Female Role Models
Yochi Rappeport’s blog in the Times
of Israel on September 13[1]
about role models led me to think more about the influence of what we see and
experience. Yochi writes about the influence that male teachers and rabbis had
on her spiritual development as a teenager. If you only see men in leading
roles, how can you imagine that women could also be leaders? If you are told to
go and see the rabbi when you have a question, and you have only seen men in
that role, how could you imagine that a rabbi could also be a woman?
In our Christian churches, we too
are affected by what we see. Why do our Christian female pastors often have a
difficult time being accepted by their congregations? Could it be the same
reason? Many churchgoers have never before seen a woman in a pastoral role.
They cannot imagine that a woman could be a pastor. If you have always been
surrounded by male leadership in your church, it can be difficult to accept
that women can lead as well.
Because the pastors who are elected
to head the various regions of the church have always been men, it was no
wonder that at the recent General Conference session, only men were appointed.
As far as the division presidents are concerned, there is an excuse hidden in
the Working Policy, which stipulates
mandatory ordination for that position. There is no such policy for
departmental leaders, though. And yet, these leadership positions are mostly,
with very few exceptions, given to male pastors. The nominating committee did
not seem to be able to imagine a woman in a leadership role that has been in
male hands for about a hundred years.
Yes, a hundred years. When we look
back to the time from the organization of our church in the middle of the 19th
century to the rise of fundamentalism in the 1920s, there were lots of women
who successfully headed departments. There were women in leadership positions
in church ministries, Sabbath school, education, and finances. Women served as
evangelists and pastors. Women were visible in leadership. Today the only
female directors at the General
Conference department lead departments for women, children, education, and
family. The reason why women were gradually left out was, of course, that the
number of male pastors increased and they needed jobs. The fundamentalist agenda
sent women back to the hearth and whole generations grew up without female role
models in church leadership.
Long ago, I grew up in a country
where we had a large number of women ministering in the church. They were not
called pastors, nor were they ordained, but they did everything a pastor would
do except baptizing. They were successful evangelists who led hundreds of
people to the Lord. They were visible. They demonstrated that the gospel
ministry was not a calling for men only. Today many talented female pastors are
working in Finland. The foundation was laid by the faithful women who served
God and His church in times past, developing an openness toward women in
ministry.
Others have grown up in cultures
where it was unthinkable that a woman could be a minister. Although in such
countries women work diligently to uphold and serve the church, they can never
be a pastor. It may take longer for the culture to change in regions like South
America, but things will change. Churchgoers in those countries need to see
women in leadership roles and little by little their attitudes will change. They
need to be reminded of the female pioneers of the church in South America, who
worked so hard to bring the message to unreached areas. They were visible and
should not be forgotten.[2]
Yochi Rappeport is the Executive
Director of Women of the Wall. She
was raised in Tzfat in an Orthodox family and served in the Israeli Defence
Forces as a commander in the Nativ Military Course - teaching Judaism and
Zionism. She now lives in Jerusalem with her husband and two daughters, who are
part of a Modern Orthodox community that values feminism and pluralism. Things
have changed. Progress is being made.
The question that bothers me is, are
we as a church making progress, or are we going backward? Are we forgetting our
early female role models and letting male power and ambitions suggest that the
Holy Spirit can only use men as pastors? We do have an increasing number of
women who work as pastors and chaplains in several divisions, but it seems to
me that our top church leadership is not happy about this and wants to halt the
progress.
Church leadership is dominated by
males although the majority of the church is made up of women. Why should such
a great part of the church be relegated to the peripheries? Why can the
potential of women not be recognized? If we consider the biblical metaphor of the
body, with all believers being a part of the body, working together for the
common good, how can we expect the body to function when it is half amputated?
If we as Christians want to be
followers of Christ we should learn from Him and how he respected and treated
women. He rejected the traditions of men and pointed to how God created man and
woman as equals. If we as a church value the redemption of fallen humans
through the sacrifice on Calvary, we should also accept the restoration of the
corrupted treatment of women to the pre-fall divine intention. The church would
profit from following the example of the early church where the involvement of
women was not questioned.
It is time for the church to
recognize that it is not a church where men have a special elevated position,
just as we should stop thinking of the Bible as a book written by men about men
for men only. If women have been hidden in our understanding of the Bible and
historical records (mostly written by men), we should finally give them the
place God gave them at creation, as partners and equal partakers of their
mission.
[1] https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-womens-spiritual-leadership-matters/?fbclid=IwAR3bppLNRg-BBY_CgDrVykJ6-Wgidx4rCWlij88l0zcZKRKyAx1TsBhEoNg
[2] Silvia C. Scholtus, Women in leadership in the beginnings of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America
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