women in robes

The magazine cover of Gospel Today shows female pastors/ministers. This particular magazine comes from the Charismatic branch of the Church. Pentecostals and Charismatic churches have never had a problem with women having a call to preach. On the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), Peter said that the Spirit was being poured out on both men and women. But Southern Baptists don't understand it that way. They forbid women from the pastoral role. So, when this magazine cover showed up in Southern Baptist book stores, they hid them behind the counter. (Oh, the pornography of females in clergy robes!) There are a handful of female pastors in Southern Baptist congregations (a handful out of 14,000 congregations). Since Southern Baptists have no central authority (humanly speaking), each congregation can do whatever it wants to. This is called the autonomy of the local church. Supposedly they have no creed; they don't believe in creeds. However, they have a doctrinal statement called The Baptist Faith and Message. It functions like a creed. It says that the pastoral role is only for males. They can point to particular passages of Scripture, like 1 Tim. 2. But other churches can point to passages like Acts 2, 1 Cor. 11, Gal. 3, Lk 24, etc. In my humble opinion, I believe that Southern Baptists and other churches that don't allow women in the inner circle of decision-making or in the pastoral/sacramental role are actually coming out of a male-domination ideology rather than a Biblical theology. There is plenty of positive talk about female leadership in the New Testament For a thorough investigation of the meaning of 1 Tim. 2.11-15, I recommend the book I Suffer Not a Woman by Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger ((Baker Books, 1992). I also recommend Beyond the Curse: Women Called to Ministry by Aida Besancon Spencer (Hendrickson, 1985); and Why Not Women? by Loren Cunningham and David Joel Hamilton (YWAM Publishing, 2000). The first evangelist was Mary Magdalene, sent by an angel to tell the men about Jesus' resurrection.