The church has heard from pastors, scholars, academics, administrators, and others concerning the question of women’s ordination. But there is another voice we need to hear: Adventist women. The Council of Adventist Pastors was approached by a group of Adventist women who have created a set of videos in which they give voice on the question of women’s ordination. We are honored to share with you their video.
This short video provides an overview and preview of seven additional videos to be published next week, each addressing particular question areas in the women’s ordination debate. The video was produced by Barbara Flees and participants are Edel Amundson, Rhonda Backman, Linda Brehm, Jean Handwerk, Anita Jepson, Belinda Lowry, and Lorene Wright. Those featured all attend different churches. Some are former elders.
Categories
Adventist Women on Ordination Barbara Flees Belinda Lowry Breaking news Complimentarian Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Deaconess Distinct roles Doctrine of Unity Ecclesiastical authority Edel Amundson Feminist Theology Gender General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio Headship Home and church connection Jean Handwerk Linda Brehm Lorene Wright Male-sex specific roles Mothers Ordination Without Regard to Gender Pre-fall headship Rhonda Backman Seventh-day Adventist Church The larger issues Unity Women in Ministry Women's Ordination
17 replies on “Adventist Women on Ordination”
Not to much can be added to this video. Praise God. The fact that it comes from women in our Church is very significant. The leadership of our Church needs to listen to its people when is time to make decisions. In our Division, this issue was never brought to the membership. Do we send delegates to represent who? Those delegates do not represent the members of the churches, since they were never spoken about these issues. It seems to me that the leadership is disengaged from its membership. Members support the Church, but yet, they do not have any formal system in place from the different Divisions to be educated when it comes to these kinds of issues, nor to express their positions on the issues to be discussed at the Conferences. Nobody from our Division has come to educate nor to receive feedback from the church members. A delegate surely represents a group of pastors, but does not represent the church members. Both groups claim guidance from the Holy Spirit….into opposite, divisive directions. Pastors will not get nowhere near the subject, and discourage its discussion from any forum. Members are left alone to search by themselves, and reach their own conclusions. We all have a degree of guilt for not being more opened to others on this matter. It is so easy to manipulate others using cultural concepts accepted in our society. At the end of the day, people will say: “I will follow the Scriptures and not our culture.” Not too long ago, the Southern Baptists stated that they will disobey the Supreme Court if it leans towards legalizing gay marriage. A very courageous statement indeed. I hope and pray that the Church will stand firm with a: “I will follow the Bible and not the culture.”
God bless you Victor Diaz
We should note that these women are earnest, but clueless. The are hardened hearts of an extreme variety. In no way do they reflect Jesus or God. They will likely find more peace in a convent or a place were women are subjugated to male rule. They won’t like God’s community.
What beautiful humility these women exude. Mr. Wong, your statements & the spirit behind them clearly demonstrate your lack of humility. When did you last submit yourself to Christ and His Word. The Word is very clear on this issue. Could it be that your heart is so hardened with self that you cannot see the model of Christ and His Father God? He made mankind using the exact same model. Christ and His Father are ONE, but Christ freely and lovingly submits Himself to His Father. We are to do the same. The creation of mankind was set up with the same type of relationship model. God’s way is not man’s way. His way is expressed throughout the Bible. What a beautiful principal God and Christ have set up – they are one, but have distinctive roles. Christ has always done that which pleases His Father. He freely follows His Father’s will in all things. He and His Father’s mindset is love & Christ’s unselfish love & submission yields perfect law and order in the Heavenly kingdom. We are the created – not the Creator. We all must KNOW God as Christ knows God – on the most intimate sphere. To really know God is the meaning of “Fearing God” and truly realizing that all glory (love) belongs to God.
Praise God for your response Doris – your sentiments, as does those of the ladies featured in this short but biblically based and SOP supported video, radiates with the love and the wisdom of Christ!
Here in Europe it’s becoming more and more difficult to recognise the church that I grew up in as it conforms more and more to the ever changing whims of society. Where once there was a ‘plain thus sayeth the Lord’, now we have the word of God moulded and fashioned to fit in with man’s opinions and societies values.
Thank God that there are still a comparatively small, but faithful number of Seventh-day Adventists who actually value the Word of God so much, that they permit it to do a work of reformation in the life, rather than seeking to reformulate it so that it fits in with selfish desires.
Felix Wong (if that’s your real name)–are you a priest to know who qualifies for a convent?
Felix, Please read what you wrote and think that God is looking over your shoulder…because He is. Your words appear to be meant to hurt or shame. Clueless? None of us have the right to determine the abilities of another. None of us have the right to judge the motives of another. You’re right that God’s community is filled with unity and harmony. But lashing out at someone when you don’t agree shows a lack of patience and peace in the heart. I hope you think about this.
Thank you, ladies! This is so refreshing in a day when women seem so focused on garnering attention for themselves. Philippians 2 came to my mind as I listened to this your words, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
I have been repeatedly embarrassed (as a woman) as I observe in the church papers what appears to be an attitude of “look at me” (or more often, men pointing to women and saying “look at her, see what she has done”). If equality were the issue, we would see equal attention given to men in these same publications, but there is a deafening silence regarding the work men are doing. It pains me to see this selfishness and makes we wonder at our shallowness as a people, that we would not see the discrepancy in what we are doing.
We instruct our children not to glorify themselves, or even other humans, but to lift up Christ. Yet enormous amounts of time, money, and effort are being spent on focusing our attention on women instead of on Christ. This disturbs me, especially as a woman.
True greatness does not need to be heralded or paraded continually through church papers. Women of my church, for Christ’s sake, step out of that forced limelight and do not accept it for any reason. Christ only, must occupy that position, and we greatly weaken our influence and usefulness to Him by accepting it.
Informative women’s view points, esp. the ones who site the Bible. The group of ladies interviewed showed a good over view of the type of character of women opposing women’s ordination.
“Those who feel called out to join the movement in favor of woman’s rights… might as well sever all connection with the third angel’s message. The spirit which attends the one cannot be in harmony with the other.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, 457
Perhaps the reason why Women’s Ordination has gained so much traction in North America today is similar to why the third angel’s message was rejected in 1888. We cannot be focused on self at the same time that we pray for the later rain of the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the priesthood of all believers and that we are all ministers of reconciliation. “Pastor” is a spiritual gift given to the body. That has nothing to do with the “ordination” in which the State recognizes a person’s authority to baptize or marry. Should every baptized member of the Church be credentialed to marry couples or is that exclusive to a smaller group that is recognized by their calling?
I hear social rights as a reason to ordain women to the ministry (presumable to grant them the State’s authority to marry) but fail to hear the spiritual argument that is not confounding the meaning of variously related verses. Anyone opposing WO is labeled “Catholic”, yet their tactics remind me of the Spanish Inquisition. If WO is a spiritual matter, wouldn’t the Holy Spirit be convicting the worldwide Church? Why is so much of the world Church opposed to WO?
WO is not essential to spreading the third angel’s message. Submission to Jesus and His Righteousness is. Ellen White’s comment above seems to speak to this issue with great clarity. The question to be voted at the General Conference seems irregular. It is not, “should the ordination of women be recognized as a calling of the | 300 limit
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen! Hastening His coming! YES! Jesus is suffering still on account of our sin and here we are arguing about who gets to be pastor. We need to be about our Father’s business! Jesus needs Closure in the Controversy!
Thank you for putting this video on this website. What a blessing these women were in what they said. God bless them!!
I’m yet to see anywhere anyone quote chapter 1 and 2 of ACTS of APOSTLES
… because?
Perhaps this is your question, answered in the book, Women’s Ordination: Does it Matter? available at womensordination.com:
Doesn’t God promise to pour out the Spirit on both men and women, irrespective of gender, in Acts 2:17-21?
Yes! On the day of Pentecost, men and women were together in Jerusalem in obedience to Jesus’ command and praying “all with one accord” (Acts 2:1) when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them (vss. 2-4). According to Peter, this was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32. “I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17-21). They were not just preachers. According to Peter, they prophesied; they had visions and dreams. Jesus had spoken of sending prophets to bear witness of Him (Matt. 23:34; Luke 11:49). The New Testament confirms that the gift of prophecy came upon both men and women and that it actively functioned throughout the Apostolic period. Mentioned by name as prophets are Agabus (Acts 11:27, 28; 21:10), Barnabas and others (13:1), Judas and Silas, and the four daughters of Philip (21:9), besides those in Ephesus upon whom the gift of tongues (languages) came in order to prophesy intelligibly to many different people groups (Acts 19:6; cf. 2:8-11). To use this passage to refer to last-day preaching diminishes the vital role of prophecy—God-inspired speech—to counter Satan’s last-day deceptions (Rev. 12:17; cf. 16:13-15).
I enjoyed the video very much. It was a blessing and very well done.
Praise God for this video. It is wonderfully refreshing to hear more women voice their biblical perspective on Women”s ordination. Its always helpful to get a women’s perspective on this issue. Thanks for uploading this video. I sure hope other men and women in the church will prayerfully consider listening to what these women are saying. An extra special thanks to the women who have the courage to step out and speak out in this moment of crisis in our church.
May God bless you all.