Saying Yes to God

In the video introduction to this lesson, Pastor Katie Lance emphasizes that we all have calls on our lives from God. For example, we are all called to the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of those who do not yet know Christ. We are all called to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the primary call of all believers.

We all have a secondary call as well. These are more specific to each one of us and often relate to the spiritual gifts that God has given us. We hear about roles that God has used in the past in passages like Ephesians 4:11-13 and Romans 12:4-8. God may call us to lead or to serve or to teach or to encourage. 

Here Pastor Lance makes a critical observation. Paul says absolutely nothing about these gifts or roles being restricted to men! The gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 apply to all believers. Nothing in Ephesians 4:11-13 restricts the roles of equipping and leading in the church to men. Those opposed to women in ministry just read those assumptions into the text.

Pastor Lance sees a fairly straightforward implication. If God calls you to ministry – whether you are a man or a woman – say yes to God. And if you are in the church and God calls someone to ministry – whether a man or a woman – say yes to God as a fellow member of the body of Christ. And if you are a church that has an opportunity to call a person with the gifts and graces to minister, call that person – whether a man or a woman.

Here we get to an uncomfortable point in the discussion. A lot of Wesleyans are fine to say that they believe in women in ministry, but they would never call a woman to pastor their church. This discontinuity suggests that they do not really believe in women deep down. This is quite possibly a matter for deep reflection and possibly repentance. We will explore this question in the next section.

Humans are great at rationalization. “I’m not sexist, but…” we are. We can come up with a thousand fine-sounding reasons why we don’t think less of women than men. But God knows our hearts. We’re never fooling him.

Pastor Lance simply says, “Let’s change the equation. Let’s leave gender out of it.” If you are a woman who senses God is calling you to ministry, say yes to God. And if you get the privilege of calling a woman to pastor your church, say your next yes to God.