibition of women in ministry, he never would have supported Priscilla, Phoebe or any woman in a leadership position. He would, however, have expected illiterate and untrained women to adopt a submissive attitude while learning God’s Word.

** Paul shared Jesus’ view of gender equality. Paul allowed women to preach and prophesy in church meetings (1 Cor. 11:5) because he believed the gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed to people regardless of race, class or gender. He made this clear when he told the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Gal. 3:28).