Recently I read an article describing Churches of Christ, and while I agree with most of the article, one sentence caught my attention, “We struggle with the issue of women’s roles in the church, fed by social developments.” The author is absolutely correct about the struggle. The struggle is real. Yet, the struggle is not fed by social developments, the struggle is fed by Jesus and the upside down gospel he preached and lived on earth. If we want to blame anyone for this struggle, we must lay the struggle at the feet of Jesus.
Jesus LOVES women. ALL of us! He loves the poor woman and the rich woman. He loves the insecure woman and the confident woman. He loves the worker bee woman and he loves the listening woman. He loves the outspoken woman and he loves the demure woman. Jesus loves you! For real!
Jesus struggled against the social norms of his day with all people. Jesus touched the untouchable. Jesus broke bread with the greedy. Jesus entered into dialogue with people he didn’t agree with, and many of those conversations are recorded as encouragement for us. Even in his fear, Jesus knew love to be greater, and he challenged his time which still challenges our time.
I know the women’s issue struggle intimately. As a female minister serving with Churches of Christ, this is a struggle that plagues my heart and mind daily. There are many things I have to tell myself to keep from jumping off the women’s issue ledge, such as, “Corporate worship is not the end-all be-all expression of God’s love for women,” or “This is a fallen world slowly being restored by our participation in the gospel, so of course, the church is imperfect. We are becoming perfect and unblemished, but it may take hundreds or thousands of years before we are a ready bride…the women’s issue struggle is one of many issues yet to be perfected.”
I long to see the restoration of the bride of Christ. I’ve seen glimpses, and I’ve even participated in churches where women and men are equally loved and represented in corporate worship. As a Children’s Minister it is difficult at times to tell this truth of all being loved by God to children while their real-life worship experience tells a different story. Childhood is where spiritual formation begins, and childhood is also the season that builds our prejudices, traditions, and exclusions.
Until women are completely restored within the bride of Christ, my encouragement to you, brave and kind sisters, is to be who God created you to be. When you are who God created you to be, then your reaction to the world around you will be from God, and your existence here on earth will be your ultimate response to who God created you to be. Jesus is for you. Jesus LOVES you.
