Role of women in Christian Leadership - Assignment Example

Some of these arguments are against women leadership in churches while others seek to justify the need to have women leaders in church. All quarters seek to justify their stand on the issue using the Bible as their basis (Scott, 2002, p. 27). In 1Timothy 2:12, Paul says he does not permit women to have authority over men in the church. He also bars them from teaching. According to him, a woman is to be submissive and silent. He goes further to quote the Genesis creation story and states that God created man first before the woman.

He goes further to say that, it was Eve that first fell to temptation and not Adam. This may have formed the basis for his argument against women leadership in the early church. Going backwards, we see Paul stating the appropriate dress code for women as he sees it fit (1Timothy 2:9). This brings out yet another possible reason for Paul’s stand. He may have noted the danger in how women dressed in church and that is why he emphasized on how they were to dress. He possibly saw that in their quest to look good, women might end up overdoing it to the extent that it affects their ministry in the church.

It may also form ground for competition among them thus causing them to deviate from their main roles of leadership. Such competition could be harmful to the church as it could escalate and cause division as they try to outdo each other. Yet another fear could be the possibility of women ignoring their ethical responsibilities as they engage more and more in leadership. This could be harmful to their family lives, as they could possibly want to carry their authority back into their homes, which would be against their traditional Laws where the man was the head of the family.

We could also possibly say that Paul was referring to women in the past that had been in influential positions but were evil or deceiving. Women such as Jezebel (II Kings 9:10) and Delilah (Judges 16) may have contributed to the notion that given a chance, women could become evil and cause the downfall of man, which could translate to the fall of the church. Great men such as Samson, David, Solomon and even Adam all seem to have fallen or made wrong choices due to women. If Paul was drawing his conclusions from such events involving women, the he had some ground to argue for barring women from leading in the church.

In the book of Corinthians, Paul reminds the church what the laws say about women and how they should not speak in front of the congregation. Any woman who had anything to ask was to ask her husband at home and not in the church. The laws considered it a disgrace for a woman to speak in church (1Corinthians 14:34-35). Paul was possibly insisting on this to ensure that there was order within the church. Paul’s letters to Timothy and The Corinthians came at a time when there were quarrels within the church.

The letters served to reaffirm the laws to bring about order. In 1Timothy, People who have little understanding of the laws and scriptures tend to be challenging Timothy’s authority within the church. These seem to be preaching erroneously to the people. Among these are probably women who interpret the scriptures in their own ways to justify their participation in leadership in the church. Paul seeks to help Timothy subdue feministic tendencies that may be cropping up in the Church. He writes to reaffirm Timothy’s authority in the church.

Although Paul’s words come out strongly against women leadership, he does not discourage women participation in the work of evangelization. This is through women such as Priscilla who