How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership

Recently I started reading a book called How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership.  Edited by Alan F. Johnson, this book is a series of autobiographical essays from prominent evangelicals telling the story of how their own convictions shifted on the topic of women serving in church leadership.   With contributers ranging from Dallas Willard to Bill and Lynn Hybels, from Nancy and John Ortberg to Tony Campolo, each story follows a similar trajectory.  Reading these stories stirred up reflection on my own journey in changing my mind on this topic.    

I was raised by a single mom, so seeing a woman in leadership was nothing new to me.  I watched my mom complete her education, advance in her job, start her own businesses, and even make the hard decision to leave a physically abusive marriage.  The idea that she might be unequal or inferior would have never occurred to me.  I came to faith in Christ at the age of 18.  When that happened, my life was turned up-side-down, or, as Dallas Willard would say, right-side-up.  For the first time in my life I had purpose, a relationship with a God who loved me, and a sense of direction in life.  However, one casualty in that process was my view of women.  The non-denominational church I found myself in embraced a view of gender roles that I later learned is called “Complementarian."  Complementarians believe that in the realm of church and home that men should assume leadership roles and women should follow that leadership by submitting to the men in their lives.  In practical terms, this means that women cannot serve as pastors, be on the church elder board, or teach the Bible in a setting where men are present.  In marriage I was taught that this meant that the man should exemplify servant leadership by taking the lead in their marriages and be the “tie breaker” when a husband and wife could not agree on a decision.  This is in contrast to the Egalitarian view, a view I would not learn about until later in my Christian life.  Egalitarians believe that men and women are fully equal in God’s sight, and because of this full equality they ought to function as equal partners in both the church and the home.  In practical terms, Egalitarians believe gender should not determine who serves in church leadership; instead God’s calling, training, and gifting should be the determining factors in leadership.  Thus, Egalitarians support the ordination of women as pastors, women leading with men on church boards, and women leading and teaching both men and women, so long as they are called, trained, and gifted to do so.  In marriage, Egalitarians support the idea of partnership and mutual submission of both partners. 

In my newfound church, verses from the Bible were cited to support the Complementarian view, so I embraced this view as true and right for over 25 years.  I went to a conservative evangelical Christian university that also taught the Complementarian view of gender roles.  There I was taught that feminism was dangerous and Christians distrust any move toward gender equality.  Men and women are equal in Christ, I was taught, but they have different roles to fulfill in the church and home.  I was taught that an essential part of our witness to Christ in the world was living in proper authority, and this included wives living in submission to their husbands and the women in a church following the male leadership of that church. 


My senior year of college I took a theology class in gender roles, and the professor was a Complementarian.  To be fair, this professor had us read many journal articles and books written by Christian Egalitarians.  For the first time in my Christian life I had to admit that a strong biblical case could be made for the Egalitarian view.  Even though I was still deeply entrenched in my Complementarian view, I had a newfound respect for Christians who take the Bible seriously and end up with an Egalitarian conclusion.  I realized that there was a big difference between a person who is led to Egalitarian conclusions by their study of the Bible and a person who abandoned the Bible to become an Egalitarian.  I realized that I had a lot in common with the former, even though I had come to Complementarian position.  After college, I went seminary at the same institution, further entrenching my Complementarian perspective. Shortly after that I was ordained by an all male ordination committee, and installed as the teaching pastor of the same non-denominational church I had been attending since I was 18 years old.  Later I also pursued a doctor of ministry degree at a school that was also Complementarian.

Once in pastoral ministry, one of the first issues I was confronted with was women in pastoral ministry.  It seems that a long time female volunteer in our church had gone to seminary and earned her M.A. in Christian Education.  She was now requesting licensure as a minister.  The all male board was unsure of what to do with her request.  The  board asked me to lead them in a study on gender roles, so I assembled a list of books, articles and studies of the relevant scriptures, drawing many from my previous college class.  With the board’s input and involvement, I wrote a policy that I would now characterize as a “soft Complementarian” position.  The position statement the board agreed to restricted women from serving on the elder board and being the teaching pastor (that church’s equivalent of senior pastor).  However, it permitted ordination of women to other pastoral roles, opened up women to serve communion, and allowed women to teach and lead small groups where men were present. The board licensed this woman as a pastor and brought her on staff, the first ever woman on staff with the word "pastor" in her title.   This was a huge step forward for this church, as previously women weren't allowed to serve communion or lead small groups with men present.  As men we all congratulated ourselves on how progressive we were and on how we had cleverly maintained what we believed was a biblical position.  And that settled the issue for me…at least for a while. 

After that position statement was written and unanimously approved by the board, I embarked on 15 years of ministry as the teaching pastor at that church.  Cracks began to appear in my Complementarian view about ten years into my tenure. Here’s how the cracks began to appear:  

First, I heard that my former college professor who taught my gender roles class had abandoned the Complementarian view and fully embraced the Egalitarian view.  Rumors swirled that he was now involved in the group Christians for Biblical Equality and was a contributer in a new book called Discovering Biblical Equality.  We met for lunch and he confirmed that indeed he had embraced an Egalitarian view.  In fact, he was the only Egalitarian on the Bible and theology faculty at his institution. 


Second, I began to notice what the Complementarian position was doing to women.  In the church I pastored, I  noticed that strong, capable women rarely stayed.  Each time I co-led our new member class, the question of women in church leadership came up.  Inevitably I would experience criticism from the fundamentalists who felt that we were far too accommodating and criticism from people who were incredulous that we didn’t have women on our elder board.  I began to notice that capable, gifted women who were successful in their communities and workplaces struggled to find a place in the congregation.  Not only could they not find a place to serve that would fully utilize their gifts, but other members of the congregation tended to view them with distrust.  I also noticed the effect the Complementarian position had on marriages, my own included. I noticed that often women felt restricted from pursuing their calling and developing their gifts.  I found that some women saw themselves more as children than as adults.  This was troubling to me.  Was this really the way church was supposed to be? 


Third, I began to once again read on the subject.  I read Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood several times. This is the most comprehensive defense of the Complementarian position to date.  I also read Discovering Biblical Equality, and was once again impressed that a biblical case can be made for both positions.  The tipping point for me, however, was William Webb’s Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis.  In this book, Webb suggests that we read the Bible with a “redemptive movement hermeneutic” that nuances how we interpret passages from the Bible and apply them to today. Webb discerns a movement in how the Bible treats slaves and women, moving from affirmation of the slavery institution to abolition of slavery and from patriarchy to egalitarian equality between men and women.  He does not discern this same movement on the topic of homosexuality.  After reading this book, I realized that the way I was intepreting and applying the BIble on the topic of gender roles was troublingly similar to how pro-slavery Christians had intepreted and applied the Bible to support slavery .  The path Christians had taken to embrace an abolitionist position (which is nearly universally held among evangelicals today) is nearly identical to the path toward an Egalitarian position on gender roles.  This was the intellectual tipping point for me. 

My last two years of pastoral ministry at that church I was having serious struggles with the church's position on gender roles, a position that I had ironically helped to create.  In a sense leaving pastoral ministry there, though exceedingly painful because of the circumstances, was also a relief.  I could be free to follow where both my mind and heart were leading on this topic.  After a time of not attending church at all, I ended up at a congregation known for having a gifted woman on its preaching team.  This gave me time and context to process my emerging convictions on the topic.    Finally I found a home the Anglican Church in North America, which has diocese that ordain women as both deacons and presbyters.   

Critics might fault me for not discussing the relevant biblical data on this topic in this blog.  While this blog has been primarily autobiographical and I might discuss the biblical data in a future blog, I think a great place to start is chapters 4-13 in Discovering Biblical Equality.  Each of the relevant passages is exegeted responsibly and applied appropriately, at least in my opinion.

Although my actually living out of an Egalitarian view is a work in progress (a topic for a future blog),  I am now fully convinced that the Bible affirms the full equality of men and women in creation, redemption and new creation.  I am convinced that patriarchy (male dominated social structures such as a church, family, school, etc.) is a result of the fall of humanity, not part of the created order.  As such, patriarchy is not something Christians should endorse, support, defend or seek to maintain. I am convinced that both men and women are the victims in patriarchy, and that for the wholeness of both men and women an Egalitarian view is essential.  I am convinced that men and women need to learn to be colaborers and partners in ministry and in marriage.  This I believe is the way forward in embodying Jesus’ kingdom vision as we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done” in gender roles “as it is in heaven.”