Questions about Possible Roles for Women

1. Is it okay for a woman to use the copier to make copies of the bulletin for handing out on Sunday morning?
2. Is it okay for a woman to be the collector of items for the bulletin (contact point for announcements/events, articles to be printed, who's preaching when, etc)?
3. Is it okay for a woman to be the producer/editor/printer of the bulletin?
4. Is it okay for a woman to run the sound system?
5. Is it okay for a woman to run the A/V recording system?
6. Is it okay for a woman to make the sermon recordings available on the church web site?
7. Is it okay for a woman to run the church web site? to handle the mechanics of domain registration / web site building/maintenance / publishing of material on the web site / creation of original material for web publication?
8. Is it okay for a woman to prepare the bread and cup for Sunday's Lord's Supper? to clean up / clean the utensils / pick up the empty cups afterwards?
9. Is it okay for a woman to get up from her seat to cross the aisle to pass the plate if the assigned server overlooks it?
10. It is okay for a woman to count the collection and deposit it in the bank and keep the financial records?
11. Is it okay for a woman to do the weekly head-count, and maintain the attendance records?
12. Is it okay for a woman to participate in the serving of a regular meal during a fellowship meal, perhaps by going table-to-table with tea/Kool-aid refills, or by dispensing yummy hot-buttered rolls?
13. Is it okay for a woman to participate in the serving of the Lord's Supper, perhaps by going pew-to-pew with the fruit of the vine cups, or serving the bread?

Some of these things may violate our comfort zones, but we are not called to pamper our comfort zones; we're called to encourage and equip one another to do good works, and to use one's God-given strengths to the benefit of the body.

There is room to discuss if these sorts of things result in a woman usurping authority (if an elder asks a woman to do Task X, is she usurping authority if she complies? if she refuses?) or in teaching a man (is she teaching a man if she writes a web article? if she writes a song that gets included in our hymnals 50 years later?), but we shouldn't just knee-jerk react against, without prayerful consideration, a woman filling these roles.

Originally published at: http://kentwest.blogspot.com/2016/10/questions-about-possible-roles-for-women.html