You better check yourself

before you wreck yourself.

I just got into studio after a rousing class in History of Christianity. I felt compelled to share and this is a reminder that the following are mainly my personal opinions so take them with a grain of salt ;)

Somehow during our lecture today about the Roman Catholic Church in the medieval time period (700 AD-ish) my professor who is an Anglican Bishop asked the following "Class raise your hand if you believe that women should be ministers in the modern church." Around four to five hands slowly emerged into the air. As soon as he uttered the question I immediately took the position that it was a trick because the answer would depend upon the definition of the word "minister". The simple word "minister" has the possibility to encompass many avenues of church involvement from preaching to serving in the toddler worship.

After the awkward silence that quickly followed a guy in the front row spoke up. For my purposes we shall give him the title "Baptist Boy" because all I know is that he's Baptist and that he's a boy.

Baptist Boy quickly remarked "Well in 1 corinthians 14:34-35 it states: 'women should remain silent' and that's how it would be in my church".

Granted I cannot convey the tone in which that was stated, but it felt condscending from where I was sitting. Growing up with my church background this particular scripture has always left a sour taste in my mouth. For years I have watched that and other verses be used out of context to make women feel inferior or even useless in the work of the church. As I sat there I wondered if Baptist Boy even considered the audience to which Paul was addressing when he made that statement or if he forgot that women were involved in the ministry of Christ even before the roots of the modern church began to sprout.

I personally believe that Paul's tone here is not one of a modern "shut up woman!" connotation. He is also addressing a specific issue that the Corinthian church was facing. In the synagogue the women sat separately from the men and had the habit of calling out questions to their husbands during the service which was distracting for the congregation. If you take a panoramic view of the Bible and more specifically the life of Jesus it is evident that He uses both men and women for His glory.

I personally believe that men are meant to be the head of the church and are designed by God to lead. Our role as women are to respect those men but it is a challenge. In the garden of Eden God annouces the curse of Eve stating: "And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you". By control I believe it means our desire as women not to control the men in our lives like robots but our struggle with affirming our men and enstilling in them the confidence to lead. As women of Christ in our "silence" we have the choice to step back and build up the men in our churches which is a respectable position to be placed into, not one of inferiority. I believe that the differences between a woman's role and a man's role in the body of Christ should be celebrated - not suffocated.

Also I have heard many arguments in congregations along these lines of "women's roles in the church" and I feel that along the way many of us (including myself) have lost sight of our original purpose. Our purpose both individually and as the body of Christ is to KNOW God. That's why we are here and it is my hope that our churches will seek that more than the differences between men and women.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section! I'd love to hear them!