It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will have dreams, Your young men will see visions.
Joel 2:28

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Friends, we realize that the idea of women in ministry is controversial in the modern church. Many dear brothers and sisters in Christ hold to a different view than the one we hold. We choose not to divide from our brethren over this issue but rather we encourage a friendly engagement over the topic. With that in mind, here is the transcript of a sermon over the topic of women in ministry by Rev. Rachel Galarneau for your edification.

Heritage Series: Women in Ministry

Sermon by Rachel Galarneau

Presented Sunday, February 27, 2022

Main Text: Romans 16, Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11, Acts

In the Church of God, we affirm women in ministry! Otherwise, I would not be up here talking to you today. But since our origins, we have had women in leadership. Three prominent members among the “Flying messengers” who were early CHOG traveling evangelists- were Nannie Kigar, Frankie Miller, and “Mother” Sarah Smith. I once had to be in a play portraying these great women who led hymns and preached at camp meetings all across the country, sometimes at their own risk or parel. And of course we have had other notable women such as Jennie Carpenter Ruttie, Elsie Egermeier, Nora Hunter, Marie Strong, Lillie McCutcheon, Cheryl J. Sanders, and Dr. Arnetta McNeese Bailey. I remember being at Dr. Esther Cottrell’s installation as our Ohio State Director and was so excited to see a woman leading in high levels of leadership. And for my money, Jeannette Flynn is one of – if not the- best preacher around. She not only has paved the way for Leadership Focus and the ordination of new pastors, but she’s interim right now at maiden Lane in Springfield, and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to her sermons as I start my week these past few months.

So even though our movement boldly and proudly includes women in ministry- I can honestly say that there is still a lot of work to be done in this regard. Just as we have work to do within the sphere of Christian unity, we’re still working to allow women’s voices to be heard. Being a female pastor is difficult- because not all Christian groups accept women in ministry. I honestly wanted Michael to preach this sermon, because if a person doesn’t support women, nothing I say will convince them. They’d only listen to a man. So men– we need you to speak up for those whose voices have been unheard. But– having had to defend my stance So. Many. Times. on WHY I should be allowed to be a pastor, I’ve had to do a lot more study on this topic, so it was decided that I’d preach today. So- buckle in, because today I’m diving in deep.

COMPLEMENTARIAN VS EGALITARIAN

Definitions.
Complementarianism – the genders are united, but different. Each serves a different purpose. The man is to lead, work, protect, and provide. The woman is to submit, support, affirm, and bear offspring. Each gendered role compliments one another.

Egalitarianism – the genders are equal, both created in the image of God, united through co-laboring together to accomplish the will of God. We submit to each other and we all submit to God.

HOUSEHOLD CODES

– Ephesians 5:21-6:9

– Colossians 3:18-4:1

– 1 Peter 2:18-3:7

– Titus 2:1-10

These verses, in our 21st century modern context can seem like nails on a chalkboard. “What!? SUBMIT?!” Yes. Submit. That’s the whole point of the passages. FOR EVERYBODY. SUBMIT TO EACHOTHER. That’s the thesis statement, and the rest are examples of how this is to be done. The point is not that we create hierarchies where one person is in charge of another. Rather, Paul is saying, “Hey- this is our existing culture, and this is how you live out your freedom in Christ within it. Your power comes from laying it down. Just as Christ was meek and refused to fight- when you refuse to fight, you imitate Christ. When you serve others, you show the love of Jesus. And when you live like HIM, THEN you are truly free.” PLUS– Paul flipped the script. We see these verses as addressing women. What is fascinating though- is that the typical letter in that time would address the master, and then ignore all subordinates. So this form of addressing people at every level- wives, children, slaves- would have been radical. It would have caught their attention. By addressing every status, Paul gave every status value, honor, and equality. EVERYONE was recognized by their existence, not by their role/place, and given dignity as an equal in the kingdom..

It is important to note a few things though: These are HOUSEHOLD guidelines. Not for society in general. It is not saying that men ruling women is okay. The term for men and women are used with the connotation of man/wife -husband/wife- and the inference of marriage. It is not saying that all men rule all women. To infer that from these verses is to make the (poor and inaccurate) argument that Paul was promoting slavery, and that Slavery is okay within a Christian economy. Both ideas are equally ludicrous and fallible. More than anything– these passages address our attitudes towards our fellow believers and those whom we are trying to win for the sake of Christ. It’s not about the subjection of women.

ORDERLY WORSHIP
– 1 Corinthians 11

Firstly, in this passage, “head” is used both interchangeably between physical head, and a sense of leading. One the one hand, when it is talking about a physical head– that can be taken pretty literal as in, your noggin. Cover your head. Uncover your head. Paul is using this to distinguish between proper decorum of the day. One of the ways to described was is: “He’s simply telling men to not dress like women, and for women to not dress like men- but to be dignified and appropriate in their attire.” That’s all. It’s probably important to note that Paul spends equal time addressing men and women regarding attire. He’s likely doing so because culturally speaking, pagen idol worship was a huge problem in Corinth. Festivals and idol worship ceremonies often included prostitution, orgies, and sexually explicit role-play where men would dress in veils and long hair, and women would cut their hair short, wear pants and sometimes even adorn themselves with decorations portraying male anatomy. Because of its prevalence, it is very likely that there were ex-prostitutes or ex-idol worshippers who had converted to faith in Jesus. So Paul is not only stressing right attitudes for worship, but addressing sexual purity instead of sexual immorality in worshiping God rather than worshipping idols.

The second usage of head- the metaphorical head is a little harder for us to understand. Simply because 1) we’ve been taught that headship means one thing, but 2) The Greek term had a different understanding of headship than we do. For us, it has often been taught as “authority” or “power/control over” something. Like the head of the company. But this term is often translated as “source.” Because– it’s this idea, that without your head, you have no life. Cut off your head, you die. Because you need your head, right? It is a source of life. So when Paul is talking about headship, he’s talking about the SOURCE of their faith. CHRIST is ALL our head- he’s the source of ALL our faith. And just as Adam was the SOURCE of faith for Eve- because he was created first and commanded to pass on what God had told him- those of us who are in Christ first are the head/source for those who come after us. Another way to understand this style of headship is like that of a headstone, or a cornerstone. It is foundational. You build off of it. Without a cornerstone to set a structure in place, everything goes awry and falls to pieces. The cornerstone doesn’t lord over the other stones, but rather, everything rests upon it and relies on it. It is the SOURCE. This word head does NOT convey a sense of hierarchy. Headship as hierarchy is a Roman ideal that was imposed upon church teachings much later in history, after 500 A.D. especially.

A special note about the order of creation – the “man is the glory of God, woman is the glory of man” can be confusing because of the terms we use. Sometimes we use the Greek conjunction de as “but” — but we also translate it as “and” or “and also.” If Paul had wanted to highlight the differences between men and women for hierarchical terms, he probably would have used a different word- alla – which is a harder contrast. But to use the soft conjunction, he wasn’t saying that men were God’s glory but that women were not. Rather, he’s saying that men were God’s glory- And it is good!” and that things became VERY GOOD when women joined men on the scene and that together they were His glory. “Whereas the male is the glory of God along with the female, the female is also the glory of the male!” Remember how Adam broke into song when he saw Eve? “This is awesome! Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh...