Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Leaven Leaven
Volume 4 Issue 2 Women and Ministry Article 12
1-1-1996
Change Factors Affecting Women in the Local Church Change Factors Affecting Women in the Local Church
Kathy Pulley [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven
Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology
and Philosophy of Religion Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Pulley, Kathy (2012) "Change Factors Affecting Women in the Local Church," Leaven: Vol. 4 : Iss. 2 , Article 12. Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol4/iss2/12
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
Women and Ministry 41
Change FactorsAffecting Womenin the Local Church
by Kathy J. Pulley
One of the major unresolved issues facingChurches of Christ today is how to deal with the rolesof women in the local churches. Many recognize thatas Western society moves toward full and equalparticipation of women in the workforce and in allother aspects of society, it is impossible for theChurches of Christ to remain isolated and unaf-fected.
For the most part Churches of Christ havelimited their formal discussions about women's rolesin the church to what they believe the Bible says-that is, "We speak where the Bible speaks and we aresilent where the Bible is silent." In addition to theimportance of studying the Bible, there are otherfactors that must be considered if women's roles inlocal churches is to change. The issue is complex. Ifchange is to come, those who are in leadership posi-tions must recognize the importance of theological,social and organizational factors.
Biblical StudyThe importance of biblical study cannot be.
denied. Most members of Churches of Christ sharethe presupposition that the Bible is sacred and is areliable account of God's actions and revelations inhuman history. But in order fully to understand thebiblical texts regarding women, there must be moreintensive work done on the difficult passages. Inaddition to being more rigorous about our exegetical
work, we must also be more rigorous about ourhermeneutical study. Several of our scholars areproducing excellent articles about hermeneuticalmethodologies, and those need to be read and stud-ied. Also, there needs to be a more serious examina-tion of theological matters. What is our ecclesiology?What is our "farniology" -our theology about the fam-ily-issues about role expectations, dominance andsubmission, and domestic violence? What can welearn from church history and the history of our ownRestoration Movement about the role of women inleadership? Consideration of these matters andothers will help to inform our overall understandingof the biblical perspective.
Social FactorsAs human beings we are all social creatures
and, as such, are influenced by social and organiza-tional factors in our support of, or our resistance to,the changing roles of women in our culture. Thereare many social issues that could be mentioned (ourfamilies of origin, geography, and education), but forthe sake of brevity I will mention only one, and thatis a sex-role socialization factor: how are women inour culture socialized to feel about their own leader-ship and intellectual abilities?
Over the last forty years, many studies havebeen done relative to this topic. One study conducted
1
Pulley: Change Factors Affecting Women in the Local Church
Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2012
42 Leaven, Spring, 1996
by Matina Horner] indicates that women who aremotivated toward intellectual achievement and lead-ership positions worry not only about failure, but alsoabout success. Why do they fear success? Hornercites three reasons: First, they fear social rejection.They may not be liked by those with whom they areassociated. Second, they may feel guilt and doubtabout their femininity. If they do not live up to whattheir own community of significant peers expects, arethey failing to be "normal females"? Third, they maydeny that success is really achievable for women.That is, they may avoid competing for leadershiproles because success is not perceived to be a realisticpossiblity. Many of these fears have diminishedsince Horner's study, but do these fears have any-thing to say to Churches of Christ as they face thequestion of women's leadership? Probably so.
For women who desire greater participationin church leadership and worship, it is unlikely thattheir fears will be any different from women whoattempt leadership in any other area that previouslyhad been closed. They may experience social rejec-tion from some members of the church. They mayhave doubts about whether they are doing the "right"thing for a female. They may view the task asimpossible and opt to put their energies into achieve-ments unrelated to the church. As we open our mindsto exploring the many social factors which may con-tribute to our present attitudes and actions towardwomen in the church, let us not forget the socialreality that in many places a woman's intelligenceand her ability to lead are still suspect. This realityaffects not only companies' policies and churches'attitudes, but it also affects how women feel aboutthemselves. If intelligent, achievement-orientedwomen do not always seem fully committed to greaterinvolvement in the life of the church, it may havemuch to do with their fears about the consequencesof such a commitment.
Organizational MaintenanceIn addition to social factors, organizational
maintenance is also a major concern of the Churchesof Christ. The Church of Christ, a voluntary organi-zation, like all other voluntary organizations, mustmaintain its legitimacy to its members.
Edward Lehman Jr2 has written extensivelyon women in the religious professions. He points outthat the reason churches may be so threatened by theinclusion of women into leadership positions is thatif a church loses its scarce resources (members andfinancial contributions), the church will cease toexist.f A voluntary organization such as a churchcannot coerce membership or funds. He goes on topoint out that this threat to the organization itself
may be the reason that members who theologicallyaccept women in leadership positions are opposed (orat least neutral) to the implementation and practiceof such an idea in their own local churches. There-fore, if the top priority is to preserve the organization,then any issue which is seen as potentially destruc-tive to the organization will not be supported by theorganization's leaders regardless of how much theymight agree with it in principle.
Another maintenance consideration is thatone's understanding ofthe church also affects his/heracceptance of women in leadership positions. Forsome, the main understanding of "church" is a spe-cific local congregation, in a certain building, with acertain set of ministries and daily routines. Lehmanlabels this understanding of the church as"ecclesiologicallocalism."4 For others, the "church"is broader than a building and is not limited to onegeographic spot with one specific group of people.Rather, the church is universal, global, coterminouswith Christians throughout the world. It is a commu-nity which stretches both backward and forward intime. Lehman refers to those who have this conceptof the "church" as "ecclesiological cosmopolitans."5His studies support the thesis that there is a correla-tion between sexism and localism-that is, those whooppose women in ministry also tend to view thechurch in local terms. If Lehman is correct, hisresearch is extremely informative for those of us inChurches of Christ. Based on his evidence, we mayexpect to see that our churches with a large numberof members who are "ecclesiological cosmopolitans"will be more receptive to women in ministry than willbe the churches who focus on localism.
Another factor of particular concern forChurches of Christ is our structural form. Congrega-tional autonomy does not provide for a national and!or regional group to place women into leadershippositions on the local level, as is the case in manyProtestant traditions. For the most part, congrega-tional autonomy has served us well. When decisionsmust be made about giving women leadership roles,however, local church leaders may find themselves ina dilemma. On the one hand, they may want to movein a positive direction, and yet they may resist suchmovement in order to avoid a controversy that mightcreate a schism in the local group. Regardless of how"ecclesiologically cosmopolitan" the leadership maybe, they remain local leaders who have a strongvested interest in maintaining the legitimacy of theirlocal church.f
Lehman believes that if a woman is to over-come the challenge of organizational maintenance,she must establish her own legitimacy by workingthrough the formal structures of the organization,
2
Leaven, Vol. 4 [2012], Iss. 2, Art. 12
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol4/iss2/12
and she must use her contacts with executive malesin the organization to help further legitimize herposition. For most women, this is an uphill struggle.The specific means through which this might beworked out in churches that practice congregationalautonomy is a wide-open proposition. Despite whatour theology may be, churches still may be reluctantto move away from the traditional role of womenbecause of their fear of losing organizational viabil-ity. We must be conscious of this real fear and notallow the fear to determine our exegetical and herme-neutic stances. Rather, we must search for a way towork through the fear from an organizational per-spective. Literature on organizational change mightserve us well in resolving this essentially method-ological issue.
To achieve the full and equal participation ofwomen in the church, the men who are in leadershippositions must examine their beliefs and attitudesthoroughly. They must also raise their awareness ofthe multiple dimensions of gender roles in our soci-ety. Theological, social and organizational issuesmust be taken seriously. The questions are complex;nonetheless, the leaders have a responsibility to seekresolutions. Lay members (both women and men)must also recognize the value of working "from theground up." Even a small change can be an impor-tant first step.?
Women and Ministry 43
Kathy J. Pulley teaches religious studies at South-west Missouri State University and is a member ofthe Editorial Board of Leaven.
Questions for Discussion1. Would you describe your church as "ecclesiologicalcosmopolitan" or "ecclesiological local?" Explain.Are these labels helpful for understanding how achurch maintains itself? Why or why not?
2. Discuss Horner's points about why women leadersmay worry about success. If you are female, couldyou share an example of a situation in which youfeared succeeding (this could be from church, family,school, etc.)? If you are male, have you observedfemales who feared intellectual and leadership suc-cesses? Share examples. How did you feel when youexperienced this fear or observed it?
3. Do you agree with the author that there are otherissues, besides traditional interpretations of biblicalscriptures, that influence churches' positions aboutwomen's participation? Can you think of other issuesthat are not addressed by this article?
4. Would you like for your church to explore women'sroles in greater depth? If so, how might your churchdo so constructively?
Notes
1Matina Horner, "Fail: Bright Women," Psychol-ogy Today (November 1969) 36-38, 62.
2Edward C. Lehman Jr., Gender and Work: TheCase of the Clergy (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993) 1-22.
3__ ."Sexism, Organizational Maintenance, andLocalism: A Research Note," Sociological Analysis 48(Fall 1987): 275.
4Ibid., 278.5Ibid.
6 . "Placement of Men and Women in theMinistry," Review of Religious Research 22 (Septem-ber 1980) 37.
7An example of one church that has dealt withsignificant changes in women's roles is the BrooklineChurch of Christ in Brookline, MA. Later in this issue Ielaborate on some ofthe specific ways the Brookline churchhas created a Christian community in which women arefull participants.
3
Pulley: Change Factors Affecting Women in the Local Church
Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2012
