Equipped By God For Pastoral Ministry: Part 1

Book discussion included: "The Making of Biblical Womanhood" by Beth Allison Barr

I picked up my “spiritual gifts” test, confused at my results. “I got it wrong,” I thought. “I must have done the men’s test or something.” I looked around the room for the female leader in our group. It was the mid-90s, and I was in my Christian high school cafeteria. The church/school combo was Independent Baptist, unique to its category because it was conservative in its theology, but women wore pants, and we sang contemporary Christian music in church. We were a feeder school to Liberty University, with close ties to Thomas Road Baptist Church, if that orients you to the “type” of church it was. I approached the leader and tapped her shoulder, feeling slightly ashamed of my results.

“Excuse me, I have a question.”

“Yes, dear?”

“Well, I don’t know how this could have happened, but the result for my test is ‘pastor’,” I said in a hushed voice. “I can’t be a pastor; I’m a woman. Did I answer wrong?”

Deep in my heart, there was a glimmer of hope. For the past two years, I participated in the American Association of Christian Schools competition in the theatre and Bible teaching categories. The Bible teaching had to be a Sunday school lesson. Oh, how I longed to participate in the preaching competition with my male friends! I’d sit in the audience, silently cheering them on, wishing I could be up there too, and then I would go to the Bible teaching room and do flannel graph for three old male pastors.

Back in the cafeteria, I secretly hoped this woman would tell me that I must be an exception and that it was okay to step into my calling as a pastor/preacher—after all, who can argue with a spiritual gifts test? My church strongly supported patriarchy. It was loud and clear as to who would be in leadership in the church. In the book The Making of Biblical Womanhood,

Beth Allison Barr

states that patriarchy “function[s] within cultures that generally promote male authority and female submission.”[1] Of course, the female leader in the cafeteria did not tell me I was free to be a pastor. Instead, she said, “Well, honey, that just means that you are gifted at caring and counseling people, not actually being a pastor.”

“Oh, okay, well, that makes sense,” I responded. I felt relieved that there seemed to be a logical explanation, but behind the relief was a twinge of disappointment. I would never be a pastor—it was a man’s work and a sin for a woman to be one.

That is what I thought up until four years ago. Four years ago, I was two years removed from serving ten years on the mission field, and I just felt that I was made to serve people in a pastoral role. I thought I couldn’t be a pastor, so why not be a hospital chaplain? I applied to seminary because an M.Div. is a requirement, and not too far into my studies, I thought, “This is ridiculous! A chaplain IS a pastor!” During most of my studies, I struggled inwardly, wrestling with what I had been taught versus what I felt called to do, and it never felt right. Time and again, I thought, “God has equipped me for this work; why would it be a sin?”

Fast forward to December of last year, and I decided it was finally time to settle this issue by reading another person's perspective and expertise on this topic—that is what led me to Barr’s The Making of Biblical Womanhood. You see, any time I’ve heard this issue preached from the pulpit, it’s been from a complementarian perspective. Each time, the pastor said something like this: “There are different interpretations of the scripture we will cover today; for the sake of time, I am going to share with you what we as a church believe the scripture is saying about it.” Herein lies the problem with many conservative Christian churches regarding theological issues like these: they tell people what to believe instead of presenting the challenges of all interpretations. Pastors could easily spend two or three sermons on this issue, but they don’t; they like to skip to what they believe.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood convinced me to consider another interpretation of the scriptures, which, for so long, I thought barred (no pun intended) me from any pastoral ministry. I do not believe this anymore. I believe that a calling into pastoral ministry is unique to the individual, man or woman. Barr says,

“We have become so embroiled in arguments about Greek grammar and whose Bible translation is better that we have forgotten what Jesus told us was most important: “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…[And] love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37). We have forgotten that the harshest words Jesus utters in the Bible are not to the ordinary people and sinners around him—the tax collectors and prostitutes and Gentiles and women, whom the disciples kept trying to push away. The harshest words Jesus utters in the Bible are to the strict male religious leaders functioning as self-appointed border guards of orthodoxy.”[2]

Amen Beth. (I am so grateful for her faithfulness in writing and researching this book.)

Last year, I still had not settled how I felt about women pastoring men, but I purposed to follow God’s guidance in that area of my life. If the opportunity presented itself, I would step into it. Sure enough, I was invited to preach at a Nazarene church. I accepted. I waited for the guilty feeling to settle in—the feeling I get when the Holy Spirit convicts me of sin. On the day of my sermon, I went on stage and waited for the lightning bolt from heaven to strike me. Surprise. It never came. Instead, I felt peace. I felt blessed, not because I had the opportunity to preach, but because I felt blessed by the congregation. The act of preaching, I realized, is a mutual ministry; the pastor ministers to the congregation, and the congregation, through the Holy Spirit, ministers back in unity.

In the following months, I had conversations with male pastors who serve liturgical churches. They treated me as an equal, not as someone beneath them. Their kind and equal treatment of me demonstrated that there is room for women in pastoral ministry. It saddens me that I did not fully comprehend that such men existed.

I am a woman called and equipped by God for pastoral ministry.

I don’t put much stock in spiritual gifts tests or any test where I have to answer questions about myself. I have never liked them (I’m sorry to all those Enneagram lovers out there; it’s just not for me.) I would have made a terrible pastor in my 20s and 30s. Even if I had gone to seminary, I would not have been emotionally equipped to be one. The test results that day in the cafeteria came to fruition not because I answered some random questions in the correct pattern, but because of the steady work of the Holy Spirit’s hand on my life.

I come after a long line of pastors' wives, missionaries, female pastors, and ministers of the faith who served and are serving in pastoral roles and were asked to step down, ignored, berated, used, and abused—yet stood firm in their faith and ministry despite patriarchy fighting against them. Despite their own sex fighting against them. Next week, we will cover this topic in part 2 when I review Becoming the Pastor’s Wife by Beth Allison Barr. Please comment below with your thoughts on what I wrote. I’d love to hear from you.

---

[1] Beth Allison Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021,14.

[2] Ibid, 206.