Shall Women Minister?

Not too long ago a woman seminary student and I were chatting in my living room about theological issues. Suddenly she said "It's a pity that you [conservatives] are so against women in ministry. I certainly don't agree with the theology of the liberal camp, but I don't get any encouragement for my longings to serve Jesus from conservatives."

It hit me like a dash of cold water. She hadn't meant it in a critical way; she just felt she was stating fact. Me? Not encouraging a woman in ministry?

I don't remember anything else we talked about all evening. My mind was riveted to that one statement. You see, I had been there too. I had trod those same waxed, tiled Seminary floors. I still remember the first time I walked into a crowded classroom for the Greek entrance exam—all eyes fastened on me, the only woman in the room. I sat by myself in classes with fifty or more men. I got used to being called "brethren" by professors. In those days there were only two or three women going to seminary. Why was I there?

Even as a young child I loved to study the Bible. When I was ten or eleven, I told my family the only things I wanted for Christmas and birthday presents was a new marginal reference Bible and Spirit of Prophecy books. I read them, too. I not only read them, I underlined them and cross-referenced them. There was nothing more thrilling for me than to pass out Great Controversy books or give out Bible lessons while attending academy. In college I had the privilege of sitting by the bedsides of the sick and talking with them of spiritual things. I came to realize there was a place for women to work with women. I loved Jesus and I just wanted to share the good things He had so kindly given me. So I took theology in college and went on to Seminary. I wanted to be a hospital chaplain or an academy Bible teacher.

Varied Ministry

My ministry actually has included much more. I married a pastor and we enjoyed a team ministry with a strong emphasis in health evangelism in a two-church district. Later we were called overseas. While he was head of the chaplaincy and health education departments, and pastor of the church, I acted as assistant. We did health programs, visited patients, gave Bible studies, did evangelism, and taught Bible classes to non-Christian nursing students. When we were called to set up a Soul Winning Institute in yet another country, I assisted someone in evangelism but spent more time doing programming and photography for evangelistic multimedia in the local language. When my husband helped to write Seventh-day Adventists Believe... and to prepare a new book on our beliefs, I helped with typing, editing, and writing. We have enjoyed a varied ministry. I must say I have been treated more than fairly all along the way. Now my main ministry is rearing two children while my husband teaches at the Seminary.

So what qualifications did I need in order to work in the positions I have? At our first pastorate, the kindly pastor who was overseeing our district wanted to ordain me as a local elder along with my husband (who was just an intern at the time). Much to his surprise, I declined, on the basis of 1 Tim. 3:1–7. My husband was ordained alone that day. When he was ordained to the gospel ministry a few years later, I stood by his side while hands were laid on him. We have ministered together, yet I did not want to be the overseer. People never called me "Pastor." It was always simply "Pastor, and Laurel."

Why Not Be Ordained?

So, even though I have the training, some experience and leadership skills, why have I not aspired to be an "overseer" or sought to be called "elder" or "pastor?"

Not Sociological

Often feminists will intimate that certain cultures (other than North American or Western European) are "patriarchal," or "authoritarian," such as those under communist regimes or a military dictatorship. They suggest that persons coming from such cultures consider women inferior and are negatively conditioned against women's rights and so need consciousness-raising. They also can accuse women who don't accept "the party line" of being weak or jealous of their educated sisters who have high aspirations. Men who object to women's ordination are often labeled as "power-hungry" and unwilling to let go of their hold on church authority.

Such accusations are unfair and poorly disguise a sense of racial/class superiority based on place of origin or social status. I am incensed to see persons from other cultures coerced and denigrated in this way. Stands on the ordination issue are Biblical, not cultural or sociological. If it were merely a cultural issue, I, as an educated American woman, should have been ordained (at least as a local elder) long ago. No, I will stand with much of the world field (and really, most of North America) and decisively state that there is a deeper ethical/Biblical reason not to ordain women.

An Ethical/Theological Issue

Pro-ordinationists also maintain that their position is Biblical, emphasizing moral justice, equality, and the Holy Spirit's leading. However, feminist theology is inherently dispensational in nature. "Patriarchal" leadership, they emphasize, is replaced by the New Testament gospel of equality, and they make much of the "trajectory" of the Bible's moral tone. This form of theology can be highly imaginative and speculative. When a Bible writer does not mention or consider women, feminist theologians feel they have permission to superimpose a woman's consciousness on Scripture to guess at the "genuine" meanings of a passage. For instance, because Paul was presumed to be culturally preconditioned, he really did not mean what he said; he was merely a creature of his times. This is how Scripture can be seen to have levels of inspiration which have either "local application" or "universal application."

Christians used to maintain that the Bible created a culture all of its own. Seventh-day Adventists were a similar people no matter where we went in the world because we took the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy as normative. Together these sources have shaped us into a people different from our local cultures, different from any culture, but united in faith and practice. Now feminist theology wants to impugn this biblical culture and reinterpret the "essence" of a passage. Suddenly, under such treatment, biblical culture fades away and the Bible becomes judged by local culture, be it North American (whatever that is!), African, Russian, etc.

I hope that Seventh-day Adventists continue to embrace Bible culture, even if it should prove to be politically or anthropologically incorrect.

Equal But Different

Men and women were created equal in worth (sometimes called ontological equality), but not homogeneous. We were created functionally different.

Some things in life are just common sense. By design one can realize function. A chain saw was designed for cutting down trees, not plowing a garden; a vacuum cleaner for vacuuming, a telescope for looking at birds or stars, not stirring the soup. If human designs are so function-specific, the all-wise Creator is more so. His designs are so complex that often human scientists spend lifetimes studying the most elementary dimensions of His complex designs.

Good Design

There is nothing obscure or controversial about stating that the stomach's purpose is to process food, the nose to smell and breathe, the kidneys to filter out impurities. All systems are interrelated in the body, but good design does not conflict. Organs of the body are not jealous of each other's functions (see 1 Cor 12:12–26).

Both male and female are necessary to a family. God created man and woman to be complementary, not clones. This is basic to God's design and architecture for family and government. No one would claim that both sexes are functionally identical, so why do we allow philosophically for androgynous crossover?

The family was to be the safeguard of society. In it all individuals were to find a place, a home. And today, as the traditional family disintegrates, many new orders and variants emerge. The family is undergoing metamorphosis; the roles of men and women have been so meddled with that one hardly dares admit to the traditional roles.

Bible Roles

Scripture is quite clear about the role of women. Men and women were created equal. As Ellen White noted, "Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self, showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation."¹

Even though Eve was equal in worth, man and woman were functionally different. Adam, created first, was head of the race (1 Tim. 2:13). Even though Eve committed the first sin, Adam was held responsible for it in salvation history (Rom 5:12-21).²

Their first small infraction that seems so insignificant came heavy consequences (curses). Neither could eat from the tree of life, and they were expelled from their garden home. Because Eve led out in the initial disobedience (rebellion), she now would experience pain and subordination—a putting under authority requiring submission and obedience (Gen 3:16).

Despite Christ's redemptive act and setting up the gospel order within the Christian church, the curses laid down in Genesis 3 will remain with us until the second coming. As Adam's course of thorns and thistles remains (and has multiplied, despite herbicides and heavy farmequipment), and the serpent's curse has not terminated (neither Satan nor his influences were eliminated with the coming of the gospel; see Rev 12:12), so pain in childbirth (epidurals and LaMaze are techniques of coping with the inevitable) and yes, subordination still remain with us until glorification.

Salvation is equally extended to men and women, all classes, and all peoples (Gal 3:28). God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Yet though Jesus spent time ministering salvation to women (John 4, Luke 10:38–42), He did not choose them as the leaders of the church. Men were chosen as patriarchs, priests, and kings. (Athaliah promoted herself.) Prophets were chosen from both sexes.

In the New Testament, Paul advocated the family model for church government (1 Cor 11:3; Eph 5:22–33), with the man carrying the authority. Paul was clearly concerned that the authority of the early church not be usurped by women. Elders were to be men with one wife (1 Tim 3:2; Titus 1:7), for women were not to teach or have authority over men but to be in silence (1 Tim 2:12). (More on silence later.)

Details

When Scripture is definitive about details, we look to the general principle being enunciated. The Sabbath commandment sets forth a general principle of worship. But it also gives a directive for when and how God wants us to worship—on the seventh day, and not doing any work. Seventh-day Adventists have insisted that principles and details are both important to following His Word. Just because we don't kill people who pick up sticks on the Sabbath now (Num 15:32–36) doesn't mean we throw out the principle of worship and its specifics of time and manner. Likewise in the area of church leadership, the principle calls for godly persons to be placed in leadership. The surrounding "detail" specifies that He wants godly males who are able to administer their own families successfully. Just as we are not able to dismiss the seventh day "detail" in observing the Sabbath, we cannot dismiss the male "detail" of church leadership.

Nor can we just view male leadership as part of Middle Eastern culture that we cannot embrace anymore. Using that hermeneutic, we would discard the New Testament foot-washing ordinance as a cultural symbol necessary only in a time when people wore sandals on dusty roads. Certainly the Bible was given to persons within a culture, but we have always claimed a God who is trans-cultural as its Author.³

Loving Leadership

If leadership is oppressive, submission is a burden, a horrible curse. When leadership is loving, it is almost transparent. There is encouragement, there is love, there is listening. Submission is easy because two wills go the same way. Like the new covenant experience, obedience is easy because your will is the same as the imposed will—you would want to do it that way anyway. This kindly leadership enjoined upon the men of the family and church is detailed in Ephesians 5 where the male leader is a type of Christ.

Gifted

Just because males have been designated as the major leaders of the church does not mean that a woman should just sit by. God has given her gifts that she needs to employ in His service. God gave gifts to all,⁴ women included. Jesus is getting ready to come and longs to pour out His Spirit on His handmaidens as well as His young men. He does not discriminate (see Joel 2:28, 29). Women have a powerful part to play in getting the world ready to meet Jesus.

"Woman, if she wisely improves her time and her faculties, relying upon God for wisdom and strength, may stand on an equality with her husband as adviser, counselor, companion, and co-worker, and yet lose none of her womanly grace or modesty. She may elevate her own character, and just as she does this she is elevating and ennobling the characters of her family, and exerting a powerful though unconscious influence upon others around her. She may cultivate the intellect? Why should they not answer the purpose of God in their existence? Why may they not understand their own powers, and realizing that these powers are given of God, strive to make use of them to the fullest extent in doing good to others, in advancing the work of reform, of truth and real goodness in the world? Satan knows that women have a power of influence for good or for evil; therefore he seeks to enlist them in his cause."⁵

Spirit's Call

It is sometimes said that we should not refuse to ordain those who feel called by the Holy Spirit to the office of elder or pastor. But if a person we are having Bible studies with tells us that "the Lord told me" that the seventh-day Sabbath is no longer important to keep, we assure that one that it is not the Lord who has impressed differently than He has specified in His own Word. The Holy Spirit does not instruct one way and then lead persons in a way contrary to that instruction!

"The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the apostle John, 'Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.' 1 John 4:1. And Isaiah declares, 'To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Isaiah 8:20."⁶

The Spirit who calls men and women to ministry is the same Spirit who instructed that the qualifications of elder or overseer (pastor) should include being a male (Greek aner, 1 Tim 3:2) of one wife (gune, cf. Titus 1:6).

The Holy Spirit's gifts are not restricted to any gender. But the gifts of the Spirit that are given to bless the church cannot supersede the role distinctions God established at creation, namely, that males should exercise the leadership role in both the home and church families. If a woman comes up with the gift of apostleship on a spiritual gifts test, perhaps we need to ask ourselves some questions about the test. The Bible should not be subjected to a man-made spiritual gifts test, but the validity of the test should be evaluated or judged by the Bible. Does it measure raw talent, or does it measure spiritual gifts?

During this end-time, in the first glow of the approaching second advent, what a shame it is that we have such a fuss going on about ordination of women to the ministry. When all of us should be using heart, hand, and voice to God's glory, working earnestly to save souls, Satan has managed to get us fighting about women! And we aren't even fighting about women doing immoral things! We're fighting over them being spiritual leaders and giving their all to God's work!

Scripture is not against women working for the Lord with their all. A trail of righteous women listened to God's Spirit and answered His call in varying roles down through its inspired pages.⁷ There are many ways a woman can serve (yes, that means minister) even more effectively than men.⁸

How Women May Minister

1. In Their Homes

I dare not leave out this sphere in an era when home work is considered, well, all right for women with no real potential. But most folk give the impression that certainly anyone with creativity or brains ought to be making a career for herself. Some women who would rather be at home have no choice but to work. Just paying rent, keeping the children in church school, and getting food on the table stretches the financial limit for many of us.

But we are reminded that there is no more important place than home for a woman.

"The king upon his throne has no higher work than has the mother. The mother is queen of her household. She has in her power the molding of her children's characters, that they may be fitted for the higher, immortal life. An angel could not ask for a higher mission; for in doing this work she is doing service for God. Let her only realize the high character of her task, and it will inspire her with courage. Let her wear the whole armor of God, that she may resist the temptation to conform to the world's standard. Her work is for time and for eternity."⁹

Molding children shapes the future. There is no higher evangelism than painting a beautiful picture on the hearts of little ones and encouraging Jesus in the hearts of our families. More than a hurried morning and evening worship, character development takes time and careful planning and study.

More Than Home

But a family always turned inward on itself becomes selfish. And a family can fully swallow a mother. All her time can be taken in keeping house, sewing on buttons, sorting socks, and reading stories to kids. Children should not become so absorbing that working for the Lord, reaching out for the Lord, is squeezed out.¹⁰ It is very easy to say, "I need to stay home with the children. I cannot help at the meeting." It's true that children should be in bed regularly every night, but sometimes this is only an alibi. Beware of making children an excuse for not serving the Lord.

Ellen White once did. God called the White family to a very special ministry. But it was not a comfortable one. After the birth of their first child, Henry, Mrs. White assumed that her public ministry was over while she reared her child. As they ceased their labors, heartache after heartache came upon them. "I was shown," Sister White wrote, "that the Lord had been trying us for our good, and to prepare us to labor for others; that He had been stirring up our nest, lest we should settle down in ease and that our work was to labor for souls."¹¹ Soon after this, baby Henry became very ill. Recognizing that they had made their little Henry "an excuse for not traveling and laboring for the good of others," they feared that God was about to remove the basis for their excuses. With the agonizing prayer of faith they pledged God that if the child's life were spared they would go forth, trusting in Him wherever He might send them. Immediately the baby's fever turned and the White family realized that God wanted their family more involved than in mere home evangelism.¹¹

Children

When God calls us to ministry, He still expects us to be responsible for our children. We cannot devote all to the "Cause," neglect our children, and then expect God to do a miracle to save them. Marilee P. Dunker makes herself vulnerable by telling her family's story in Days of Glory, Seasons of Night. She tells how her father, Bob Pierce, used to say, "I've made an agreement with God that I'll take care of His helpless little lambs overseas if He'll take care of mine at home." Mrs. Dunker goes on to say, "It surely sounded sensible enough, and Daddy sincerely believed it was right. Unfortunately, future events would prove that this was Daddy's agreement, not God's." Bob Pierce founded World Vision, one of the largest and most successful ministry-oriented Christian organizations in the world. His tiring travels and long absences he meant as sacrifice, but they cost his own mental health, the breakup of his marriage, the suicide of one of his daughters, and permanent scars in the lives of his other children.¹² Home responsibilities cannot be shaken. Each member of the family needs the stability of knowing he or she is important enough to merit time in the busy parent's schedule. We cannot shrug off God's remnant families.

But by staying home one does not have to remain confined to home. Families can be the means of ministry. In some years, diapers may seem to be the main mission in life. But even through those cloistered times we can still reach out—outreach, a way of meeting people for Jesus. Going to the park with the children becomes a time to reach other mothers. Stopping by the library with the children means meeting people (in the children's department, of course) I may not meet otherwise. Sharing recipes, gardening secrets, a natural remedy to help a neighbor friend's cough, are all ways we make friends and build relationships. We can minister to those in like circumstances best of all. If we don't minister to young mothers, who will? How better can our children catch the vision of evangelism? The children themselves can be effective missionaries. Home now becomes means, not end.

2. In Personal Ministry

There comes a time when the casual contacts lead to deeper questions. "Does the way you eat have something to do with your religion?" "Would you like to go with me to the craft show next Saturday?" (Isn't it interesting how outward behavior, sometimes called standards, often leads to deeper questions of the spirit?)

Bible Work

If we are prepared, we can go the step deeper and begin studying the Bible with contacts. Women are excellent at personal ministry. For years, Bible workers in local churches or evangelism have been responsible for large numbers of baptisms. Women, with simple Bible lessons (read a question, open the Bible to text to find answer) have educated our babes in Christ. Bible workers could be sent out into the homes or were highly successful at following up guests who came to worship. They had a knack for getting decisions. They were excellent Bible students who knew Jesus, and people responded with their whole hearts.

Mrs. Hetty Haskell was such a successful Bible Worker that she and her husband, S. N. Haskell, set up a training school for young workers right in their home. Those desiring to observe, learn, and be trained as soul winners would come to live with the Haskells for a period of time. Of Mrs. Haskell it was said, "She takes hold most earnestly, not afraid to put her hand to any work. She does not say, 'Go,' but she says, 'Come, we will do this or that'; and they cheerfully do as she instructs them. We have had most precious instruction from the Word from both Brother and Sister Haskell."¹³

Medical Ministry

One of the vehicles of evangelism the Haskells enjoyed was medical missionary work. Mrs. Haskell was skilled in tying spiritual things to cooking schools or health lectures. "Before each cooking lesson we give a talk on the Health Reform from the Bible standpoint, showing the people why we do not have the same diet as the world around us. During the cooking school we will cover the main points of faith in these talks, so that those that only come to the cooking school will learn much about our faith from the health standpoint."¹⁴

Team Ministry

The Haskells worked so closely together that Mrs. Haskell felt, "My studies without his [Elder Haskell] were not as helpful, for in all our meetings we have made all our studies blend, his has prepared the way for mine and mine filled in the spaces with his."¹⁵ Sometimes Mrs. Haskell even preached some of the sermons. Ellen White encouraged the Haskells in their team ministry. She felt that such women who worked full time in evangelism should be fully remunerated. Some of her strong counsels on this issue were in reference to women working along the lines of Mrs. Haskell.¹⁶

But one need not be a professional Bible worker, highly trained, or on the conference payroll in order to have the opportunity of giving Bible studies. All of us have the privilege of working together for Jesus. Lay Bible training is an avenue that any of us can enjoy and be part of. Women are uniquely gifted in personal work.

Other areas where women can be a special blessing are in the realms of counseling or hospital chaplaincy. Especially in working with women. Often in unseemly situations arise from men counseling women. "When a woman is in trouble, let her take her trouble to women. If this woman who has come to you has cause of complaint against her husband, she should take her trouble to some other woman who can, if necessary, talk with you in regard to it, without any appearance of evil."¹⁷

3. In a Public Ministry

Women can even teach and preach in churches.

Early on in our movement there was some discussion of women's public involvement in light of the Bible's injunctions for a woman to remain silent (1 Cor 14:34).¹⁸ In an article, Uriah Smith wrote regarding the biblical passage on women being silent in church; he equated it with being under obedience:

"The Scriptures represent, that a subordinate position, in a certain sense, is assigned to the woman, for the reasons that she was formed from the man, and at a subsequent time, and was first in transgression. 1 Cor. xi, 8; 1 Tim. ii, 13, 14. The leadership and authority is vested in the man. 'Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' Gen. iii, 16. This order is not to be reversed, and the woman take the position which has been assigned to the man; and every action on her part which shows that she is usurping this authority, is disorderly, and not to be allowed. Hence Paul says plainly to Timothy, 1 Tim ii, 12, 'But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.' There is no doubt but it was the very same point—the usurping of authority over the man, and the teaching in public assemblies—that Paul had reference to in 1 Cor. xiv, 34."¹⁹

Again, twelve years later J. H. Waggoner, as resident editor of The Signs of the Times, made this point even more clearly:

"The divine arrangement, even from the beginning, is this, that the man is the head of the woman. Every relation is disregarded or abused in this lawless age. But the Scriptures always maintain this order in the family relation. 'For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.' Eph. 5:23. Man is entitled to certain privileges which are not given to woman; and he is subjected to some duties and burdens from which the woman is exempt. A woman may pray, prophesy, exhort, and comfort the church, but she cannot occupy the position of a pastor or a ruling elder. This would be looked upon as usurping authority over the man, which is here [1 Tim 2:12] prohibited."²⁰

Waggoner concluded, "Neither do the words of Paul confine the labors of women to the act of prophesying alone. He refers to prayers, and also speaks of certain women who 'labored in the Lord,' an expression which could only refer to the work of the gospel. He also, in remarking on the work of the prophets, speaks of edification, exhortation, and comfort. This 'labor in the Lord,' with prayer, comprises all the duties of public meetings, which were probably conducted by men, or all the duties of ruling elders, and pastors, compare 1 Tim. 5:17, with 2:12, but all that pertain to exercises purely religious. We sincerely believe that, according to the Scriptures, women, as a right may, and as a duty ought to, engage in these exercises."²¹

Not Silence

So we see that early Adventists discovered that the issue in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy is not silence, but authority, rulership. They indicated that biblical order requires a woman to be in submission and not be head of the family or the elder or pastor of a church. Is it any wonder that only three years later, in 1881, the first motion submitted to the General Conference to ordain women to the gospel ministry died a quick death? It was referred to committee and did not emerge again for nearly another century. Early Adventists were clear on leadership roles and gospel order.

Within this biblical structure, Adventist women in the nineteenth century exercised a significant ministry, which could include public speaking. Mrs. S. M. I. Henry provides one outstanding example of such a ministry, conducted in harmony with the Bible's guidelines. Mrs. Henry's special emphasis was to encourage women to use their talents for the Lord in their homes and neighborhoods. She established a branch of the church's outreach which she called "Woman-Ministry" to help women see how to strengthen their homes and to witness winsomely to their neighbors. In addition to frequent public speaking, she wrote a weekly column for the Review and Herald entitled "Woman's Gospel Work." Mrs. White wrote to her, encouraging her in her work, even telling her, "Address the crowd whenever you can" (Evangelism, p. 473).

For more on Mrs. Henry's remarkable life and the genius of her work, see the accompanying article, "S. M. I. Henry, Pioneer In Women's Ministry."

Feminist Ministries vs. Women's Ministries

Today, feminist ministries contrast sharply with the Women's Ministry back then. Whereas the spirituality of the Adventist sisters was the greatest burden of the first movement, it seems to be assumed in the second; whereas soul-winning was the whole purpose of the first, it does not always seem to be foremost in the second; whereas the first movement stressed the worth and influence of a woman on the domestic scene in the home, such a concept seems nigh-repulsive to many in the second movement; whereas power was equated with the Holy Spirit in the first, one almost senses that it is equated with position in the second.

We can applaud Women's Ministries in developing countries where women are very active in soul-winning and sharing their faith. Praise the Lord for their faith and sacrificial work! The churches are growing because women have captured the spirit of the pioneers in their area. Let us be ashamed to tamper with their form of ministry and infect them with feminist strugglings.

Ticket Up

The present thrust for women's ordination is not merely seeking to recognize women in ministry. Ordination is viewed as a ticket up. Many church leadership positions now have their eyes on high-up leadership positions in the Conferences, Divisions, White Estate. Women are not just after the pulpit, they want to be mentored all the way up. (Affirmative action makes way for a woman to advance above what her experience would otherwise allow if she can be mentored—trained in—by one with experience.)

There is something about most men that resists being led by women. Call it chauvinism, call it bigotry, call it whatever you like. But a church dominated by women does not appeal to men. This is a great danger for evangelism. Winning women to our church has always been easier than winning men. Why add further hurdles to drawing men?

Ordination has muddied the whole picture of women in ministry. Lovely women of the spirit who desire to serve the Lord with their all find rejection and suspicion haunting their finest endeavors.

There is a place for women in public ministry. There is a place for "addressing the crowd," exhorting, writing. But in no way can we usurp authority. As the Bible says so plainly, elders and church leaders are to be men (1 Tim 3:2). Just because we should not have that authority does not mean we cannot serve Jesus with our all. Let us be willing to take Scripture as the norm! Let's pray for each other and drop our bad feelings toward one another. Come, let us stop our silly quibbles and everyone do what we can regardless of place or position (or lack of recognition). And then, let's go Home. Standing together we shall mean we'll make better neighbors Over There.