Women in Ministry

Introduction

Worldwide, most Christians are members of denominations that exclude women from ministry. However, coinciding with the rise of feminism, there has been a strong pushback against this traditional view. Conversely, in some quarters there has been a strengthening of resolve to maintain the status quo, believing that male leadership is God-ordained and valid for all times and places. Is the push for women in Christian leadership a case of the church now conforming to the spirit of the age, or has the church with its male leadership, for the last 1900 years, been guilty of that? Is the present move for inclusion a case of "yet more light and truth breaking forth from God's word"?

Purpose of the Book

This book is a defense of women's role in ministry. It looks initially at the condition women lived under when the New Testament was written and their expectation for ministry. Later chapters examine the discord in ancient Ephesus that led to restrictions in ministry for women and then look in detail at 1 Tim 2:8-15, the passage that is commonly quoted to restrict women's roles. My conclusion is that that it does not provide clear evidence of a permanent prohibition of women in leadership roles.