My friend Surly Dave is pondering the role of women in the Church. Dave is clearly a complimentarian. At the same time, Jason Clark (whose blog I read semi-regularly) has posted on the role of women as well. Jason is clearly an egalitarian. I tend to avoid discussions about the role of women, because they can get heated. The arguments get tedious and very few minds are ever changed on the matter. I, however, am one of the few who have changed my perspective.

I would have considered myself a complimentarian until about 4 years ago. Interestingly enough, the first step towards my journey into egalitarianism wasn’t my mind being changed about the role of women per se, but my mind being changed about the role of elders and pastors. You see, I don’t believe that elders or pastors have special authority. I believe in mutual submission to one anothers spiritual gifts. I see the role of elders as being primarily a trustworthy, wise, role model. I don’t see it as an authoritative role (after all, we don’t Lord over one another as the gentiles do), at least not in the conventional sense. If we all submit to one another, then the issue of having a woman “under submission” is moot. If we submit to Christ only, who makes his presence know to us by the very Spirit who empowers us for diverse ministries and is made known through diverse manifestations, then we are submitting to him in the very act of submitting to one another.

So, in a sense it is true that we are to submit to elders or pastors or apostles or prophets, but also to deacons, encouragers, administrators, and mercy-showers. I don’t see much of a New Testament teaching on authoritative roles and hierarchy. “Apostle” or “Prophet” or “Pastor” seem more like job decriptions rather than offices. If one does away with the notion of offices and simply sees all the different sorts of gifts being displayed as being submission worthy, then the question of whether or not women are submitting properly to male overseers becomes less heated, and a bit less significant.

The major step towards egalitarianism came as I was pondering the nature of cultural context in Scripture. Most folks concede that at least some statements within Scripture are culturally bound while others are “universal.” Complementarians and egalitarians read the same Scripture, but disagree over which teachings are culturally conditioned and to which extent. As I was thinking about this problem, I asked myself “what if I simply concede that ALL Scripture is culturally conditioned?” “What if it is much more difficult to determine “universals” than I had previously imagined? This sort of mini-epiphany both terrified me and liberated me. For now, instead of being a static book of static precepts, Scripture became this living Book that could only be approached with prayer, the guidance of the Spirit, and humility. No longer could I quote a verse and be utterly confident of my rightness.

I’ve said this before, and I’m saying it again: Scripture is not authoritative in the life of the Believer. The Spirit is. This isn?t to say that the truth in Scripture isn?t authoritative…but to say that the truth within Scripture isn?t accesible apart from the constituting, guiding presence of the Spirit. The Bible is revelation unless it is illuminated by the Spirit.

Some of my friends get a bit uncomfortable when I share my “epiphany” with them. It is as though I joined the ranks of liberalism and no longer believe Scripture can authoritatively speak into my life. By no means. But let us be clear: Scripture is never the end in itself. It is meant to point us to Christ, by the power of the Spirit. The way we Evangelicals (if indeed you’d still consider me one) tend to read Scripture is as though Scripture were Lord, and Hermeneutics were the Spirit.

All this is to say that the Spirit MUST take a center role in our understanding of ourselves as the Body of Christ. There is no church apart from the Spirit. Scripture is worthless apart from the Spirit. We must be a people constituted by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. The only way to sort out issues like the role of women in ministry is for a community to approach Scripture together in prayer. We must move beyond the sort of thinking that says: what does the Bible say about X, and then after compiling a list of verses and reading them straight-forwardly assume that we now have the Bible figured out and can hang our hat on our newly discovered “universal truth.” Scripture is much more complex than that. It was written in a complex social situation by complex men who were inspired by the Living God. The only thing we have in common with that original context is that Living God, so it is to Him and His Spirit that we must turn.

The role of women in the church is an important issue. And I believe we must bring Scripture into the discussion. And I believe that the Spirit’s voice in and through Scripture is the authoritative voice in the discussion. But the way we try to hear that voice needs to be different than the conventional evangelical approach. We must dig deeper, be culturally aware, understand the theology that is sometimes obvious and sometimes just under the surface of the text, and we must be in prayerful discussion the presence of the Spirit in our midst.

About Mark Van Steenwyk

Mark Van Steenwyk is a member of Missio Dei. He is a speaker, writer, educator, and grassroots organizer. With the support of the Central Plains Mennonite Conference, he travels to radical and intentional communities around the country to help network and offer support.