In this last excerpt from my book, Beyond Authority and Submission, I want to discuss the importance of our ordained leaders being qualified. While the Bible limits ordination to qualified men, not every man is qualified or called to ministry. What happens when all men are treated as leaders and potential leaders?
Beyond Authority and Submission: Women and Men in Marriage, Church, and Society will be available September 3. You can click the links to pre-order on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. A Kindle version will be available on the release date.
A focus on masculine authority in the church diminishes qualified male ordination rather than promoting it. If churches consider men to be leaders simply because they are male, it can lead to the ordination of unqualified men or of men who haven’t been called to leadership. As we have discussed, the Bible restricts ordination to qualified men, but that doesn’t mean that every man is qualified to lead.
Besides the ordination of unqualified men, other types of damage are done when disqualified church officers aren’t removed and when unordained men do the work that only ordained leaders should do. Certain aspects of church life should be done by our ordained leaders, such as preaching the Word, administering the sacraments, and performing the disciplinary function of the church. The attitude in our churches shouldn’t be “These are roles for the ordained leaders, but any man can do them in a pinch.” When just any man, ordained or not, is allowed to carry out these roles in the church, it undermines the importance of ordination and the ministerial work that ordained leaders should be doing. It also contributes to a masculine culture in the church—one in which men are prioritized over women in the church’s work.
When churches focus on training men, they often pay little
attention to what the women are learning. Some think that it doesn’t matter too
much—it’s only the women. And so false teaching creeps into the church by way
of poorly trained and neglected women.[1]
[1] See Aimee Byrd, No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2016), 31.
A Daughter of the Reformation 