Every Believer Is Equipped to Serve

Today, the Superintendent is highlighting the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) Southwest District, GC COG7 SWD, Women’s Ministry.  

The SWD Women’s Ministry Director is Rosie Davila.  If you desire to contact her about the possibility of becoming a Ministry Partner with her in the SWD Women’s Ministry, please do contact me or your SWD Area Director.  Of course, you can contact her directly if you have her contact information.  Since this post is available publicly on the Internet, I have avoided providing the SWD Ministry Directors email addresses to shelter them somewhat from potential unwanted contacts from those who are not members or friends of the GC COG7.  But if you want to join SWD Women’s Ministry, Sister Rosie Davila is the one for whom you are searching.  Thank you, Sister Rosie for your years of faithful service in leadership.

Dearly Beloved, sometimes when people discuss Women in Ministry, it comes from a perspective of limiting their leadership and service instead of embracing it and promoting it along with other ministries in the Church.  However, in this article I am wanting to highlight a few texts that demonstrate the error of such a conclusion, well intentioned though it usually is.  Knowing the usual good intentions of those people’s hearts and their desire to preserve the truth in teaching of the Word of God, I am encouraged to simply refer to texts in the Bible that bring balance to the traditional position of Churches and the need to grow in understanding of the Word, without debate or crafty argument.  Absolutely, there are gender roles in the family and society, even though the world has sought to destroy the distinction created by God.  But I will be very candid with you, such is not the case with the gospel, salvation, and serving others.  Friends, that is Ministry with a capital “M”.  

My efforts in this article are 1) to highlight the SWD Women’s Ministry and 2) to dispel the notion of male or female gender dominance in serving under the direction of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.  It is not my intention to speak against any positions of the GC COG7 Bylaws nor of the GC COG7 North American Ministerial Council, NAMC.  I am encouraging us to allow, embrace, and support to the maximum the ministry roles of believers without respect to gender, except as defined by the GC COG7 Bylaws and governing documents of the NAMC.  

I truly hope I am wasting your time in reading this.  However, if not you, then perhaps others need to grasp the design of God through the work of the gospel.  The whole of Holy Scripture is true.  We are not at liberty to choose a verse, or small group of verses, and interpret it aside from its place within the scope of the whole of God’s holy message to us.  Sooooo, those key proof texts in the Apostle Paul’s letters about the silence of women in the Church and their submission to male leadership had specific audiences to which they were directed and need to be flavored by the rest of the Apostle Paul’s writings and other texts in the Bible to make general application regarding women in the Church.

It is a fitting start to review the Apostle Paul’s writings and note how all believers are called into one hope and one body in Christ.

Ephesians 4:1-16, KJV

1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 
3. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 
8. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 
16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

From here, please let us allow the flavor and texture of the following verses to temper and mature our understanding of gender roles in the Church.  This is not an effort to remove the tradition of gender roles.  It is a clear effort to raise the value of female gender ministry to the same level as ministry conducted by the male gender.

Galatians 3:28 ESV 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Acts 2:17-18 ESV 

“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

Acts 21:8-9 ESV 

On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. 

Acts 1:12-14 ESV 

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Colossians 4:15 ESV 

Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Matthew 27:55-56 ESV 

There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 

Philemon 1:2 ESV 

And Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

Joel 2:29 ESV

Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Mark 15:40-41 ESV

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

Judges 4:4 ESV

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 

Judges 5:7 ESV

The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.

Exodus 15:20 ESV 

Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.

The Apostle Paul concludes his letter to the Romans with a seemingly equal salutation to male and female alike, sending his greetings to all those who were his helpers, Ministry Partners, in Christ Jesus.

Romans 16:1-27, NIV

1. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.
2. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
3. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus.
4. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
5. Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
6. Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.
7. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
8. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. 
9. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 
10. Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
11. Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. 
12. Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.
13. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
14. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them. 
15. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the Lord’s people who are with them. 
16. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
17. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 
18. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 
19. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
21. Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.
22. I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23. Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings. 
24. Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
25. but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—
26. to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. 

Please join me in praying for the all the SWD Ministries, including the SWD Women’s Ministry, all the Local Churches, Pastors and Leaders, and the SWD Board, as we serve together as a unique part of the body of Jesus Christ to glorify God, edify the Church and further the gospel and its powerful work in the hearts of humanity.