May 20 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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* "Ministering Women" [April 8] ministered to me. As a woman on the staff of an international campus ministry, I soaked up the role models presented in the article. What they said was inspiring. They clarified some of the issues for women in ministry today. But I was also encouraged to think about what they have done--authored books, taught graduate-level classes, spoken from the Word to thousands, raised children, stayed married. I can't collect too many examples of women who are obeying Jesus, as Briscoe said, in what he says to do today, even if it challenges some traditional categories.

* I was quite surprised and disappointed to come to the end of the article without one question having been asked about the biblical teaching of women in the church and the difficult Scriptures that seem to limit the role of women in leadership.

How can you answer the question of how far women have come without first trying to understand where they are trying to go? How can we have a discussion about how we do church without asking what God's Word has to say?

(Readers who wish to examine the "difficult Scriptures" on this point should see articles by Walter Kaiser, Bruce Waltke, and Kenneth Kantzer (CT, Oct. 3, 1986, pp. 12-I-14-I).--Eds.)

I have greatly enjoyed ministering for the Lord the past 50 years. For 15 years my husband and I served in the Philippines. Several years ago at our annual denominational conference an old friend, a well-known evangelical leader, called me and asked me to participate in a missions panel that morning. I spent an hour or so collecting my thoughts, went to the meeting, and sat on the panel. I was never called upon and had no opportunity to speak. At the conclusion, my friend remarked, "I'm sorry, Alice, we ...