Women Preaching: God Appointed Ministries

by guest author, Teri King

I'm reminded of a particular thing (among many others) that happened to me as a young woman in Christ. I was a fairly new Christian. God had called me to speak forth His Word.

One of the ways I did that was a free Christian Community Newspaper. Along with that I founded a Christian House I cannot remember the name of. I found an old mansion and with the help of a few Christians who rented rooms in it, we made it into a temporary haven for people who wanted help getting
back into life: the sick, the homeless looking for work, and others. I led a weekly Bible Study. Another person held another weekly study. I ran the place with zero income. We survived on donations. I had a small team of helpers.

We survived on donations from everywhere. Some came through the free paper. Some from various churches including my own.

We set up a list of rules for people including that they had to attend every weekly Bible study and choose a church to attend. Then we fed them, clothed them, helped them find work, and sent them on their way in a few weeks. A few found the Lord in the process.

We had a prayer room. Every Saturday all the Christians were expected to put in 30 minutes in there. Miracles happened.

We were an astonishing success. And then the inevitable happened. Some male decided that a woman could not "Shepherd" a group of people. My church decided that they would take authority over me and wrested the ministry from me. I was too unknowledgeable about these things to know what to do, how to respond. Had no idea that I didn't have to give it to them. That was a later revelation.

The upshot is that they took a thriving anointed ministry that the community was supporting (hospitals, police dept., even Salvation Army sent us people), and killed it in less than a year.

Now I see that this was a great loss to the community in general as well as Christendom. This is just one thing that the "doctrine" of male only leadership can do and has done many more times than is publicly known.

Now I weep over it on occasion. If only I had known then what I know now. But that was then not now. What Christianity lost by the destruction of my ministry then and so many others like it, cannot be fully known. Oh yes, we say that we are NOT irreplaceable, and that someone else would come along and do the same thing to cover the need. But no one did, not here.

And yes, I've moved on to other forms of ministry. Much valuable information has been learned from those experiences and God has worked it all out to good for me. But occasionally I wonder who fell through the cracks then because that ministry was no longer anointedly available to them. Anointing is much more important than some realize.

So I wonder, how many God appointed ministries has Christendom violated through the years with our "pet doctrines." And how many times has God had to then look for others willing, and how many of them have we tromped on. How many of God's anointed ones has Christendom wounded?

Comments

Thank you for this poignant post. I once attended a Christian church where the pastoral counselor was a female, she had been there for 10 years and was the most valuable member of the church. She was great. Why? Because she actually helped people.

The church hired a new male Pastor (she even played a role in his hiring) - great guy - but completely against women in leadership roles - so he eventually booted her out and put a male counselor in her place.

People misread, misinterpret, and misunderstand the Bible so often it's sad.

In another case, a female leader started a lay ministry program that worked, but the male Pastor booted her out of that and replaced her with a male, the male was too busy to run the program and it failed.

I am now working on becoming an Interfaith Minister because I choose to help people, I am called to do so by an awesome God, and I will let no man come between me, my Lord, and His people.

I will teach people practical solutions to everyday problems and give them hope based on generally accepted principles of religion, philosophy and science. God did not stop speaking 2000 years ago, God still speaks. His language is Love.

May God be with us all!

Posted by: Sheila | February 24, 2009 at 03:47 PM