This article is a long read, and somewhat strangely written (since it's just transcribed from the spoken word) but I think it's worth it. It will get you thinking and hopefully questioning your comfortable assumptions about this topic, even if you disagree. Ideally, I think we should always be examining our beliefs in light of Scripture, always willing to learn more, understand more from the Holy Spirit. Funnily enough, this article turns out to be more about calling men into Biblical manhood in the end. Well, here's the link...
THE RELEASE OF WOMEN INTO MINISTRY
SPOKEN BY JACKIE PULLINGER
Here are a couple of interesting quotes that may peak your interest:
"Here I was, and for some strange reason had birthed this church, was it's leader, a woman! I tried to preach on manhood for 6 months and kept having to jump off the stage! God! I must find a man who can call these boys into manhood, but I couldn't find one. Honestly, I couldn't find a man. There were hundreds of pastors in Hong Kong with miserable wives, but I didn't want these men to call my men into manhood, because that's not manhood; it's a male position in the church and that is a perversion of God's purposes. God never chooses anyone on the basis of their sex. And this idea that man should hold position in the church because he is male is a perversion of the truth of Scripture. Man may lead on the basis of manhood, not sex."
(I really really love that last line!)
"I saw, in Genesis 3, the perversion that has taken place, for God called Adam and Eve to rule together, as partners, and she was clearly his helper. No problems until they both sinned. The curse is that woman will have pains in child - bearing and man will work by the sweat of his brow. Her identity will be in her man, and that's where it all went wrong. Ever since then, women have tried to find their identity in men and men have sought to find their identity in their job. That's a result of the fall and was not God's plan."
