women

Is the church too feminine?

October 21, 2020 // 2 Comments

I have been blown away by the positive response to my forthcoming book, The Silent Queen: Why the Church Needs Women to find their Voice. Although the book doesn’t come out until Christmas, I thought you’d might like a taste now. The following article has been cut from the Introduction… Since its inception, [...]

Submission doesn’t mean what you think it means

October 7, 2020 // 10 Comments

Bad theology hurts women. Sometimes it even kills them. In his book Ten Lies the Church Tells Women, Lee Grady tells the story of a woman called Doris who suffered through an abusive marriage. Doris’s husband, the head deacon at their church, would sometimes come home from work in a rage and physically assault [...]

Who submits in marriage?

October 2, 2020 // 12 Comments

When Camilla and I were writing our wedding vows, my future wife told me that she had a problem with the word submit. We had dug up some traditional vows based on Ephesians 5:22: “I promise to love, cherish and submit to my husband as to the Lord.” “I’m not going to say that,” said Camilla. I didn’t [...]

If a woman can’t be a husband, she can’t be a pastor, right?

September 17, 2020 // 41 Comments

What sort of person makes a good pastor? In his letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul lists sixteen desirable qualities (see 1 Tim. 3:1-7, Tit. 1:5-9). Pastors or overseers or elders should not be new converts, he says. Nor should they be money-grubbing alcoholics prone to fits of temper. Ideally, they should be [...]

Is the King James Bible sexist?

September 10, 2020 // 17 Comments

Recently I asked the question, “Is the Bible sexist?” It is and it isn’t. It is in the sense that it records the sexist stories and laws of patriarchal societies. But it isn’t in the sense that it reveals God’s heart for equality and freedom. Men and women were made equal in God’s image (Gen. [...]

Women pastors in the Bible

September 2, 2020 // 24 Comments

What is a pastor? A pastor is a shepherd. That’s what the word literally means. A pastor is someone who tends and guides spiritual sheep. Can women pastor? Let me answer that question with a better one: If God has gifted and called a woman to pastor, should we oppose him? Here’s another: Since God empowered [...]

Jesus – pioneer of women’s education

July 9, 2020 // 13 Comments

These days more women than men enrol in higher education, but it wasn’t always this way. Women did not begin studying at university in Britain until 1869. In the US, the first college to admit women was Oberlin College, in 1837. The University of Bologna in Italy was reputedly the first in the world to teach [...]

Are women more easily deceived?

July 1, 2020 // 40 Comments

Here’s a great question for your next Bible Study class: Why do female witches outnumber male witches twenty to one? Strange question? King James didn’t think so. When he wasn’t overseeing the production of the Bible that bears his name, James was torturing women he believed were witches. James was obsessed [...]

Did Jesus say adultery is the only grounds for divorce?

May 6, 2020 // 107 Comments

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this about divorce and remarriage: It has been said, “Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced [...]

Jesus, the Champion of women

January 15, 2020 // 12 Comments

In the church we have a good appreciation of what Jesus did for us, but we don’t really understand all he did for women. If we did, you can be sure we would treat them better than we do. In my last article in this series, I introduced the idea that Jesus empowered women. In this article I want to highlight two [...]

How did Jesus empower women?

December 12, 2019 // 12 Comments

When Jesus walked the earth, gender inequality was so entrenched in Jewish society that an adulteress could be stoned without trial and men could divorce their wives for just about any reason at all. In a nation of God-fearing and moral men, women were considered little more than property. They were servants [...]

Are Women Permitted to Teach? (1 Timothy 2:12)

October 26, 2017 // 68 Comments

I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. (1 Tim 2:12) Oh dear. Don’t tell Joyce Meyer that women aren’t allowed to teach. Or my mum, my wife, or a gazillion other ladies who teach in church. They’re all sinning. They should stop teaching and be quiet. Paul said [...]