Gifted for Leadership: Should Women Lead No Matter What?

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July 7, 2009

Should Women Lead No Matter What?

by by Tracey Bianchi

In December of 1972 Helen Reddy's song "I Am Woman" grabbed the top spot on the Billboard charts. Fueled by the energy of the women's liberation movement, "I am woman, hear me roar," became a unifying slogan for a generation of women. Sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. Personally, I've been a devotee of Reddy's words for many years as I happen to be a self-confident, sometimes over-bearing sort of gal who believes God has gifted and called women to places of leadership in our culture. It also just so happens that I was also born in December of 1972.

Most women in ministry leadership will tell us that leading as a woman is an unspeakable blessing and phenomenally exhausting. Female leaders are held to both the traditional standards of job performance and to an unspoken second standard that involves gender. When people ask "can she lead," they often mean two things. First, "Is she qualified?" And second, "Should a woman lead here?" This skeptical second guess, based solely on gender, grates on the very fibers of my soul. It pushes up a voice from inside of me that wants to scream "injustice!" It makes me want to step in and roar.

This burgeoning sense of unfairness can lead me to minister from a place of spiteful anger rather than joy. "I am woman hear me roar" can become my subconscious philosophy of women in ministry if I do not guard my heart against this sort of overwhelming anger. Most female leaders that I know did not set out to create division when they answered their call to lead. They stepped forward when it appeared God clearly called them, only to discover their opinions were somehow less valuable than their male counterparts, their job titles were belittling, or they ended up either unpaid or underpaid when compared to men holding identical positions.

This, of course, can fuel an angry heart in even the most peaceable woman, and this is where we start let anger bubble up or begin to question our calling. "Maybe we heard God wrong?" "What do all these people know about my calling that I don't?" So how can women champion a peaceful partnership and also manage the understandable anger that wells up over the fact that both sides of the partnership do not always play fair.

We must constantly remember that God's role for a female in leadership is less about helping her get what she deserves, via Helen Reddy, and more about bringing insight and wisdom to the Body of Christ, via Jesus. It is about offering the understated and uniquely female experience of God to the conversation of faith. But if we are not careful, sometimes it can feel a little bit like getting even.

I know I am not the only over-aggressive girlfriend out there. I constantly meet women who have faced such a painful and exhausting battle to simply exercise their gifts that they are understandably angry. They struggle to stop the momentum they've generated out of frustration, sort of like a workaholic forced into a two-week vacation. Being devalued and hurt becomes the expectation, reacting with self-indignant anger becomes the norm.

But God set men and women as equal partners from the very beginning. Both need one another to survive (woman from Adam's rib, and forever after, man from Eve's womb). God's best looks like men and women partnering with grace and wisdom and truth. But in many settings an awareness of this truth will nosedive into a volatile debate over a woman's call to lead. This argument is so potent that it threatens to alienate congregants, split churches, and cause outsiders to question the rationality of the Christian faith. Who wants to worship with people who have such thick tension you can barely wade through it? Just because God gave a leader her voice does not mean she should exercise it loudly regardless of the cost.

There was a time I would have suggested women should lead no matter what. "Move over and let me teach them about equality in Christ," I demanded. But along with all the hurt and angry female leaders I know, I have met other strong, wildly gifted women who know beyond a doubt they are leaders. But in submission to their situation and to the people they pastor, they sit on the sideline until God raises them from the bench. Not because their job as a woman is to submit to men, but because their job as a Christian is to submit to one another. I've discovered that ministry is less being heard and more about helping people hear the Word of God. Which sounds so blatantly obvious and simple, but the politics of humanity are never as simple as they seem. On occasion, ministering from the sidelines is often what it takes to win a few games that ultimately point to the equality we find in our Creator.

Comments

While I have much respect for women who "submit" to the male-dominated hierarchical systems within their churches, I also have to wonder where we would be as America if Martin Luther King Jr. had preached submitting to the domination of Whites using the same rhetoric. What if Philemon had been his paradigm?

Injustice is held up by two pillars. One pillar is the group perpetuating the injustice, the other pillar is the group that is the recipient of injustice. For injustice to fall, one of the pillars has to stop supporting it.

Only in very, very rare cases does the group in power choose to stop continuing an injustice. It's time for women to stop being co-dependent and have the courage to lift up their voices in eloquent, insistent and non-violent protest.

We cannot compare Biblical submission to cultural situations. Perhaps what we need to realize is that if we lived according to God's plan and order, we would truly be living our best life and the culture/society would be better because of it. When the Bible says for wives to submit to husbands, we cannot call that an "injustice". The issue comes in that many of us have a distorted view of what submission is.....based on what society says, not the Bible.

Brenda,
I'm not sure what you're saying. What I am saying is that it is exactly our cultural understanding of "submission" that is the problem. We have a culturally conditioned "ideal" of what the relationship between a man and woman should look like, and that understanding colors how we read scripture, which in turn leads to unjust relationships.

When we recognize our cultural bias for what it is, we can more accurately explore what scripture really says.

I believe many women are culturally conditioned to be "nice," "quiet," and "submissive." Just look at all of the words that get thrown at a woman when she has strong opinions! When women bow to cultural expectations, they allow injustice to themselves to continue. Am I making any sense?

Yes! We must know the God's Will for our lives. Yes! We must submit as Christians one to another! And yes! The focus should not be on the politics of whether a woman (or a man) is up to bat. However, we should focus on helping people hear the Word, whether itâ€™s for the first time or for edification.

There are times when Christian leaders are prompted (by God) to sit on the sidelines. That's a good time to work from the bench or to even evaluate your surroundings as well as seek God for fresh oil.

What do you see going on around you? Are you even on the right team? If not, then God might be instructing you to leave and go where He has called you to be, where people are hungry for His Word, where your particular spiritual gifts are necessary for the success of the whole team within your local Body of Christ. That place where you are not being benched simply over "gender disputes".

If it's God will for you to be on the bench, then so be it. Don't get angry, be patient and don't give up hope. But if it's not God's Will for you to be benched, then you better get moving (Matthew 10:11-15).

Good stuff. I echo what Jaketha was saying here. I think there are times when women (who I believe are called to lead and are also the recipients of injustice) fail to truly assess the situation they are in. For some, ministry becomes about getting even or getting justice rather than getting God. I do happen to know that God is big on justice, so this is not always a bad thing. But my heart in this post definitely came from the times when I have seen women miss an opportunity to lead with grace, dignity, and a tremendous amount of strength because they failed to assess the situation they were in, and because they led from a place of anger rather than a place of passion.

Hi Sue,

Two pillars of injustice where one must fall, good stuff. I'm thankful you shared that! I think Martin Luther King Jr. also knew something about timing. When it was time to stage a sit in or time to write letters from a jail, or time to preach up a storm and pray. He never stopped his message or toned down his commitment to the cause, but he so very wisely finessed, and understood the situations he found himself in as well. He did not ride the bench necessarily, but he knew the time for everything he did. I think what made him different than other civil rights activists was this very fact. He had a masterful command over his situations and he exercised great wisdom and peace and advocated for a non-violent approach.

I think Philemon is a good look at this as well. The Bible does not advocate for slavery, but for submission to a situation until God provides a way out. I think Paul's message was "hang tight, God is going to work this out." NOT that we should always just submit to the situation and sit by quietly, but I do think that there are times when God may be telling us to hang on a bit and think of the good of the whole.

Easier said than done. Easier said than done . . .

Oh ... so well said. How vital it is that we are confident in who God has created us to be and what He has called us to do. And to understand that there will be some in the traditional church who might be willing to acknowledge our giftedness, but won't quite know what to do with us ...

So, yes, sometimes we end up on the bench. But then the One who controls the game calls us out onto the field and gives us opportunities that are far beyond what we asked or imagined. And we are able to reflect and see that the time we spent waiting and grieving and wondering taught us lessons that we might not have learned if it all came easy.

What a mighty God we serve!

God did not create man and woman to be equal when it comes to positions of authority and influence. This is not at all to dismiss that callings and giftings God has given to women.

Sadly, this article is too typical for what can pass in an evangelical forum these days - the typical rights-oriented diatribe, playing the oppression/victim card, etc., etc., and most revealing: a complete lack of any biblical discussion whatsoever. The real issues get obscured underneath the manipulative rhetoric. Unfortunately the feminist religion has hijacked much of the evangelical realm today, and make no mistake, feminist ideology always has and always will trump biblical authority in these circles. A cursory pass through any "evangelical" feminist work will show to what great lengths (and often downright dishonesty) people will go to deny what the bible clearly says. ...they will set up teachers to tickle their ears and tell them what they want to hear...

Let me have the reasoning from above in the article, come up with any thing you want to say is God's will (no matter how perverse), and I can prove it is! Yet, the whole edifice rests on nothing but words and thin air - in the end you are merely trying to be your own authority. If it wasn't so destructive and tragic it would just be a sideshow. But here we see how everything must bow and cater to the socially constructed sensibilities and rights-programs inculcated into masses of vulnerable women churned out by the feminist religion, albeit in this instance appropriately glossed over in christian language. Gone is the right and authority of God to reveal Himself and His will, gone is God's revealing the depths of his being to us as he is in himself, gone is the wonderful order of nature as he created it, gone is the plan and vocation of leadership as ordained, gone is pretty much any authority outside the socially constructed feminist self.

Of course this is in the end ridiculous, this is nothing but worshiping a projection of what you would like god to be which is nothing but worshiping oneself. At least several feminists, Rosemary Ruether and Daphne Hampson, for example, realize feminism and christianity are incompatible. The explosion in goddess religions and neo-paganism in feminist circles only reinforces this. Submission to the authority of Christ and attempting to play god yourself are two separate paths that never cross. By putting a supposed stamp of approval from God on your own ideas and opinions changes none of this.

The end result of such programs is devastation - divorce, broken families, isolated lives, selfish women "fulfilling" themselves and letting someone else raise their kids, predatory men absolved of all responsibility to protect, love and serve, domestic abuse, rampant homosexuality, ubiquitous pornography, weak, gospel-less churches, etc, etc, etc. God in his power can certainly overcome all this if he chooses, but we can't live in disobedience and just live in the hope that He will work though us while refusing to acknowledge His and authority and claim on our lives. We must submit to Him and His Word and live by his Authority and Lordship in every aspect of our lives, then men and women will be free to love and serve as we should.

Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to hear. Especially since I just moved from a church where I was allowed to teach adults, and now I'm told women don't teach men. Though I know there are scriptures that can be interpreted that way, it was a hard pill to swallow. This got my mind thinking in the right direction. Of how to serve while I'm currently on the sidelines.

Thank you, again.
Juli

Strong words that must be heard. I returned to the University setting to get a Masters in Religion (Theology emepasis) after raising 4 children on the mission field for the past 25 years. The aforementioned feminist cultural bias was evident as I returned to the classroom. Studying Creative Intent helps to remind us that it is NOT GOOD for man to be alone. God (always self-identified as masculine for reasons of authority)designed woman as a compliment, an important and necessary component to making humanity GOOD. Our Savior is male. His 12 disciples were male. (He of all men had the divine authority to break any and all cultural/religious molds and choose women for these positions if He wanted to change things up - He sure did it regarding Sabbath legalism) This is an issue of authority that must be understood.

When women understand their vital God-given role to enhance all of life under authority (I Tim 2:9-15; I Pet 3:1-6) then God, who created us is glorified. Women, we lead in many ways, but it must be with reverence to God's appropriately established design. Our good works - those burdens of the heart God has placed - done faithfully, lovingly, in purity and gentleness under authority have great power because they are done according to God's design. Walk humbly before your God!

Very interesting comments and I think that everyone has a part of the equasion right. It's when we can listen to others, study the scriptures supporting their words, come together and share and realize that we all have a piece to the puzzle. No one person, far too long with debates as such. It's church or denomination has everything right. The enemy has separated Christians far too long with these types of debates and it's refreshing to hear women express their ideas on this crucial subject matter. I am a Pastor's wife and ordained Elder in my church. I often struggle with the title 'Elder' and normally I do not use it. This causes internal turmoil, though when it rages, it cast the care on the Lord where it belongs. I often take the sidelines, simply to promote peace. Almost every day, God gives me a platform to allow my light to shine and I certainly don't need a pulpit or a place in church to accomplish this. When I receive preaching engagements, I follow the order or the house as long as it's not outside of God's word. If we need to term what I'm doing 'speaking' so be it for the sake of living peacably. If I need to be called 'Sister' instead of 'Elder' then not a problem as long as I'm being called some form of daughter of the most high God. May Sisters-in-Christ realize that we're not in competition, not seeking positions, not trying to be up front... although when God calls us out and orders our step, we go, even through persecutions... we're supposed to count it all joy! Either way we go, we're blessed and highly favored.

It's easier to stick to a way of thinking than it is to hear what God is saying to you personally. Peter said to the governing body of the synagogue, when challenged over their right to speak, 'whether it be right to obey God or you, you have to judge, but we cannot stop speaking the things the Lord has told us'.

It's easy to say to someone else what they should do, but in the end, everyone has to hear God for themselves, because we are responsible for the gifts of leadership He has given to us if we make the choice not to use them because other people don't agree.

There are only two people in the Old Testament that are called both judge and prophet... one was Samuel and the other was Deborah.

God doesn't have as many issues about all this as people do, if what He has done is an indicator.

To put a spanner in the works - Perhaps it's a good thing there's so much controversy about women leadership in the church, as there has been over many decades, possibly centuries. I saw an article in the early 1990s saying that the biggest issue preventing the one world church from forming was women's leadership in the church. The Pope especially was against women leading in the church. Since a one world church is a part of the end times occurrences, perhaps it's a good thing there's still so much controversy about women leading in the church.

These are great arguements,concerning the issue of women leading. This has been my burden for the last few years as a wife and mother,looking for the right time for God to use me to speak on an issue that needs to never be glossed over in order to ring a few ears!I agree with most of what BDub had to say regarding a woman's position in leadership.

Let's talk scripture, which let's us know that God's design is the only blue print that will work in life. The Bible teaches that God loves us all equally but we all have a different responsibility when it comes to roles in our churches, families and outside relationships.

People often take scripture out of its content saying that God calls women in the same light as men regarding leadership! God has ordained the husband to lead over the wife and children, just like Christ is head over his bride, the Church! This is God's ultimate design for the family, and church, not following this blue print is setting your self and your family up for failure!

1. The husband is to submit to God
2. The wife submits to the husband
3. The children submit to their parents
4. Pastor/Preacher has to be the husband of one wife

5. Because of the fall of man there will always be a tug-of-war over authority

6. Jesus used 12 male disciples/none of them women

7. Most leadership roles in the Bible were carried out by men, except for a few situations of hus/and wife ministries, and certain assignments given in certain circumstances dealing with women.

8. Women are not to lead/teach/preach/pastor over men or over a large body of people.

9. Remember God created Adam first then Eve

10. The command was told to Adam regarding the Garden of Eden/he then shared it with his wife.

11. When Adam sined God came looking for Adam he didn't call for Eve!

12. Last: When women choose to dis obey those essientials they miss their blessing!

It's easy for all women to see another woman preaching,leading,and teaching a general body and looking at her fruit but is she in God's will? God can allow these things and he has, but they will not go unanswered in due time they will be held accountable for their deeds! We as women need to understand that God uses us, it's just that we've been told by the world, and others that we have a right, we can deliver just as good as men!

My concern is that women today will miss the real blessing in keeping God's principles pure and untainted by the world's condemnation of God's orgininal design! Ladies remember God knows you, he made you and has wonderful plans for you why play the vulnerable victim you were taught by society!

Break this bondage and take your rightful place and watch God bless and prosper you for your true obedience to Him!

We can't separate the culture of the times from the verses that people quote in order to restrict women. Women in Jesus's time could not pursue an education or testify in court. So, how could they be formal disciples of his? Yet, Jesus did go against the culture and ordain a woman to be the first to spread the news of his Resurrection. This can't be ignored.

Now, if we say that the Bible says that women should be restricted (controlled?), then we must also accept the verses on slavery. Nowhere does the Bible condemn slavery, in fact, Paul says that slaves must obey their masters. Now, do any of us really think that God condones slavery? So, if the verses on slavery refer to the culture of the time, then the verses on women do also, especially when coupled with Jesus's own actions and the verses that show women praying and teaching.

Bias against women and the belief that women can't lead are sin-based beliefs deeply steeped in our culture (along with racism). The Holy Spirit is actively working to overcome this bias.

"We must constantly remember that Godâ€™s role for a female in leadership is less about helping her get what she deserves, ... and more about bringing insight and wisdom to the Body of Christ, via Jesus."

This is what it is all about. Being Jesus to the world. Gender is irrelevant.

The above is true for ANYONE in leadership. Jesus example to us of leadership is based on HUMILITY and SERVICE not power. Anyone who seeks leadership for power over others, to "put them in their place," "get what I deserve," or "set them straight," is NOT a biblical leader. Man or woman. Period.

Thank you for sharing from your heart and bringing another voice into the difficult discussion of women in leadership in the Church.

I have found that it is important in these conversations to state very clearly where you stand. When you talk from one side of the conversation without stating outright your stance in the debate, it can muddy the waters. If someone does not know where you sit on the spectrum, they can respond to your experience emotionally without having an opportunity to first think objectively about it. Just a suggestion.

Jaketha, my sister, you rock! Indeed, we need to get beyond gender issues and look at our brother's prayer for the church in John 17:20-26. The whole point of our lives is to show Jesus to the world.
I've been in many leadership positions since i was a teen. I've been the roaring lioness and the submissive co-leader. No matter which it's the whole centrality of Jesus working in our lives that determines whether we lead people to Him or away from Him. Have a look at Mark 10:13-16. Doesn't say a thing about which gender lead them, only that they did. And you will note that it was Jesus that touched their hearts, not the person leading them to Him. We till up the soil of people's hearts to prepare them for Jesus regardless of our gender, title, socio-echonomic level, or IQ. Just lead 'em to Jesus whatever that looks like and whatever your gift mix girlfriends!

Thanks Tracey, for sharing your heart in an authentic way, and giving voice to what many young leaders feel. I hope that the other commenters will not lose sight of that fact that you've laid out your human heart and then covered it with God's grace. The final word you shared is submission to one another in Christ. How powerfully God can use those of us who strive to make that a reality...women AND men!

Women can have leadership roles it all depends on whom they are leading. We have a woman in our church who is over the children's ministry. When Satan saw Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden I don't think it was by "chance" that he talked to Eve first. Women and men are "equal" before God but our emotional makeup is totally different. The idea you can do whatever you feel called may be correct but what are you sacrificing to do such?

I find it amazing how often Christian women will trample upon the Word of God in justification of their OPINION!

Was 1 Corinthians Ch. 11 written just to make us women feel lowly, or is there a hierachy in GOD'S creation scheme?

We women do have gifts from the Holy Spirit; gifts of healing, preaching, teaching and the like, but this does not negate 1 Titus 2:12!

There is no reading in between the lines here, the exact words that are written is exactly was it means!

I have been studying this issue for over 25 years, started out on the no women in leadership camp and am now an ordained minister, co-pastoring a church in Tokyo with my husband. We both teach and preach, sometimes together, sometimes solo, always supporting each other. After my years of study of the entirety of the Bible, it seems clear that when God created mankind in His image, his intention was that the love and service of each other that characterizes the Trinity was to characterize humanity. Man and woman together were given the mandate to fill the earth and subdue it. Woman was designated as ezer kinegdo, the same word used of God as our helper--definitely not implying inferiority. Hierarchy only entered after the woman was deceived and the man stood silently by her side. As a matter of fact, he is held responsible, because he was the one who received the direct command from God and failed to instruct the woman accurately and completely.

When you look at the numerous women listed by name in the NT as church leaders and when you look at the totality of Paul's ministry, making a case to keep woman and men serving the church equally based on two passages of Scripture which are not as clear as the English translations would lead you to believe becomes very difficult. In fact, the exegisis by the egalitarians is much more thorough and scholarly, so much so that it convinced me to change my original position. I would recommend taking the time to study the positions of both sides in detail before committing to either.

The bottom line is that we are all called to be servants, to be downwardly mobile, as God has revealed himself to be.

"...most revealing: a complete lack of any biblical discussion whatsoever. The real issues get obscured underneath the manipulative rhetoric." Posted by BDub

I agree. Christians should be concerned with searching the Scriptures.

Take for instance 1 Timothy chapter 2. Some conclude that the mentioning of Adam and Eve and the created order is dealing with men and women in general, not with a particular woman and a particular man. They say that this verse means that ALL women are prohibited from teaching ANY men.

But if Paulâ€™s mention of Adam and Eve along with created order and deception was about ALL men and ALL women in general, then should we conclude that ALL men are NOT deceived and ALL women are deceived like Eve?
Paul does not say that "men are to have authority over women", but that Adam was not deceived, while Eve was deceived. What some miss is that this passage is about deception, not authority.

Some also teach that 1 Corinthians 14:34 means that women must "be silent" when it concerns preaching or teaching men, BUT somehow those teaching this allow women to sing and greet others during services. If they want to say it means women should be silent, then they should at least be consistant by not allowing women to break their silence with singing or greeting.

As of yet, I have not found a good explanation from those holding to these teachings as to why they usually allow the "easily deceived" (women) to teach other easily deceived women. Or, worse yet,they allow teaching the more easily deceived young children.

If a woman redeemed by the Savior and led by the Holy Spirit remains so "easily deceived," then I would say that half of the Body of Christ is in a hopeless state.

My latest musing on this subject stems out of a recent emphasis our denomination has placed on the prayer "your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". In my mind, this equals a return to Eden pre-Fall. Amongst other things, mutuality and co-leadership reigned. The Fall went on to produce hierarchy and begin the downward spiral into the world we know where the authority of men and the submission of women were understood to be God's plan and intention.

If we are working towards Kingdom principles and making the reality of Heaven a reality on earth, shouldn't we be working towards the reintroduction of an egalitarian culture where women and men co-lead and both have equal freedom to outwork the gifts that they have been given? I know some women who are great leaders and some men who are great helpers...shouldn't they all be free to exercise the gifts God has given them? Why should men be made to lead and be put in positions of leadership when this is not their gifting? And leave women on the sidelines when it is!

By the way, God isn't limited to the Church. He was quite happy in biblical times to use non-Israelites or non-believers to fulfil His purposes. I see these egalitarian principles already being worked out in the business world today - perhaps God is moving and just waiting for the Church to get over itself and start operating with Kingdom-like mentality.

Why do women believe in a book that was written by men (human men) a few thousand years ago, with all their failings and biases?

Anona,
I don't believe in a book written by men - I do believe in an all powerful God, who inspired men by His Holy Spirit to write down His Word for us. My God is big enough that the failings and biases of the people He chooses to work through are no hindrance to Him.
I don't think you really have a problem with God, but with those who choose to interpret His Word for their own faulty biased reasons.
If "authorities", are not in fact really in authority but under THE Authority of God just like those under them, this levels the playing field and equalizes the parties being addressed. And if everyone is addressed equally as a person in Christ, ultimately is no distinction between any of them.
The only distinctions would be those perceived by someone's interpretation.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." according to Gal.3:28.

Wow! This is always a topic of passion. It is also a passionate subject with me. I hear the wisdom in the presenter of this topic, I tend to agree. If we remove gender from the equation in consideration, we might see a male, a minister, but whose message is not recieved and the clergical powers that reside in the seats of authority over him rejecting him for ministerial voice; it follows that even a male without the blessings of the ruling body can not be free to move in ministry. We cannot therefore blast out way in to the scene. I do agree that more often women are rejected simply due to gender. But know this, those who reject one sent from God are severely accountable for their deaf ears and hardened hearts. So my summation is one that John Wesley proclaimed when the Anglician Church in England refused he and Charles a pulpit, then "the world will be my pulpit!" Who remembers the ones who refused them a pulpit? Or was it God's plan from the beginning?

For Lucinda,

I believe you have the organizational structure of the Body of Christ confused with the organizational structure of a marriage, which is most definitly between a man and a woman. Those "genders" do NOT exit in the Spirit. After Paul finishes his example of marriage between a man and a woman, he says that he is not speaking about marriage really, but about the Churches' relationship to Jesus. He uses the marriage relationship, speaking about authority and submission, that is required in a marriage, to help the reader understand the imtimacy and submission we shoud have to Christ. However, I repeat, the organized Church, is not a marriage and it is not a physical union, it is all in the Spirit.

Lucinda,

You said, "My concern is that women today will miss the real blessing in keeping God's principles pure and untainted by the world's condemnation of God's orgininal design!"

I think you may be confused about God's original design. It is found in Gen. 1:27-28
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

The blessing of ruling and subduing the earth was given to both the man and the woman as you can see.

I think you have confused the Fall model with the Original design.

You also said, "Jesus used 12 male disciples/none of them women"
*None* of them were gentiles either.
If we used your criterion then only Jewish males could lead in the church.

Hallo women in christ,My name is Lois and i'm from kenya.I attend a church where women reqire be silent, no testimony,sermon , teachings etc! we only follows service exclusively for men to lead.We only talk at home.We need to hear what the bible says really about women and church.write and help us, loismbiti2002@gmail.com

Most women in ministry leadership will tell us that leading as a woman is an unspeakable blessing and phenomenally exhausting.

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