Women Rising in the Assemblies

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Details: Written by Marcus Yoars

More than 30,000 Assemblies of God pastors and ministry leaders from around the world are gathering this week in Orlando, Fla., for their biennial General Council meeting. Although there's reason to celebrate the fellowship's status as one of the only segments within the American church to experience numeric growth, that may get overshadowed this week by a historical shift in the denomination's stance on women in leadership.

In an unprecedented move, delegates are expected to approve a policy change that would allow a woman to be elected to the Assemblies' second-highest policy-making body, the General Presbytery. Although Pentecostals have often been at the forefront of promoting females to pastoral roles, women have not been part of the denomination's highest leadership ranks. A vote on Wednesday could change this by opening the leadership door not only for women, but also for pastors younger than 40 years old. The policy change would ensure younger generations are represented on the General Council. According to Assemblies of God General Superintendent George O. Wood, a whopping 40 percent of the denomination's adherents are 25 or younger.

"As the denomination has aged, our leadership has progressively moved up in age," Wood said. "It freezes out the rising generation. Without some action, it will probably get worse. The message the resolution sends to younger ministers is you don't have to sit still, keep your mouth shut and wait."

To underscore this shift, the Assemblies kicked off the week with premier Influence Leadership Seminar, which brought in pastors such as Mark Batterson (National Community Church in Washington, D.C.) and Ed Young Jr. (Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas) to address the new paradigms of ministry today.

“Our leadership has been really praying that there would be a spiritual chemistry about Council that takes place in the hearts of our credentialed ministers,” said Doug Clay, general treasurer of the Assemblies of God. "We really pray that people will leave Council motivated and inspired in terms of their calling, renewed to go back to the place where they’re expressing their calling—whether it’s in a local church or a para-church ministry or overseas.” [theledger.com, 8/3/09; christianpost.com, 8/2/09]

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0 #22 Chuckloma 2009-08-21 11:42

Quoting atomicmom:

To Chris Hartman-
so let me get this straight...Adam takes the apple from Eve knowing FULL WELL what he was doing, and everything is cool-but Eve is told (and all women henceforth) that because she believed a lie she is never to have a place of authority in the church? You really need to come up with a better argument dude.

1 Tim 2:12 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam WAS NOT deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
This is in the Bible, which IS the word of God.

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-1 #21 Chuckloma 2009-08-21 11:03

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

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0 #20 Matthew Prihoda 2009-08-07 04:34

I am a licensed A/G minister. I don't think the resolution PERMITS women and under-40 ministers to be presbyters, but REQUIRES a certain percentage of them to be presbyters. I may be wrong about this, but I read the resolution, and that is what I understood it to say.

I am not against women or younger ministers being presbyters, but I am against quotas. As I didn't get to go to the General Council, and won't be voting or speaking, I will express my views here.
But, I expect the Assemblies to follow the recent past and continue their march away from common sense and into a realm of futher modernizing the movment. I don't see anything in scriptures that God wants a certain percentage of your leadership to be from a certain group. I think this will remove us one step further from getting the best leadership (whomever it may be - -young, old, male, female) and reduce us to getting 10% from this group, 10% from that group, and so on and so on.

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0 #19 James Lee 2009-08-06 22:08

It is interesting how as Pentecostals we insist on using the hermeutical principle that passages are to be interpreted literally unless the context dictates otherwise with passages dealing with tongues and prophecy in 1 Cor. 12-14, yet depart from that principle in how we treat 1 Tim. 2:12-14, in which Paul states that he does not allow women to be in authority over men in the church. He does not tie his reasons for doing so to anything cultural (such as women usurping the less than forceful Timothy's leadership position), but to 1) men having been created first, and to 2) Eve's having been deceived. Groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention, Evangelical Free Church and Calvary Chapel do not allow ladies to pastor or serve as elders because of taking this passage literally (and not due to any difference in ability, gifting or spirituality.

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0 #18 kcislander 2009-08-06 07:53

Is this still an issue in 2009? Give me a break.

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0 #17 Jean 2009-08-05 12:56

Praise the Lord. May I comment? If the good Lord places an anointing on a female to minister, and there is fruit of the same, what is there to question? Savings souls should be the concern Saints of God. Let the Saints seek the Lord that His will be done. For He can use whomever He choses.

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0 #16 atomicmom 2009-08-05 09:07

To Chris Hartman-
so let me get this straight...Adam takes the apple from Eve knowing FULL WELL what he was doing, and everything is cool-but Eve is told (and all women henceforth) that because she believed a lie she is never to have a place of authority in the church? You really need to come up with a better argument dude.

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0 #15 CathySmith 2009-08-05 08:12

Regarding female pastors...I don't think anyone would listen to me, and I know I've heard the arguments that allow female pastors, but I do not believe it is a God ordained position. My Great Grandmother was a traveling Assemblies of God evangelist in beginning in 1925 (est). On my dining room wall hangs her picture and her AG preachers license. She wore a white long robe that covered her when she preached, and she traveled the railroad of West Virginia until the 1930"s preaching wherever they would have her. What I have a hard time with female pastors, is they are not to be over other women's husbands and men in general. There are many reasons why I could think that woman should not be pastors, and none of them have to do with intelligence or capibility. But I agree with Paul...and I don't think he said it just because it was a cultural thing in his generation. Paul spoke for all generations that would grown up in Christ!!! God bless you all!

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-1 #14 Sojourner Truth 2009-08-05 02:04

It is disconcerting to find serious errors in the 'Ministry News" segment of this magazine. There's no by-line, but the writer/writers are not doing their homework, as has been addressed re the errors in this article.
"Black to the Faith" contained unreliable. incomplete content as well. Is this a habit at "Ministry Today", as it is in secular news reporting? Christian publications should maintain a higher standard.

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+2 #13 Heavenly Works 2009-08-05 00:59

As a Baptist pastor and church planter I find this question to be easily resolved if you were to read and study works such as "Contextualizing the NT". It's not deep theological rocket science - simply becoming open to God's heart for reconciling His creation(s) to Himself.

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