Denominational Taboo

By the grace of God, I planted 4 churches in 7 years ('93-2000). When I first embarked on following our Lord's lead into establishing an association of healthy, reproducing, disciplemaking churches -I held to a conviction that "leadership gifts" (Eph.4:12) were limited to men. I could defend this position with what I thought was sound hermeneutics and clear arguments. But then a close friend challenged me to revisit the subject biblically and honestly study all of the relevant passages. Over the course of 3 years I found myself forming biblical convictions that no longer saw those gifts (or any other spiritual gift) as gender bias.

Several years later I found myself on 3 occasions sitting on national boards along with an "assessment team" of people who were assessing whether or not a "man" was called to go and church plant. We assessed dozens of couples and I can honestly say that at least a third of those given a "recommend" (sometimes with conditions) were done so because of the female side of the couple who demonstrated the apostolic gift --in some cases it was obvious that she was the leader. I would smile on the inside knowing that a high degree of hypocrisy was in play at these "assessments" where the denominational line was "we only affirm men" --but reality supported what we see in scripture (Romans 16, Acts, 1 Corinthians, etc.) --the fact that women did possess the gift in the early church and often operated with more efficacy then men.

I want to go on record by saying that even though my position had changed --I still honored the denominational beliefs and practices (all 4 churches I planted were and still are lead by a team of male leaders). I did discover later on, however, that if the denomination sponsoring our final plant had known about my position regarding women in leadership "they would have not endorsed me". Funny isn't it. Today a strong, viable church exists --bringing endless streams of resources into this denomination (resources that were not once there) and yet, they would have rather not planted a healthy church to honor an archaic belief that they themselves do not honor consistently. Unfortunately, today, for many dying denominations, this is the "unpardonable sin". Go figure?