How can churches balance tradition with the evolving role of women in society and the church?

[for_his_glory]

What matters the most is that whether a man or a woman be a Pastor they first need to be called of God and anointed by the Holy Spirit in order to teach the word of God. Just because one goes to seminary for training to be a Pastor does not mean they have been called of God.

 

[jasonc]

Here's another aspect that I think bears some consideration. I was talking about this subject with a neighbor, who is also a member of the neighboring more conservative Lutheran Brethren denomination church and he shared about a time when he brought this up while speaking with a female pastor of a local Methodist church. He told her that he doesn't believe women should be in pastoral positions and her reply was, "Neither do I. But men are not filling those roles so what do we do?"

I served on the call committee for our church when our former pastor left. I can tell from first-hand experience that available pastors are hard to come by. There are a lot of churches struggling to find pastors and many of our local churches have to resort to other means like sharing pastors with one or more other churches but even that can be inadequate and difficult to make happen. My church is part of a 2-part parish and was part of a 3-part parish for decades before where we shared one pastor. It took us over 3 years to find the pastor we have now.

So what do we do when men are not filling these roles to serve? How many of us men that are posting here in this discussion are stepping up, getting qualified, and taking on the role of pastor? This is part of the reason I have decided to accept the offer of training for laypersons from the St. Paul Lutheran Seminary to help fill in for pulpit supply on Sundays when our pastor needs to be away, but that doesn't necessarily solve the problem because pulpit supply is not a pastor's only responsibility.

So, if women aren't allowed and men aren't willing, what do we do? Stop meeting for worship? Isn't that what Hebrews 10:24-25 warns against?

not all are called .

I'm not afraid to but no one runs to be a pastor .in fact the opposite they run from the call .never met a pastor who felt the call but didn't rebel first and God not make them miserable until they listened .


would you willingly :

be called 24 seven and expected to answer to help
fix the church ,now the lawn ,paint etc
teach Sunday school.on top of the scruitiny in your life .be expected to put members before your own ,yes many church goers seem to require that .I try not to expect my pastor to always be there and respond .he has four kids he adopted .

 

[jasonc]

let's be honest
Thomas county ga. there are more churches with cemeteries there then in my county with a population triple that size .

if a church falters it's not that hard to drive to another .

where Jaci lived was with in a mile of two churches with cemeteries .if I go out to a two mile radius that quadruples . you can't tell me that God called a man to build start a church across the street from another .

if my church went south I can easily find a good one . I church hopped .I decided not to anymore .it goes on even in tiny towns .

 

[Carry_Your_Name]

Three years ago we called a woman pastor and so far we have been very blessed. In our Lutheran church deaconesses have served from way back from what I can tell and we have one female deaconess today. In our church we have a church council with deacons and deaconesses that work closely with the pastor. The role of the deacons/deaconesses is to work with the pastor to watch over the spiritual life of the church and concerns of the congregation.

So was it wrong for us to call a woman as a pastor? To answer this I have to ask, and I've asked myself this same question, is it wrong for a woman to share the Gospel of Jesus? After all, sharing the Gospel is teaching, is it not? It's teaching about who Jesus is and why we need Him. So far, that is precisely what our pastor has been doing - sharing the Gospel. On that note, I have not had any issue whatsoever with our pastor to date.

Qualities of an adequate church leader is listed in 1 Tim 3, but to demonstrate these qualities, here're a handful of litmus tests -

Does your pastor promote some form of a self-help prosperity gospel?
Does your pastor capitulate to any government mandate, cultural influence or social pressure, such as LGBTQ?
Does your pastor spend more time talking about themselves, their family, the church organization, than Jesus?
Does your pastor teach any prophecy that prepares you for the trials, tribulations and deceptions to come?
Does your pastor support Israel despite of widespread antisemitism?
Does your pastor address any current issues, such as loneliness, addictions, overmedication, financial difficulties, toxic relationships?

If the answers are anything other than three unequivocal nos and three unequivocal yeahs, your pastor doesn't deserve leadership position, regardless of gender. Unfortunately, I don't know any female pastor or self-labeld Christian influencer passes these tests, most can't even pass the first one, and that's no surprise when you consider the fact that 3 out of 4 self-help book readers are women and 2 out of 3 regular churchgoers are women.