Reforming Women's Ministries Part 1

In posts here and here, I discussed the problems I perceive with many women's ministries. Now I'd like to redirect the conversation in a positive way. I stand open to correction, but here are some beginning thoughts on the appropriate emphasis of women's ministry.

We tend to think of women's ministries as distinctly feminine. It's tea and flower arrangements, lavendar and ribbon. And that's not a problem. There is something beautiful about coming apart as women and enjoying food, entertainment, and activities that our male counterparts don't value as we do. The community of sisters in Christ rubbing shoulders in various activities apart from any particular teaching is a valuable part of Christian community in the Body of Christ.

But even non-teaching social experiences will always reflect, even at the most informal level, a group's underlying assumptions on what it means to be a godly Christian woman. So what should our underlying assumptions be in women's ministry? I submit to you that our underlying assumptions should really be the same as any targeted ministry in the church--men, women, senior adult, teens, children, you name it. Here's how I'll sum up the big picture as I see it presented in Scripture.

What has God created me to be? Why am I not that way now? And what has He done and is continuing to do to bring me back to the perfection for which He created me?

In Part 1, I'll deal with just the first question--what has God created me to be? This is the same question we need to answer for all believers. And the answer for all believers is that we were created to be image bearers of God.

Genesis 1 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 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."

Both man and woman were created in God's own image. This is crucial for every woman to understand. SHE was created in His image. SHE is being conformed to His image even now (Romans 8:28-30). Sometimes in emphasizing the wife's reflection of the church in her particular relationship with her husband, we lose a vision for every woman's identity as an image bearer of God, marred by the fall but redeemed through the cross (we'll get to both of those latter ideas in another post).

In the creation of woman in the image of God, God uses the particular Hebrew term "ezer" or Helper.

Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

I thank Susan Hunt and Ligon Duncan in their book Women's Ministry in the Local Church for first pointing me to how God Himself is our example on what it means to be a helper suitable to the needs of our male counterpart.

If you don’t know God, His Names, and His character, then hearing that woman was created to be some man’s helper is going to sound incredibly condescending and substandard. “I’m called to be Help?! That sounds like some 18th century plantation snob referring to their servants. I’m not the Help.” Instead, if we let Scripture and not our culture be our guide, we'll see something altogether different. The Hebrew word translated “helper” is ezer, meaning to help, nourish, sustain, or strengthen. It’s used often in the Old Testament of God Himself. Consider it’s use in Deuteronomy 33:29.

Deuteronomy 33:29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD ? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places.

God Himself here is called our helper, our ezer, the same word used of the first woman in Gen. 2:18. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is also called our Helper, Counselor, and Comforter (depending on which translation of the Bible you use—these are all translations of the Holy Spirit’s role of “paraklete”, or one who comes alongside in help.) God is our Help. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. When we understand God’s role on this issue, it puts this in perspective. God, Almighty Sovereign Lord of the Universe, is our helper, and we, as women, are created in His image. If we hold on to the attitude that being created as a helper is condescending and substandard, we mock the Name of God and His character, for the role of Helper is one God willingly embraces. Christ says in Matthew 10:25 that it is enough for the disciple to be as his master and the servant as his Lord. It is enough that we seek to be like Him.

So let’s consider God’s example on this issue of Help. In Exodus 18:4, God our help defends (in contrast to attacking or ignoring the fight altogether). In Psalm 10:14 God our help sees and cares for the oppressed (rather than being indifferent and unconcerned). In Psalm 20:2 and 33:20, God our Help supports, shields and protects (rather than leaving unprotected and defenseless). In Psalms 70:5, God our Help delivers from distress (rather than causing distress). In Psalm 72:12-14, God our Help rescues the poor, weak, and needy (rather than ignoring the poor and needy). And in Psalm 86:17, God our Help comforts (rather than causing discomfort or avoiding altogether). God’s example reveals a high and worthy calling for wives as “helpers suitable to their husbands”. We are called to show compassion, to support, defend and protect those in our care, to deliver from distress and to comfort. We are called to be conduits of God’s grace in our homes. We are called to be like Christ.

Note that Genesis 2:18 occurs before the fall. This is important because the woman was created not as a response to her man’s sinfulness but to his loneliness and incompleteness. All of God’s creation up to that point was very good. Man being alone was the first thing God looked at and said it was NOT GOOD. Man was not complete—it was NOT GOOD that He be alone. And in order to make His creation GOOD, God created the woman to correspond to and complement that which was lacking in the man. To be his helper.

When we teach women that they were created to be helpers suitable to the needs of their male counterpart, we must teach it in the context of the Imago Dei--the woman created in the image of God to reflect something about God Himself, the woman marred by the fall of man but now being conformed back to that image as particularly revealed in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 5:1). The saddest statement I think I ever heard a woman utter was that Christ's example in the gospels wasn't relevant to her as a woman. He was a man--what did that have to offer her as she struggled to be a godly woman? So she looked to Ruth, or Mary, or Martha, or Sarah, or Deborah. But she didn't look to Christ to teach her who God had called her to be. I am definitely a fan of Ruth and Mary. And I particularly love Phoebe and Abigail. But I was not created in their image, and I am not now being conformed to their image. Their examples certainly have something to offer me, but only as secondary illustrations of what it looks like to be a Helper like God Himself or humble like Jesus.

I'll continue this week or next with some thoughts on the next questions--now that we know what God created us to be, why am I not like that and what is God doing to transform me back to reflect His image as He created me?