A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY m a r S }.G t m u y rinz wrm DENISE MUIR KJESBO InterVarsity Press Downers Grove, Illinois © 1995 by Stanley ]. Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515. InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION®. Copyright ® 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United Stales of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover illustration: June M. Burrows ISBN 0-8308-1862-6 Printed in the United States of America © Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grenz, Stanley, 1950- Women in the church: a biblical theology of women in ministry/ Stanley ]. Grenz, with Denise Muir Kjesbo. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8308-1862-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Ordination of women—Christianity. 2. Women clergy. 3. Women in Christianity. 4. Evangelicalism. I. Kjesbo, Denise Muir. II. Title. BV676.G74 1995 95-38605 262'.14—dc20 CIP 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 To Edna Grenz and Allen Kjesbo PREFACE--------------7 INTRODUCTION-----------13 1 WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES---------------19 2 WOMEN IN CHURCH HISTORY ----------3 6 3 WOMEN IN THE FAITH COMMUNITY-------------- 4 WOMEN IN THE WRITINGS OF PAUL--------------- 5 WOMEN IN CREATION--------------142 6 WOMEN IN THE CHURCH & THE PRIESTHOOD------- 7 WOMEN IN THE ORDAINED MINISTRY------------ EPILOGUE--------------231 NOTES--------------234 WORKS CITED--------------266 NAME & SUBJECT INDEX--------------279 SCRIPTURE INDEX--------------282 c r t ii ii ii // b a a t P t S' d PREFACE ♦ "How long did it take you to write that sermon, Pastor?" queried a congregant after hearing an unusually inspiring message. The minister responded, "All my life." Both Denise and I would be tempted to say the same thing about this book. In a sense, Women in the Church has been in the making all of our lives. Because I was raised a "preacher's kid" among pietist Baptists of immigrant stock, it is not surprising to find a strong egalitarian strand in my own background. My mother readily spoke of my father as the "head of the house," and the churches my father served as pastor all boasted strong male leadership. Yet evident within what may have appeared to be the male-dominated contexts of home and church was an obvious, unquestioned partnership of male and female that assumed the value and equality of all persons in Christ. Hence, no one in the churches I knew as a child ever questioned the propriety of inviting veteran missionary leader Laura Reddig to address the congregation (that is, to preach) at a Sunday-morning worship service. Nor can I recall that my father ever made a crucial family decision alone; rather, what some might have seen as "his" decisions— 8 ♦ WOMEN IN THE CHURCH such as whether to accept the call to another church—were always our decisions. My sense, whether in our home or in our church, was that we were all in this together and that each person was to be honored and welcomed into the corporate life without regard to gender distinc­ tions. The basic openness to the ministry of women I gained from my upbringing was deepened after my marriage to Edna. I had always assumed that my life's partner would also be a partner in ministry. But when I became the youth director at the Northwest Baptist Church in Denver (1972), Edna quickly transformed "my" ministry into our min­ istry. For this reason it was quite natural for our three-year sojourn at the church during my seminary days to climax in June 1976 with Edna kneeling beside me as the deacons and area pastors laid hands on the two of us while our pastor spoke the ordination prayer. Edna has repeatedly remarked that she looks back on this event as in a sense her ordination as well as mine. Yet God had additional plans for her. Soon after I moved from the pastorate to the seminary (1981), our Lord opened the door for Edna to embark on a church music ministry. First as choir director and even­ tually as a member of the pastoral staff in the capacity of minister of music, she has truly been "pastor" to the people in her care. I have been able not only to support her in this role but also to sit under her leadership and benefit from her prayerful, diligent work, as she faith­ fully exercises the gifts the sovereign Spirit has given her. My desire to write a book exploring the question of women in the church was sparked nearly a decade ago. Like many other evangelical groups, the denomination of my upbringing was in the throes of a hotly contested, emotional debate over women's ordination. As the theology professor at the denomination's seminary, I witnessed the negative effect much of the rhetoric was having in the lives of many students. For some, the joy and anticipation of church ministry was being clouded by uncertainty, doubt and even fear. Others were being caught up in the dogmatism generated by the debate, and many fell prey to a creep­ ing suspicion of those whose position differed from their own. The heat of this controversy led me into a sustained study of the issue. Both my personal interaction with the biblical texts and my understanding of the implications of the foundational tenets of our PREFACE ♦ 9 evangelical theology confirmed the basic outlook I had gained from my upbringing. The time had come to speak out, I concluded—not in a belligerent manner, but irenically yet firmly, believing that no side in a controversy among concerned Christians could be either devoid of truth or totally free from error. Early in 19911 began discussing with Rodney Clapp and others at InterVarsity Press the idea for a book that would move beyond the debate over the proper exegesis of specific biblical texts and would draw from Christian theology to shed light on the role of women in the church today. The project was still in its infancy in summer 1992 when Denise came to Regent College to teach a course in this exact subject. I had come to appreciate Denise's giftedness for ministry when we were both at the North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She had served ably as my teaching assistant the academic year 1982- 1983 and had later returned to the school as a much-appreciated faculty colleague. As we discussed my proposed book, it became evident that Denise's involvement would add a needed dimension to the project. Consequently, she served as the primary author of the first two chap­ ters (I came in later as editor of these). In addition, her careful eye and keen mind surveyed the rest of the book at each stage in its production. As a result, the entire volume reflects Denise's thinking on the topics covered and therefore is in a real sense her book as well as mine. * * * I was the youngest of three girls born to a farming family on the plains of southern Minnesota. Throughout my childhood and adoles­ cence my parents laid the foundation for my ministry pilgrimage. My mother continually told her children that we were the most important persons in her world and that she loved us no matter what. And my father, who believed in our potential, instilled in us the conviction that we could do anything we set ourselves to do—with God's help. During my high-school days I was involved in my home church as well as Youth for Christ. Because I had no role models of women in vocational ministry (apart from foreign missionary work), I did not know how to process what I sensed to be the urging of God toward vocational ministry. As I moved on to college, I decided to act on my calling by pursuing Christian counseling, which seemed an appropriate