A different view of leadership

So why does the Board of Faith and Life propose that church leadership may be assigned to either men or women, in the light of restrictions found in the New Testament? One part of the answer is found in Paul’s vision of church leadership found broadly in the New Testament.

Gifting and equality – starting points

The character of the church – and leadership – is founded on the gifting of all believers by the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, Pentecost showed that God would indwell each believer. As such, each believer is also a messenger: “each one heard the gospel in his own language” (Acts 2:6).

Everyone has a spiritual gift. All gifts are required to fulfill the mission of the church.

Further, in baptism every believer is established as an equal participant in Christ (Galatians 3:26–28), even where ethnicity, social class or gender traditionally excluded some. This biblical equality supersedes secular, Enlightenment-based definitions of “equal rights.” Baptism isn’t about rights but about submission to God’s directives (Philippians 2:5–11).

Paul’s idea of leadership in community

In Ephesians 4:11–13 Paul teaches: “He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers . . . so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God . . . to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

In Paul’s vision for the church, he saw the need for a team of spiritual gifts to lead, not just one. The five gifts of Ephesians 4 are an example of how a set of leadership gifts working in unity (4:1–6) is necessary for the development of a numerically growing, character-maturing yet unified body of believers.

Paul and the Bible affirm a leadership structure analogous to the human organism. Leadership is critical but it is consistently contextualized within a larger cooperative environment (1 Corinthians 12:4–11,27–31; Romans 12:4–8).

Community leadership shifts the issue

The transformation that Paul’s vision calls for would not be to let a few more especially gifted women share with a few men the rare roles of leadership. It would be to reorient the whole notion of ministry leadership into a team of elders so that there would be no one ungifted, no one not called, no one disempowered, but indeed, all in the body led to maturity in Christ and in the corporate capacity to bring the gospel to their world.

The MB Conference agreed years ago that men and women may serve in any area of church leadership – only women may not be lead pastors. From the perspective of the Pauline vision, we’ve gotten hung up on the wrong idea. There is not one exclusive “ministerial” leadership role, of which we could then argue about whether it is gender specific. If we accept that leadership comes from a team then we must consider the possibility that gifted women and men are qualified to participate in that team.

In the New Testament we see beginning evidences of women acting in some of these leadership roles. Junias – probably a woman – is among the apostles (Romans 16:9). Women were prophets (Acts 21:8–9; 1 Corinthians 11:5) and evangelists (at the resurrection, Philippians 4:2–3). Phoebe may have helped lead the church in Cenchrea (Romans 16:1–2). Priscilla was a teacher (Acts 18:26; Romans 16:3). In each case, women are listed within a team context, whether in their church or within family.

Mission-focused decision-making

Lastly, our model for decision-making comes from the missional church of the New Testament. Paul’s overarching principle for decisions was, “will my choice further the message of the gospel?” (1 Corinthians 9:19–23). The directives to the churches in his many letters were founded on this principle.

In our day, on this subject, a mission-based decision could free or restrict, depending on the context. Interestingly, Paul gave restrictions on women’s activities for Ephesus (1 Timothy) and Corinth, but not for other communities to which he wrote. So there is evidence of selectivity. Today, in some communities, a woman in the lead would be a stumbling block to furthering the message of the gospel. In other communities, churches need to be freed to assign women any role, including leadership, because to restrict women is a stumbling block to the gospel.

Conclusion

If the Holy Spirit gifts all, and all have equal access to participation in Christ; if the maturing church requires a team of elders to bring all to maturity; if the New Testament (and our experience) shows that Christian women have gifts related to leadership, then under God’s directives we need to be open to the possibility of both female and male leadership in the church. Moreover, if we want to be missional, we cannot risk undermining the Great Commission by universally imposing a restriction that Scriptures seem to implement selectively.

I believe this understanding of Paul’s leadership vision helps redefine the terms of engagement regarding women’s roles in the church – a situation which has kept us stuck for many years. We already are discerning gifts in men and women. We also have a history of team leadership that needs rediscovering. We should always cultivate our capacity for mission-based decision-making.

Following this vision will keep us true to the Bible and its intentions, including the restrictive texts, while freeing men and women to lead the church where God leads.

Out Front is a column written by leaders in our conference. David Wiebe is executive director of the Canadian MB Conference, based in Winnipeg. This article is an excerpt of a longer paper presented to the Board of Faith and Life in June; it is available on the Conference website.