Methodist and Nazarene Polity, Worship, and Sacraments — Unit 10: Women in Wesleyan Ministry

Key Verse

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain that the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition has welcomed women's preaching and ordination from its early years.

2. Name women in Scripture who served God as prophets, witnesses, teachers and servants of the church.

3. Trace the history from Wesley's women class leaders and preachers to the ordination of women in Holiness churches.

4. State the complementarian view fairly, with its main texts, and give the Wesleyan answer to each.

5. Explain how a pastor can lead a church with members who hold different views on this subject.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and evangelical. In this unit the tradition's own view is taught: that God calls women as well as men to preach and to serve as ordained ministers. Many faithful Christians, including many Baptists and some Wesleyans in certain countries, hold the complementarian view that the office of pastor or elder is for men, and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches also reserve the priesthood to men. They love the Bible and hold their view from conscience. We state their view as they would state it and then give our answer. "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). A pastor should discuss this subject without anger.

Why This Question Matters

The question is not whether women have value. Every Christian agrees that women and men are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27) and are equal heirs of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). The question is whether God calls women to the same public ministries of preaching, pastoral leadership and ordination as men.

For the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition this is not a side matter. Women have carried much of the work of prayer, teaching, missions and evangelism, and a church that closes its doors to their calling loses a great deal. For this reason the Nazarene and Wesleyan bodies have, from their early years, ordained women, and they teach this as the right reading of Scripture and the Spirit's work.

Women in Scripture

The Bible shows women whom God used in leadership and in speaking His word.

In the Old Testament. Miriam is called a prophetess and led the women in worship after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20). Deborah was a prophetess who judged Israel, and Barak would not go to war without her (Judges 4-5). Huldah the prophetess was consulted by King Josiah's officers, and her word guided a national reform (2 Kings 22:14-20).

In the Gospels. Anna, a prophetess, spoke of the child Jesus to all who looked for redemption (Luke 2:36-38). Women followed Jesus and supported His ministry (Luke 8:1-3). Mary sat at His feet as a disciple (Luke 10:39). Most important, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection and told her to go and tell His brethren (John 20:17-18). The first witness to the resurrection was a woman, in a world where a woman's testimony was often not accepted.

At Pentecost. Peter explained the outpouring of the Spirit by quoting the prophet Joel: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" and "on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18). The age of the Spirit is an age in which daughters and maidservants prophesy.

In the early church. Philip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, took Apollos aside and explained the way of God more accurately to him (Acts 18:26). Paul assumes that women pray and prophesy in the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:5). He calls Phoebe a "servant" or deacon of the church at Cenchrea (Romans 16:1), where the Greek word is diakonos, and he greets Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa and Persis as workers in the Lord (Romans 16). He also greets Andronicus and Junia as "of note among the apostles" (Romans 16:7). Scholars debate whether this phrase means that they were counted among the apostles or only that the apostles knew them well, and whether Junia was a woman. Most early commentators took Junia to be a woman.

Above all Paul declares in Galatians 3:28 that in Christ there is neither male nor female. Wesleyans understand this to mean that all stand equally before God in salvation, and that the church's life should reflect this equal access to the Spirit's gifts.

Wesley and Early Methodism

John Wesley was an Anglican priest from a tradition in which only men were ordained, but the Methodist movement opened new doors.

Women as class leaders. From early on, women led classes and bands, and Wesley appointed them. They taught, prayed with others and watched over the spiritual progress of their members.

Women who spoke. In 1761 a Methodist woman named Sarah Crosby began speaking to large gatherings. She was troubled that she might be going beyond what was proper, and she wrote to Wesley. Wesley advised her with care, and he held that she should speak as one under an extraordinary call from God, not as one who set aside the usual order. Later, Mary Bosanquet, who married John Fletcher, defended her own speaking in a letter to Wesley in 1771, and Wesley answered with encouragement. These women preached in an age that doubted a woman's right to speak.

Historians debate how far Wesley went. Some argue that he accepted women's preaching only as an exception, and that he never changed the church's rule. Others argue that his reasoning, the appeal to the Spirit's call over human custom, was a principle that could not be limited to exceptions. We answer that both are true. Wesley did not leave an ordination rule for women. But he said that God's call is above human custom, and he refused to silence women whom God had plainly used. The Holiness churches took that principle to its conclusion.

The Nineteenth Century and the Holiness Churches

African American Methodism. Jarena Lee, a black woman in Philadelphia, believed that God had called her to preach. The AME leader Richard Allen at first did not support her, but later allowed her to speak, and she published an account of her life in 1836. Her story shows both the resistance and the persistence of women with a call.

Phoebe Palmer. In New York City, Palmer led the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness, where both men and women, laity and clergy, came to seek sanctification. She was a leader of the Holiness movement, and in 1859 she published The Promise of the Father, in which she argued from Scripture, especially Joel and Pentecost, that women have the right to speak for God. You read about her in Course 3.

The Wesleyan Methodists and Free Methodists. The Wesleyan Methodist Connection, which broke from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1843 partly over slavery, supported reform movements, including the work of women. In 1853 its minister Luther Lee preached the sermon at the ordination of Antoinette Brown, a woman, in New York, on a woman's right to preach the gospel. The Free Methodist leader B. T. Roberts argued for ordaining women in a book of 1891, and the Free Methodist Church has since ordained women.

The Church of the Nazarene. Phineas Bresee and the early Nazarenes ordained women from the beginning, and women served as evangelists, pastors and missionaries in the new denomination. This remains the Nazarene position. The Wesleyan Church also ordains women, and the Salvation Army, begun by William and Catherine Booth, gave women full ministry.

So when we say that the Wesleyan-Holiness churches have ordained women from their early years, we are speaking of a long record. It was not a recent change. It was one of the fruits of the revival.

The Complementarian View and Our Answers

The complementarian view holds that men and women are equal in worth and share equally in salvation, but that God has assigned them different roles. In this view the office of pastor or elder, and the teaching authority of the church, belong to men. Its holders do not deny that women may serve in many ways. Most welcome women to teach other women and children, to pray and testify, to lead in missions and to serve as deacons or in other roles. We take their position seriously, and we state their main arguments.

1. First Timothy 2:11-12. Paul writes, "And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence." Complementarians read this as a standing rule for the church. They note that Paul grounds it in creation (verse 13), and that this suggests the rule is not only cultural.

Our answer. We take this passage seriously and ask what it meant in Ephesus, where Timothy was dealing with false teachers (1 Timothy 1:3-7). Women were being led astray (2 Timothy 3:6-7), and Paul is correcting a particular situation. The Greek word for "have authority" is rare, and scholars debate whether it means ordinary authority or something harsher, such as domineering. Paul says "I do not permit," in the present tense, and he does not say "God has never permitted." The same Paul assumes that women pray and prophesy in the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:5) and commends women who taught and led. The appeal to creation also appears in other places where Paul is dealing with propriety, not office. A responsible reading must fit all of these together.

2. First Corinthians 14:33-35. Women are told to keep silent in the churches.

Our answer. In the same letter Paul permits women to pray and prophesy aloud (11:5). Therefore 14:34 cannot mean total silence. The context is the orderly weighing of prophecy and the disruption of the meeting. The command is against disorder, and the principle that "God is not the author of confusion" (14:33) governs it.

3. The qualifications of elders. An overseer is to be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6), which suggests that elders are men.

Our answer. The phrase is a requirement of faithfulness in marriage, not a list of those who may hold office. If it were a rule about sex, it would also exclude unmarried men, including Jesus. Phoebe, called a deacon, was a church officer. The point of the list is character.

4. Headship in marriage and church. Ephesians 5:22-24 and 1 Corinthians 11:3 speak of the husband as the head of the wife. Complementarians extend this to the church.

Our answer. Ephesians 5 begins with mutual submission (verse 21) and describes marriage. A wife's relation to her husband is not the same as a woman's relation to every man in the church. We honor Scripture's teaching on the home and still ask whether it settles the matter of ordained ministry.

5. The twelve apostles were men. Jesus chose twelve men.

Our answer. The Twelve were also all Jewish, and they represented the twelve tribes of Israel. If we reason from the apostles' sex to all church offices, we should reason in the same way from their ethnicity, and the church long ago rejected that. Meanwhile Jesus chose women as the first witnesses of the resurrection.

6. The long tradition of the church. For most of history the church ordained only men.

Our answer. Wesleyans respect the church's history, but we hold that Scripture is the final authority, and we note that the church changed its mind on slavery and other matters when it read the Bible more faithfully. The same Spirit who poured out His gifts on daughters and maidservants at Pentecost still calls whom He wills.

How Practice Varies

Wesleyan bodies differ in practice. Some ordain women to every office, while others have been slower, and in some countries the surrounding culture makes women's ordination hard for a church to practice. The United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church today both ordain women, but some churches in certain regions do not. The pastor should know the rule of his own church and should respect its order. Where a local church cannot yet call a woman pastor, women may still lead in prayer, teaching, missions, class leadership and evangelism. A genuine call must also be tested by the church: by gifts, fruit and character, in the same way as the call of a man.

Pastoral Application

A small Wesleyan church in a Latin American town has a woman, Rosa, who has taught the Bible for many years and has led a group of new believers to Christ. She senses a call to preach and to pastor a new mission. An older deacon says, "Paul does not allow a woman to teach a man, and I cannot sit under her preaching."

First, the pastor listens to both and does not shame the deacon. His concern comes from reverence for the Bible.

Second, he opens 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11 and 14, Acts 2:17-18 and Romans 16 with the whole church, and he presents the complementarian reading fairly before giving the Wesleyan answer.

Third, he tests Rosa's call in the usual way. He asks about her character, her fruit, her knowledge of Scripture and her love for people. He refers her to the church's board and district for examination, as with any candidate.

Fourth, he asks that the deacon and the church remain in fellowship even while they disagree on this question. The unity of the body matters more than winning the argument.

Summary

The Wesleyan-Holiness tradition teaches that God calls women as well as men to preach and to serve in ordained ministry. Scripture shows women such as Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, Mary Magdalene, Philip's daughters, Priscilla and Phoebe serving God, and Acts 2 and Galatians 3:28 point to the equal gift of the Spirit. Wesley appointed women class leaders and accepted women who spoke under God's call, and Phoebe Palmer, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Free Methodists and the Nazarenes carried this forward into ordination. The complementarian view, with its appeals to 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 14, the qualifications of elders, headship, the Twelve and church tradition, is held by sincere believers, and we answer each point from Scripture. Practice varies among Wesleyan bodies and countries, and a pastor leads with truth, patience and love.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, Letters, including his letters to Sarah Crosby and Mary Bosanquet (public domain).

• Phoebe Palmer, The Promise of the Father (1859) and The Way of Holiness (1843).

• John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament, on 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 (public domain).

• Luther Lee, sermon on a woman's right to preach the gospel (1853).

• B. T. Roberts, Ordaining Women (1891).

• Jarena Lee, The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee (1836).

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