Should Bible colleges have women serve as chapel speakers?
Jay,
Good post! I think I’ll go with your comment that this was an unfortunate and unforced error by the school.
I think you can have true Biblical preaching in a non-church setting. What about say, NIU’s men’s heart conference? A men’s retreat? BJU’s bible conference?
Would we have a woman open up the bible and … . . “give a testimony” at men’s retreat - at BJU’s bible conference?
We can call a setting a convocation, a gathering, or whatever, and the speaking a testimony, a speech. But at the end of the day I feel when you gather together in a group to pray, to sing unto the Lord, and to hear someone open the Bible and speak from it, about it, and from it tell us how we should live/think - that is a worship service and the speaking part is preaching.
Going back to the biblical principles at stake, the question is really not whether a non-church gathering is a worship service or whether there is ministry of the Word present. The question is whether the NT prohibitions in the pastorals are meant to govern church life in particular or Christian life in general or both. Given the contexts of these epistles, we’re not really approaching this question from neutral ground either (they are called “pastoral” for a reason).
(To focus the question a little more, do the passages in question forbid women in general from having “spiritual influence” over men in general or do they instruct women not to engage in authoritative teaching in the ministry of the church? I’m happy to say that lots of women have been a spiritual influence in my life and I don’t think were disobedient in doing so.)
Someone may have already posted this observation, but KBauder’s most recent Nick is helpful in this regard. If we don’t have a link to it in Filings yet, it’ll be there soon. But understanding how teaching authority works in the church is foundational to how to understanding teaching ministries that operate outside the auspices of a particular church.
But in addition to the exegetical questions—the meanings of the relevant texts—there are practical considerations, too. One such consideration: in my experience, talented and insightful Bible teachers among women are not in very short supply relative to what we find among men. So though the speaking role may seem, to some, to be unfairly/unbiblically male-dominated, the church—in the broad sense—needs all the help it can get raising up and training able expositors of the Scriptures. If I were running a school, that alone would be reason enough for me to use male speakers, with very few exceptions.
Other practical considerations come to mind as well… another post maybe.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
At just past the 29’ mark she makes a comment about Northland being open next year and how it could affect the students and their parents.
She says about student’s parents, “And their biggest concern with what if Northland doesn’t stay open next year is, Oh, what am I going to do with my son or if my daughter have to move back home … .”
Interesting comment coming from a board member.
Discussion