On recent trip to our nation’s capital Washington D.C. with my
church I was so moved when we had an open forum to ask some of the world wide
leaders of our church questions that we have regarding the tenants of the
church. As I sat in room filled with over 1,000 people I was eager but also to
shy to ask a question concerning women in the church to an all male panel. I
really wanted to ask why in today’s day and age, it is still in the church
constitution that the church cannot have a female pastor. Just as the questions
kept coming about various things like suspension in the church, paying tithes
and offering and so forth one woman courageously asked the questions I have
been thinking about all along. She asked “why is it that in the year 2013 the
Church of Pentecost can’t have a female pastor?” To my surprise the audience
began to cheer as she asked her question and moments afterwards.
The overseer of the whole entire church worldwide chose to answer
this. Just when I thought he was about to open his Bible and read some verses
about gender roles like 1 Timothy 2:11 or Ephesians 5:13 he instead
started out by saying that it is happening gradually and that there are still
many people in the church that still believe that only men should be the
leaders of the church. However, as this generation begins to take over the
church, many of the old fashion views of things are changing. He also touched
on another belief that some people in my church believe that has to do with the
pastor’s wives always having her hair covered during church services. He said
that he believes that pastor’s wives should not have to do that and that is why
nowadays we see more and more pastor’s wives showing their hair. He concluded
saying that even though we do not have a female pastor today, it is a working
progress and in the future we will.
While I was in South
Africa, I had the privilege of attending 2 different churches and in both the
churches it appeared to me that all the leaders of the church were male. I say
this because of the things I observed like seating arrangements and role of men
and women. To be honest, even though I know that there are churches that are
run by women, I have yet to attend one. Like the overseer said it does not
happen in one day but gradually. I was so happy when the woman asked that
question because it is like the unspoken rule in the church. Also, I was
pleased with the answer the Apostle gave because he could have said that is the
way it is in the Bible so that is why we do it and read us a couple of verses
but he didn’t and instead he gave me something to hope for in the future.
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