A Pastor Is...

According to I Timothy, a Pastor is to be the husband of one wife, but according to the latest statistics from Barna, many Protestant denominations must not really use those guidelines for pastoral eligibility requirements. Barna reports that the number of "female pastors" has increased greatly from a decade ago which is a concern to me. I'm not sure how you can get around the "husband of one wife" ordeal (and we're not going to argue divorce issues this time please) unless you just totally disregard that section of Scripture. And no, Paul was not a sexist that wanted to keep women down. He just followed God's plan for men and women. Men have certain responsibilities and women have certain responsibilities. What is so wrong with that? Why do we feel the need to make everyone the same. We're not the same! Men and women are different! Individuals are different! Sometimes, I'm different! Anyway, I wonder what will be the result of such a massive move toward women pastors?

Please Pray For The Southern Baptists!

And I mean that seriously. I received an email (given below) asking for prayer for the Southern Baptists. Basically it is asking for you to pray for women "pastors" and for women who are being called into ministry. In other words, it wants you to pray for something unscriptural! So, please pray for Southern Baptists - not that they will endorse women pastors - but that they will hold to the truth concerning this matter. (And there is quite a push to endorse women pastors in the Convention.)

Original Email:

Read The Next Step at www.bWebaptist.com. The Next Step asks Baptists everywhere to do three things:
1. Pray for women pastors and for women who are being called into ministry.
2. Pray for a softening of the heart of the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention toward women in the United States.
3. Start an email cell group which would commit to pray and to enlist others.

You may have read about this website in the Associated Baptist Press, in the Baptist Standard, or in Baptists Today, or on many of the blogs that picked up the story, such as Baptist Planet, the religion blog of The Dallas Morning News, Mainstream Baptists Bruce Prescott’s blog.

This is your opportunity to be the voice for your daughters.

Shirley Taylor
bWe Baptist Women for Equality

ONE of my responses (addressing an article written by Mrs. Taylor):

Also, I have read your article and you seem to have forgotten that while Christ the Son is in ALL ways equal to the Father, He SUBMITTED Himself to the Father's will. Yet in no way did this make Him inferior...instead, He was lifted up and glorified by the Father. You can have complementarianism and egalitarianism together. They are not contradictory...in fact, you have committed a logical fallacy in assuming such.

Matt

Her response to my response:

Matthew,

In the 1960s when I was teaching a Sunday school class of women in my Baptist church, the teacher's guide made the statement "The Jews loved nothing better than to go to the marketplace and argue over whether or not women had souls." I had no idea that Southern Baptists would be arguing over essentially the same thing 40 years later. Of course we dress it up and call it fancy names like complementarianism and egalitarianism. But it is the same argument. An argument designed to keep women in their place.

Jesus said that the soul is housed in a body and that when it is freed from the body in heaven that you won't be able to tell the difference between a man's soul and a woman's soul (actually he said that in heaven there would be no male or female, marrying or giving in marriage).

If that is not equality, then I don't know what is.

That same soul that I have now will be the one I take into eternity. And it is going to look just like yours: washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Thanks for writing. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Shirley Taylor
bWe Baptist Women for Equality

Now my response to that is...WHAT?!? What she said has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the discussion at hand. A "straw man" was set up to divert the argument...but we're not going to fall for that are we?!? The Bible teaches that men are to be Pastors...not women. No offense, but we must stay with Scripture. Also, this does not mean women are inferior. Quite the contrary. God made ALL of us in the image of Him, but He also put us in certain roles for certain reasons. Why must we Baptist feel they have to be politically correct and culturally relevant but not biblically sound?!?!?