I was going to do a post on women in leadership:
but I think it would be rather circular being the fact the same things are hashed over and over, however Thabiti – whose blog you should all read regularly! ( but who I disagree with – on this argument ) has bought up an interesting conversation, which is in full swing over at:
http://purechurch.blogspot.com/2007/08/husband-wife-co-pastors.html
I tend to think the commenters have missed the point. I think the problem is not women in leadership but the prosperity gospel.
thoughts and amusings 
September 7, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Thabiti’s post depicts woman pastors as having sneaked into leadership over the last few decades; he mentions churches which had male pastors whose wives eventually ended up being appointed co-pastors, and implies that those churches ignored the rules laid out in the bible and later thought up arguments to justify their actions.
What his post doesn’t deal with is churches like mine, which have no theological problem with woman pastors, and seek to appoint the right people regardless of gender. We were looking for a new senior pastor last year, and ended up calling a husband and wife team to be co-pastors (Do you know of Rod and Steph Robson? I think they used to go to Karori Baptist a few years ago before they were at Carey).
Yeah, the commenters have missed the point, but that’s just what commenters on religion blogs tend to do (present company excepted of course!)
September 7, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Hi Fraser, yes I know of them. Rod is fantastic! I have met Rod at Easter Camps before.
I do agree with you. I think on the whole women in pastoral leadership, at least in mainline and evanglical churches, have had to think long and hard about their calling and have had to read the scriptures at length and in detail to be able to validate their calling and unfortunately sometimes their worth within the body of Christ.
Its interesting how far our own denomination has come with even in the last few years fraser, have a look at this article, in particular the foot note references 1 and 2.
http://www.reality.org.nz/article.php?ID=407
September 8, 2007 at 1:35 pm
That’s a good article; I think it gave me some idea of how women in ministry feel about their roles and how they’re perceived.
I think I can also empathise a little bit – there aren’t many male church administrators out there! (though obviously it’s a far lesser gender stereotype to break).