For a while, I have been working through what the Bible teaches about the role of women in ministry. While I’ve struggled with the best way to communicate what I’m learning, I think it is best to just jump in.
Perhaps the best place to start is to answer how we should handle the information we find. The truth is there are countless scholars who have traveled this road before me, but there are almost as many interpretations. Because it isn’t clear cut, I wanted to simply study what Scripture says about it instead of going straight to a preacher I trust.
I started my study with a look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Why is this the place to begin a study on the role of women in ministry? Because undoubtedly, I am going to come across passages of Scripture that rub me the wrong way. But if I truly believe all Scripture is inspired and is profitable, I must set my feelings aside and objectively look at what the Bible says on the topic.
I’ve been spending this month reading and rereading the book of James, and there are a few passages that have also convicted me of this truth. James 1:19 says,
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
While this passage can be used to address our human relationships, when taken in context, James is talking about being slow to anger when we hear God’s Word. James understood that, because of our sin natures, we will struggle with some of the things God tells us, and he encourages us to be quick to hear and slow to anger.
But James doesn’t stop there. He also tells us in verse 22 of the same chapter,
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
It isn’t good enough to read the Word and learn the truth God has for us; we are also called to act upon that truth. So if the Bible teaches me something that rubs me the wrong way, it is still my responsibility to follow through on that lesson according to the Word of God. And we must not forget what James says in chapter 4, verse 17,
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
So as I begin to unpack this controversial topic, I need to continually remind myself that Scripture is inspired and profitable, I need to be slow to anger when I don’t like what I find, I should put into practice the things I learn, and it is a sin to know the right thing to do and refuse to do it. Wow! I haven’t even gotten to the main topic, and I am already so convicted!
This approach is not limited to this topic. If we truly believe Scripture is sufficient to teach us how to live, then there will be many lessons we come across in the Bible that may step on our toes a bit. But the Bible isn’t just any book where we can “chew the meat and spit out the bones.” It is our authority and must be approached as such. Truthfully, if we are not going to hold this view of Scripture, there’s no reason to study it. If it is not authoritative and complete, what difference does it make what it teaches?
No matter what topic you are studying, be slow to anger when you don’t like what you’re reading, and hold yourself accountable to act on your new knowledge even if you don’t like it.
While it may be beneficial to take personality tests in the business world, what role should they play for the Christian?
The other day, the topic of conversation in my home was personality tests. If you’ve been here for a bit, you’ve probably heard me talk about the enneagram and my experience with it. If this is a new topic to you, you can read all about my journey with the enneagram here. Spoiler alert: Christians should steer clear.
I have always struggled with personality tests and spiritual gifts tests. It has taken me a long time to figure out why they rub me the wrong way. I don’t believe it is a sin to take these tests, but I don’t believe they are particularly productive, especially for a Christian. But before we talk about that, let’s think through the reasons these types of tests are taken.
Personality tests seem to be more common in business circles. Whether it is the Disc Profile, the Meyers-Briggs Indicator, or the enneagram, the goal is to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. This makes sense from a business standpoint because if you want your business to succeed, you want to take on those tasks that fall to your strengths and delegate the ones in which you don’t excel. The purpose is success.
Spiritual gifts tests are usually taken in churches or other ministries. We aren’t really given a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts in Scripture, and if you’re a cessationist (you believe some spiritual gifts have ceased to exist), some of those that are given have to be either ignored or redefined. But the goal is to put you in positions of service that best suit your gifts. If you are gifted in hospitality but score very low on administration, you might be better suited to be a greeter at the door than to track the finances of the church. If you want your church to run smoothly, you play to people’s strengths.
Maybe the reason I have struggled with this idea is because, as a missionary kid, I was a “hole plugger”: if there was a hole in any part of our ministry, someone in our family usually plugged it, even if that wasn’t one of our gifts. My dad learned to play the accordion so he could provide accompaniment for the song service when my grandmother was ill and couldn’t play the piano. When there was no one to clean the church, my sisters and I became the church janitors. If the nursery workers didn’t show up one Sunday, it became my job to fill in. And far from being a detriment to my growth, these experiences were the ones that taught me the most. So while I understand the reason churches administer these tests, I don’t see it as essential or even necessary.
The tests box you in
It doesn’t matter which personality test I take, I never like the results. And with most of the tests, there is no option of movement—once a melancholy, always a melancholy. The saying, “the grass is always greener on the other side” has certainly been true for me with each of these tests I’ve taken.
The tests encourage deceit
Maybe it is just my personality (pun intended), but anytime I’ve taken a personality or spiritual gifts test, I know what the “right” answer is to get my desired outcome. The tests lend themselves to deceit because you don’t want to answer truthfully. Instead, you want to give the answer that paints you in the best light for that question. Your answer is also highly influenced by your mood or health that day, which skews the results.
The tests give you an out
As I said before, growing up, my sisters and I were hole pluggers, and it has always been frustrating to me when the same few people in a church are doing all of the jobs. The most common excuse I hear when others won’t volunteer is that it isn’t their gifting, or they aren’t good at that job, or it isn’t their strong suit. Yet Scripture tells us that God is strong in our weakness. We shouldn’t only be doing those jobs that fall in our strengths because then we are doing them in our strength. When we take on jobs or ministries that land squarely in our weaknesses, God is glorified through our work.
The tests don’t solve the problem
We are under the delusion that understanding our personalities or our spiritual gifts will give us confidence to do what God has tasked us to do. It will embolden us because we are “playing to our strengths.” Or we will “be the best version of ourselves.” When the truth is self-knowledge will never lead to Christlikeness. And isn’t that the goal? To become more like Christ, not be the best version of myself? No amount of navel gazing will help me be more like Christ. In fact, introspection is a tool of the enemy because as long as I have my eyes on myself, I don’t have my eyes on Christ.
Confidence comes from knowing God. As we spend time in the Word, getting to know Him—His character, His plans, His desires for us—we start to see how we can be a light in this dark world. As we begin to understand His heart, we grow bolder in our witness and in our prayer life. As we get a glimpse of who we are in light of who He is, we understand how to best serve Him in spite of the results of any man-made test.
When it comes down to it, relying on personality and spiritual gifts tests shows that we do not actually believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. We believe that we need something outside of Scripture, outside of God’s Word, to tell us how to behave, what to do, and who to be.
Let me encourage you to invest your time in reading, studying, and understanding God’s Word rather than taking personality tests. God allows for growth and change; He wants to transform you from the inside out. He values truth and courage; He wants you to step out in faith and take on the tasks He places before you in spite of your weakness. He doesn’t give you an out; your spirit will be restless until you obey. And He does solve your problems because He knows you better than you could ever know yourself, and He knows what will give you peace in this tumultuous world.
Debating which is best for our children’s education—public, private, or homeschool—is missing the mark. Education is discipleship!
I’ve had this idea taking shape in the back of my mind over the last several months as I have spent time in God’s Word, read books about the state of our society, and talked to parents about educational philosophies. When we debate the education of our children and whether we should send them to public school, pay for private school, or keep them home and homeschool, I think we are missing the mark.
Our society has led us to believe that the purpose of education is to get a job. We need to educate ourselves so an employer will hire us and we can support our families financially. And this isn’t limited to college because without a top notch K-12 education, we won’t get into college where we get the education to get the job! But is that truly the purpose of education? The answer is a clear, resounding “No.” I have come to realize that education is so much more than job preparation. Education is discipleship.
The seed of this idea was planted when I was reading Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This is a familiar passage because it begins with the Jewish Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (v. 4, ESV). But it goes on to tell the Israelites that the things they have heard (the Ten Commandments) need to be taught to their children diligently when the family sits together, walks together, goes to bed, and wakes up. They are to teach these things, “talk of them,” “bind them,” and “write them.” Verse 5 seems to sum up the purpose: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with getting a job.
I spent the month of July reading and re-reading the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar seemed to understand the concept of discipleship through education. Daniel begins his book by describing the process the Babylonians followed to assimilate the conquered people into their culture. They chose smart, good-looking boys and taught them their literature and language. They fed them foreign food until they acquired a taste for it. They gave them new names. And they did all of this for three years. Once the boys were trained, they were put in positions of authority over their own people but under the control of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar understood that loyalty came through assimilation.
I’ve read a lot of books that try to explain the state of our current society. Many of these books demonstrate how Marxism has taken over and godless ideas have replaced the Bible-based concepts spelled out by our founding fathers. But I have struggled to understand how exactly this happened, that is until I read The Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin.
In the book, Hegseth introduces the idea of paideia, a Greek word from which we get our word pedagogy. The word doesn’t have a clear translation into English, and Hegseth goes to great trouble to define it, illustrate it, and demonstrate it. But when it was all said and done, the word that came to my mind that best fits Paideia is “Worldview.” Pedagogy is “the act of formulating a culture in children” (Hegseth 30). As G.K. Chesterton said, “Education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead a transfer of a way of life.”
So when we take another look at how our society views education versus the true purpose of education, it is clear how far off we’ve been. If education is discipleship, who should be the discipler? How should we make educational decisions? What should be our motivation? And ultimately, no matter how we choose to educate/disciple our children, the buck stops with parents according to the passage in Deuteronomy.
It isn’t really a question of public school, homeschool, private school, etc. It is a question of how we are going to instill a biblical worldview into our children so they will “love the Lord [their] God with all [their] heart and with all [their] soul and with all [their] might.”
There are so many benefits to having your Bible on a device. It is small and easy to carry. It is always with you, so you can read your Bible anywhere. You can have dozens of commentaries and study helps at your fingertips. You can even have multiple translations all in one place. But I still carry my physical Bible to church. I don’t do this out of habit, but I intentionally grab my Bible every time we are heading to worship.
Practical Reasons
There are some practical reasons for carrying my physical Bible to church. As advanced as we get, technology still fails sometimes. It may be due to a low battery, lack of Internet, or just a glitch in an app, but there is always a chance I will not be able to access my Bible on a device.
Also, technology is distracting. Of course, I can put my device in “do not disturb” mode so I’m not receiving notifications from apps on my phone, but I usually have to receive a notification before I remember to shut them off, so I have already been distracted. It is so easy to get sucked into a texting conversation, a twitter thread, or just scrolling through countless posts on Facebook or Instagram, not to mention sending pictures of yourself (yes, even pictures of you sitting in a service at church) through Snapchat (is that app still around?). But I can turn off my ringer, put my device away, and open my Bible for the duration of the message, and those distractions disappear.
Beyond staying focused during the service, I want my kids to see me reading my Bible. When someone is reading on their device, they could really be reading anything. No one around you knows whether you are reading your Bible or the latest dystopian novel to hit the market. Even if I can control myself and pay attention while using my device as my Bible, I don’t know that my kids will have the same self-control. Using a physical Bible eliminates the temptations and sets an example for my kids to follow.
More Complex Reasons
There are also some more complex reasons I carry my physical Bible to church. I remember sitting through religion class one rainy afternoon at the Catholic school I attended overseas (I was exempt from religion class, but it was raining that day, so I had to stay in the classroom). When the teacher handed out the Bibles and told the class which passage they would be reading, I immediately turned to the right page while all of my classmates turned to the table of contents. They were amazed that I knew where to turn. Having my physical Bible in church helps me become familiar with it. I learn where the books are, and when I’ve had a specific Bible long enough, I can even recall on which side of the page a particular verse is found. I have grown very comfortable knowing where each book is even when the pastor chooses a more obscure passage to preach.
Because I take notes in my Bible, be it on sticky notes or in the margins of my journaling Bible, I have my sermon notes available during my personal study and my personal study notes available during the sermon. I have often been pleased to see that the pastor mentions things from the passage that were of particular interest to me during my study time. And I’ve also been able to add notes as he preaches from a marked up, familiar passage.
Having a physical copy of the Scriptures also keeps me aware of context. When I am reading a passage on my phone, I may see one or two verses at once. But when I’m reading a passage in my physical Bible, I can see all of the verses around it. I am aware not only of the immediate context, but also the context that is the entire collection of 66 books. Each passage we study is a small part of a much bigger picture. The very practice of holding the weight of Scripture in my hands versus scrolling through a passage on my phone is a reminder that all of Scripture is the metanarrative of the Bible. There is an overall message supported by each passage I study.
While there is definitely nothing wrong with using the Bible on a device during church, I hope this has given you some things to think about as you walk out the door next Sunday to head to your local service. I would love to know if you have more reasons to add to this list.
Updated. This Bible study post teaching you to pray the passage was originally published on June 5, 2020.
I know, I know, you thought we were done. But I couldn’t end a series about Bible study without bringing it back to prayer. And I couldn’t make this step 7 because it can and should be happening throughout the entire Bible study process.
One of my favorite ways to pray is to pray Scripture. The Bible is living and active, and as such, there are no more powerful words we can speak. Once you have spent time in the passage and have walked through all of the steps, your understanding of the Word will bring new light and perspective to it. When you pray the passage back to God, you know you are praying His will and His way since you are praying His words.
Simply take the content from the passage along with your understanding of it and reword it as a prayer on behalf of yourself, your loved ones, your nation, etc. Pray that the Holy Spirit will show you the best way to apply what you have learned and give you direction for how it should change your life.
We could do a whole different series on prayer, but for now, take a minute to write out a prayer that incorporates what you’ve learned in the passage you’re studying. Again, there is something that happens in our brains when we put pen to paper. God wired us that way.
Ok, now I’m done with the series. I pray you have come away from this process walking closer to the Lord.
Please reach out to me with any questions I may not have answered.
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