The Bible, Our Surest Guide

Up to eighty percent of the membership of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Africa is first-generation. They have been won into the church through a tent or cottage effort, or through the convincing teaching of a neighbour or a lay worker. More than ninety percent of these converts have come from other Christian denominations; to be willing to leave their former denominations, they have had to be convinced that Seventh-day Adventism possessed something that their denominations did not. Most times it is the fact that our church is Bible-based that has convinced so many people to leave their former churches in order to join the Remnant movement. Every doctrine, every differing practice was presented and proven from the Bible.

I am one of those converts. To become a Seventh-day Adventist, I attended "The Bible Speaks Lectures" presented by Dr. E. E. Cleveland. Several times each night he raised high his Bible in hand and proclaimed "Your Bible Speaks." He pointed to Bible truths and assured us that Seventh-day Adventists believed or practised this or that because the Holy Scriptures teach this or that. He boldly told his hearers time and again that if he was unable to point a doctrine or practice to the Bible they were not to believe him. Over the next two and a half decades I found more and more that the teachings of the pioneers and early missionaries were based on their belief in the Bible and the Bible alone.

Centrality of the Word

Hundreds of thousands of believers in Africa have come into the church through similar experiences. The centrality of the Word of God has not only been the basis of our conversion but also the basis of sharing our faith with our neighbours and those with whom we come into contact. We believe our sins are forgiven because the Bible assures us of Christ's death on Calvary for us. We observe the Saturday Sabbath because the Bible says so. We don't eat pork because the Bible forbids it. We wash our feet during the communion service because it is in the Bible. We dress modestly because the Bible teaches it. In Africa we have learned, and therefore we have taught, that all that God desires us to know for our salvation He has made clear in His Bible, His Word to us.

So for us it is inconceivable that the Lord would fail to express Himself on an issue as important as ordination, an issue which deals with the leadership of God's people. To us, ordination deals with organizing and leading God's people to worship God. And to the African, religion and worship are no mere one-day-a-week things. How could God have failed to express Himself on an issue of such importance?

Painful Conclusions

After the 1990 General Conference Session, it was painful for us to see some individuals simply jump to the conclusion that the African church voted vehemently against the ordination of women because the African woman had been downtrodden and abused for centuries, as our image of womanhood would not enable us to see a woman in the elevated role of a minister. Some also felt that the African woman has remained basically uneducated and uninformed and therefore cannot possibly be seen in the role of an ordained minister.

But how uninformed and even unkind brothers and sisters can be! From time immemorial the African woman has played very important and varying roles in her society. She has enjoyed the admiration and respect of her community for those vital roles and functions. And rather than what some people think, these roles have not been limited only to that of the mother and sometimes the breadwinner. Ask the Ashantis of Ghana about Yaa Asantewaa—a woman—and they will tell you of one of the most effective rulers and warriors that nation has known up till this day. The Gas of Accra even till now talk of Dode Akai, who ruled with an iron hand and led the Gas in numerous military victories. They compare her to Joan of Arc. In the city of Ibadan in West Nigeria stands the statue of the woman Efunseyitan Aniwura, an acclaimed leader and warrior of the Yorubas. And in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and many other places, the stories are passed on of the African woman in society. Women have filled and continue to fill their roles in politics, business, and commerce, and in every aspect of society.

Women in African Religions

And, of course, in religion, too. They have been priestesses. My study of the religion and priesthood among the Gas of Ghana shows that from time immemorial women have been intimately involved in religion, and most of the time the effectiveness and perhaps the very efficacy of religion has been woven around the women. Yet they have always maintained specific roles which have never included that of the high priest. The highest religious office in the religion of the Gas is held to be the Wulomo, who has always been a man. There could be hundreds of women who play important supporting roles and functions in the services, and these roles and functions are highly important and appreciated, but it never includes that of the Wulomo. (The Gas trace their ancestry to religions beyond the Nile; possibly they learned this role distinction from ancient Israel.)

With such active participation in the religious life of the community, it is not surprising to find the African woman playing a significant role in the various Christian denominations. Those who visit Africa for the first time are often astounded at the prominent role women fill in the gospel ministry. In fact, the growth of our own Seventh-day Adventist church in Africa cannot be explained without recognizing the dedication and selfless labor of our women in the proclamation of the gospel.

Adventist Women

Though not ordained as elders or pastors, these godly women of Africa—young and old, educated and illiterate, married and single—have supported the lay work and the ordained ministry with their own means; participated in the study, teaching and preaching of the gospel in personal and public evangelism; involved themselves in ministries of prayer, visitation, counselling, writing, and singing; labored as literature evangelists, raised new churches, and ministered to the needy; served in positions of responsibility at various levels of the church organization; and as queens of their homes, they have shared in the privilege of ministering to their children and the extended family. These faithful women of Africa do not view their non-ordination as arbitrary constraints on their freedom, nor a restriction on the countless functions they can perform in the gospel ministry. Instead, as they have labored within the biblical guidelines of what is appropriate for men and women, they have discovered true freedom in God's ideal for complementary male-female relationship in the family—home and church.

Soon after I accepted the Adventist message, I participated in a series of seminars organized under the auspices of the University of Ghana Faculty of Theology on Church Unity. As we discussed the basis of church unity, a sister and I constantly made the point that we felt the Bible alone should be the basis of unity. The senior moderator of these seminars, a professor of New Testament studies, became rather irritated at the simplicity of our presentations and asked us, "Where in the Bible do you see that as a Seventh-day Adventist you should shop at the Kingsway stores in Accra?" I was astonished at the utter simplicity of his rhetorical question. I said the Bible gives enough instruction as to what to buy and when to buy, and how to buy; those principles are enough for me. But he simply dismissed any further thoughts on the issue of the Bible as the guide for what we should do today.

Sufficient Guidance

On the issue of church leadership and ordination facing our church, all agree that we don't have a "Kingsway store" passage in the Bible which tells us explicitly, "You may/may not ordain women." The question is whether we have any guidance sufficiently clear in the Bible to help us decide to continue with what we have done thus far. Where the Bible speaks about the qualifications for the leadership of the church (1 Tim 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9; see also 1 Tim 2:11–14), it seems clearly to forbid this leadership to a woman and require that it be entrusted to men who meet certain standards.

As we approach the General Conference session which will deal with the issue of ordination for women, I ask myself this question: Is it possible that the vast majority of people who will be called upon to give an opinion on this question have really not had the opportunity to see the entirety of the matter and its far-reaching implications not only for the leadership and unity of the church, but for our very understanding of the Bible itself?