Theology of the Female Role: Embracing God's Intended Design for His Church

“Whatever I am supposed to be as a woman in the church, what's most important to me is that it’s honoring to the Lord. I want to please Him, I want to do what He says… and for my whole life I thought I knew what that was- it was what I was taught. But that desire was manipulated and used to keep me submissive, even in abuse…”

“It’s scary to begin to question, and to seek- what does the Bible really say? It feels wrong when you’re used to being unquestioning, trusting what the leadership is telling you. Trusting they are theologically on point. And as you start to speak up, there's rejection... But I’m finally realizing His love for me, and my place in His people, is different than what I’ve been told.”

I recently sat and exchanged words with another woman in my area who was in the process of leaving her church, after abuse, divorce, lack of honesty and support from the church finally became enough for her to take a stand. I resonated so much with not just her experience, but her heart.

The Devastating Cost of Error

Accurate theology and biblical interpretation are so important. As humans, we can make up our minds and follow our own desires and ideas to any end. The Bible guides us in God’s ways of goodness, truth, and love.

I understood from my lifetime in church that sound doctrine was a protection (against things like a women’s movement who want to throw off male leadership). That’s why I, as a woman, looked at those who “rocked the boat,” “gossiped” about leaders and left the church as ignorant, prideful or wayward.

The problem is that misinterpretation of the Word also created the lived reality my friend and I have navigated. Though we thought we knew the answers, what we experienced (in words and actions) was:

• “You don’t have grounds for those lines you want to draw. You need to trust God and submit.”

• “You need to trust your husband and submit.”

• “I am telling you what to do. You need to trust me and submit.”

• “Don’t question or correct me; I won’t receive it. You do the listening and obeying.”

• “Your husband’s voice and decisions hold more value, weight, and validity than yours… in your marriage and even over your own body.”

It even set the stage for abuse as defined by law in our families to never be reported (though pastors are mandatory reporters) as they “managed” the situation… by telling us to yield to our spouses.

I remember a light bulb moment after an experience with pastors in my widowhood (one that was both devastating and demeaning). I wondered why these men were acting as though they didn’t need to be humble or teachable in my concerns of what had happened, and what was still happening at that time.

Later, the light bulb went off related to the doctrine I'd been taught there over a decade: As a woman, I was “under” these men who believe biblical interpretations that women are not to teach them…

If they believed I am not to teach them, how could they ever, really, learn from me!?

This is why I was repeatedly being corrected instead of heard. This was why they were so harsh when I began to push back, even though I was so broken and vulnerable after my husband's death, trying to find understanding and safety.

Complementarian and Egalitarian

Biblical accuracy holds heavy weight and has major implications. Let’s address two theological views (though not the only two) right off the bat:

1. Complementarianism: a view that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family, and religious life.

   
   

2. Egalitarianism: a view that people are equal before God in their personhood, and there are no gender-based limitations of what functions or roles each can fulfill in the home, the church, and the society.

   
   

[For the record, I personally am somewhere in between these two views, or at least I refuse the distorted extremes of both... which result in crippling women in the church in complementarian views, or losing gender distinctions altogether in egalitarian views.]

The Implications of Beliefs...

Here’s the problem with what many are arguing is Biblical complementarianism - see if you can hear it in less than 4 minutes:

🚩 Here are a few red flags, in case you missed them:

• Women cannot trust their intuition, honor their limits or have their own boundaries

• You are called to submit to abuse until it gets bad enough/the men deem it “bad enough"

• Then, supposedly this same hierarchical system will be your “protection” (while things are kept behind the churches closed doors)

• Even in gross/extreme examples of abuse of her as a person, her posture is still to be submissive rather than authoritative in any way

• The belief that a woman’s higher submission to the Lord keeps her under these things, rather than the recognition that it frees her from it!

These wounds, these cries, our collective healing- are why it is critical to know what God really says about, and to, women.

What does the Bible say?

Jesus

Jesus walked into a world that treated women as property and transformed everything. He didn't just acknowledge or include women. He saw them… truly saw them, and truly loved them.

He spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well - a conversation that shattered every social and religious boundary of His time.

Jesus chose her, and her story spills over with redemption. Rejected by society, but embraced by divinity. She becomes the first evangelist to her entire community. Though she was female, especially in that day, Jesus picked her to be a voice and the one to lead this change.

He praised Mary sitting at His feet and learning - a position reserved exclusively for male disciples.

Jesus appeared first to women after His resurrection, entrusting them with the most world-changing message in human history, though the men of the world thought nothing of a woman’s testimony.

And women, “disobedient, sinful” women, were significant inclusions in the redemptive story and lineage of Christ Himself.

Jesus did not make women small, invisible, or silenced. His empowerment of the lowly is a wild, expansive story of liberation. God persistently, relentlessly lifted and called the marginalized- women.

The thing is, the church I was abused in acknowledged this from the pulpit. Let’s keep looking...

Paul

Paul can be used/misinterpreted as a theological misogynist (sexist jerk) … but he was actually a profound advocate for women's spiritual authority. His New Testament writings aren't a handbook for suppression. They're a blueprint for radical belonging.

Look at Romans 16 – and we see Phoebe, a deacon. Junia, an apostle. Priscilla, a teacher who guided even learned men like Apollos. They were leaders carrying the very heartbeat of the early church (though often downplayed and undermined, as far as having any actual “roles” in the church).

When Paul writes about submission in Ephesians 5, he begins with a revolutionary statement: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Mutual submission isn't weakness. It's the truest reflection of Christ's own nature - a laying down of power, not a grasping of it. Paul presents it as greater than hierarchy, domination, and exclusion.

However, mutual submission was also acknowledged from my former church’s pulpit...

Biblical Restrictions of Women's Roles- The "Clearest" Passages

So what about the passages that are very clear in putting women in their “biblical place” that were taught and reinforced to me?

As I grew in my relationship with the Lord, I did really struggle to understand these passages that seemed so anti-God (the One of Love I had grown to know more and more personally).

These typical go-to passages include:

• 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”

  
  

• 1 Timothy 2, especially verses 11-12 “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”

  
  

• With the reason following in verses 13-14 “For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”

  
  

• From this comes the argument that the roots of these limitations on women’s roles are in Genesis, mandating this restriction of women in the church for all people and all time.

Wrong All Along?

However, this interpretation does not line up with the clear, God-given identity, and empowering directive (given for all time and all people) in Genesis for both men and women together in Gen. 1: 27-28:

• “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

There are many arguments against the idea that Paul gave prohibitions for women that apply to all women in the church and for all time (and the Biblical contradictions in holding such a view).

But we don't hear them, of course, in these churches.

Looking at the gender passages through the lens of their original context gives entirely different means of valid interpretation… and in some crucial texts, revealing Paul once again saying the exact opposite of what it sounds like he’s saying (based on knowing the context).

We hear of these contexts in looking at passages about slavery, head coverings, and others... but not too much regarding women's roles.

These are CRITICAL distinctions in the lives of half of the church. I wish I could go into all the details here.

Willing to Reconsider What You "Know"?

However, I will submit a couple of resources I have dug into, which implore you to consider. They are more than worth the time to listen/read and deeply consider.

Here they are, with links:

Almost Heretical Podcast

• Episode #34 Authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:11-15)

• Episode #35 Adam, then Eve (1 Timothy 2:11-15)

• See their full Gender series (1-9, above episodes included) HERE

They are lengthy discussions, but I found them very in depth and helpful.

Research Paper

This seminary paper is written by Rose Pauly, a dear and brilliant friend, whom has read and researched extensively on both sides of the issue.

Theology of the Female Voice in the Body of Christ.pdf

Download PDF • 318KB

Example of A Change of Mind

Rick Warren, a famous pastor and author, had previously accepted (and preached) that limiting women in leadership was Biblical. Later, after what he says was a a Spirit-led change of heart, he wrote a public apology to all women in the church and announced his support of the roles of women he previously opposed:

“My biggest regret in 53 years of ministry is that I didn’t do my own personal exegesis sooner on the 4 passages used to restrict women. Shame on me. I wasted those 4 yrs of Greek in college & seminary. When I finally did my proper “due diligence”, laying aside 50 years of bias, I was shocked, chagrined, and embarrassed.

So many hermeneutical rules were being violated including: Never build a doctrine on a single word that is used only once in scripture! There's nothing to compare it to (correlation) Do your own study of authentien in ancient Greek and you’ll be shocked too…

But I DO want to do this: I PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE to every good women in my life, church, and ministry that I failed to speak up for in my years of ignorance. What grieves me is that I hindered them in obeying the Great Commission command (And Acts 2:17-18) that EVERYONE is to TEACH in the church. I held them back from using the spiritual gifts and leadership skills that the Holy Spirit had sovereignly placed in them. That breaks my heart now…”

His church, Saddleback Church in California, was removed from the Southern Baptist Convention… with others to follow as the SBC banned these roles for women, and expelled churches that would support them.

May the Church have the humility to repent.

Final Plea

Is there really a question about whether the higher priority is protecting ownership, control and restrictions, or the God-given empowerment of His people (especially of the "least of these")? Where is the gospel? Where is the heart of Jesus?

When did supporting the voice and role of women become equated with usurping the voice and role of men?

When did we stop being part of the great commission together, and instead focus on hobbling half of the church in it’s giftings and abilities to spread the Lord’s love by all means? And why have we made these means "wrong" when they are a fulfillment of sharing the gospel, and do not dishonor God in any way?

We've turned spiritual gifts into a limited resource. Rationed. Controlled. As if God's Spirit can be contained by human fear. As if divine breath and championing of all his children can be silenced by institutional walls or misinterpretation.

This isn't about political correctness. This is about remembering who we were redeemed to be.

Whole. Heard. Holy - set apart from the darkness, NOT from one another in the body.

To the woman reading this - your voice is not a disruption. You have a divine invitation. Your spiritual gifts are not negotiable; they are necessary.

To the church - it's time to repent of fear and control. The freeing hope of Jesus’ invitation, and of Pentecost – the Holy Spirit in and through every believer – is here.

We can no longer ignore the issue, thinking we don't need to act if we weren’t personally involved in the abuse/wrong. To do nothing, to turn away… to remain unmoved and unchanged, is to be complicit in the problem.

The people that we love (from daughters to sisters to the boys growing up into it as well) will not be spared indoctrination, while these beliefs and treatments remain.

Empowerment is biblical mandate, not optional grace. May we stop wiping out half the gospel force with restrictions the Holy Spirit has not laid on His people.

May we never have giftings, and callings from the Lord, that are not allowed to be used where we worship.

With you,

Rachel

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