Woman Ordination

Well, God finally had one of my classes ask me to write a position paper on woman ordination, one of the most difficult topics. I have gathered multiple resources on both sides of the topic since the topic surfaced to my attention in 2006 and they were extremely helpful. Below is my conclusion of the paper, so you can get a gist of the position I made in the paper, as always if you need more detail on this issue--email me for the rest of the paper, but for most of you the conclusion will suffice:

A Conclusion

This paper has taken the position that pastors teach and must have authority over men and therefore, a women should not be ordained as a pastor. A woman is not to be a pastor because of the creation order ordained by the creative hand of our Maker and because the creative hand of our Creator created us in unity and diversity. In diversity, male and female harbor different attributes and strengths and weakness. In unity, male and female complement one another's strengths and weaknesses and together their differing attributes are the strongest for the exaltation of Christ in all things. Man in the home are designed to set the vision and plan for the exaltation of Christ in the life of the home and ordained men in the church as pastors are designed to set the vision and plan for the exaltation of Christ in the life of the church. Women are designed to be the absolutely necessary second-in-command for the furthering of the exaltation of the Son. Without woman man is nothing, it is not good for man to be alone. Without man woman is nothing, it is not good for woman to be alone. God has created male and female in an order so that the exaltation of Christ can be furthered the most. Male and female are designed to exalt Christ in their unity and in their diversity. We must trust God and believe that the way he created things is the best way for us and firstly, for the exalting of His Son. These last words must display the fact that this paper is inadequate and lacking because only one verse of scripture is able to see exegesis and many arguments from both sides is omitted due to space. My prayer is that the one verse that could see exegesis and be interpreted can be used by the Holy Spirit for the exaltation of Christ and the exhortation of the saints. To my sisters who are ordained and serving as pastors, to you I declare that you do all things for the exaltation of Christ, center your ministries on him, make Christ the passion in your life that provides all of your satisfactions and joys and songs that bubble up from the very depths of your soul. Drink of him and make him the drink that quenches your everlasting thirst and eat of him and make him the food that satisfies your everlasting hunger. I do not look down on you, I pray for you. To all of the men in this world, I exhort for you to pray for these women that in all of their ministry that the Christ will be exalted and that all ministries will be for him, and that all passions in this world fill be filled and quenched and satisfied in him. Pray that this world will be filled with the songs of the praises of God and the joy of his people and the satisfactions of the peace of fallen souls and the salvation that comes from the God of peace. This issue would be no issue if men were leading and setting vision for the exaltation of Christ in all things. But man is fallen and a decrepit sinner and has failed to meet the standards of a godly leader and so we are set in this predicament this day where women fill so many of the holes in pulpit ministry. They are wrong, but men were wrong first. So this issue of woman ordination needs to be corrected by the men that set vision in a direction centered on the Son and then ordained women can catch a vision that is so much bigger than women ordination and worldly equality: the vision of an eternally humble and just and righteous God who must be exalted because of his everlasting perfections, because of his infinite wisdom, because of his unknowable ways, because he made the wisdom of men foolish and the glory of men inglorious by coming to be one of us to sprinkle life on those people of death who will desire him to be his people of life and of thanksgiving and of rejoicing.