For a long time, among Christian communities in China, women have outnumbered men. But in terms of preaching, in some churches, the situation is exactly the opposite — these churches do not encourage women to preach but let them serve in less visible roles.
Pastor W, who has served in rural churches for decades in the Central Plains Region shared with the Christian Times his view on this issue based on the reality in the region he served. On the one hand, he holds that we should interpret the Bible verses that say ‘do not allow women to preach’ in a dogmatic way; on the other hand, considering the reality of pastoral care of churches in China, especially rural churches, he argues that women encouraged to stand up and preach in the pulpit is helpful and beneficial to churches and believers.
First of all, Pastor W stated that some Bible verses in the New Testament say Paul forbids women to preach, we should not explain them rigidly.
He claimed that one of the important reasons why Paul did not allow women to preach in the Bible was because, in the early church, many women were disrespectful to men. But it does not mean that God won’t use women but only men; God never did in that way.
"When women work for the Lord, they have power and spiritual authority. They can cast out demons and heal the sick in the name of the Lord, which cannot be hindered by man. No matter what kind of theological view you hold or no matter how long the tradition was, they are vulnerable and cannot oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. People cannot oppose God. Peter also said, ' Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.' In the same way, since God has chosen them, and Holy Spirit fills them when they preach, who can stop them from preaching?" the pastor explained.
He said, "The churches that do not allow women to preach are basically influenced by some foreign denominations in the past decades. I studied theology abroad and the textbook also says women should not preach, but the teacher did not give special comments on this issue. But the church I grew up in was very different from churches that forbid women to preach. When I was a teenager, studying the Bible in the church, many women were trained and equipped to preach. They were in zeal for God’s work, I was very impressed.”
Pastor W did not reject sisters in preaching, on the contrary, he argued, "Many women are actually very good at preaching. Maybe some of them relatively lack rational and theological interpretation in preaching, which does not affect they do the work in church since they are very able to encourage others, exhort others, and let people take root in the faith."
"Women are generally more enthusiastic, while men are more stable, sometimes too calm, too rational. Women are more easily excited and zealous and can motivate believers well. In the region I serve now, the preachers are mainly women, and very few men are preachers," he added.
In many rural churches, the proportion of women congregation is very high. Pastor W said that in the past, almost 60-70% of the believers in the region he serves were female, but in recent years, the proportion has increased — around 90% of the congregation is now female. The reason could be related to the situation of our time. In the past decades, many young adults in the Central Plains Region have gone to work in the eastern coastal cities. As a result, women, children, and the elderly are left in rural churches. In his opinion, training women to be preachers is very important for pastoral caring work in the church.
In response to the question 'how can women be trained to be preachers?', Pastor W replied that even for eight to ten people, there must be a leader among them, no matter who he or she was, but a leader is necessary for a group of people. Even for three people, a leader is necessary, or people cannot gather.
"Now for rural churches, there are a lot of advantages to having local women believers come forward and preach. I am a man, and when I go to one church to preach, believers in that church think I am a minister in a higher position and they are not close with me. Also, I do not have enough time to talk with them below the surface. But the situation would be different if the churches let the local women ministers preach. They are much closer to believers, and believers can talk about anything with them. Then these women preachers can lead the believers to grow together very well."
"If I go there, they will let me preach, and they won't preach. So many times I don't want to go, and I avoid going there on purpose. I want to give them the opportunity to preach, and then they can improve” Pastor W said.
Pastor W also found that those who lead others are people who grow the fastest. Because they have the pressure to care for others, they have to invest time in down-to-earth learning. Pastor W teaches them the study method — how to read the Bible, how to read books, and how to prepare for sermons. When a person knows the correct study method, they can improve themselves.
"This is also the best method I can find so far. I don't think there is any better method in the current situation where women are more than men in rural churches, urbanization, and church ministers are basically unpaid," he concluded.
- Translated by Katherine Guo
在中国教会信徒群体中，长期以来存在着显著的“女多男少”的现象，而在讲道方面，在一些教会却恰恰存在着完全相反的情形——一些教会不鼓励姐妹讲道，而是让姐妹站在后面服事。
针对此种现象，中原地区一位在农村教会服事数十年的W牧师与本站同工借着自己所在地区的现实情况分享了自己的看法。他一方面认为，不用教条主义的看待圣经中相关的不允许姐妹讲道的经文，另一方面结合当下中国教会尤其是农村教会牧养的实际，他认为鼓励姐妹站起来走上讲台是很有实际帮助和益处的。
首先，W牧师认为不能够生硬解释新约圣经中使徒保罗禁止女人讲道的经文。
他表示，圣经里面保罗之所以有不许女人讲道的话语，很重要的一个原因是因为初期教会的时候，很多女人对弟兄不尊重，所以保罗才会如此说。但是在今天的时代，上帝从来没有不用女人，只用男人，上帝没有这样做。
“姐妹们为为主做工的时候，她们是带着能力的，带有属灵的权柄，能够赶鬼，可以奉主的名医病——这些都不是我们能够人为拦阻的，无论怎样的神学思想，或者怎样悠久的传统，在圣灵的做工面前都不堪一击。人不能够反对神。就像彼得也说，‘这些人既受了圣灵，与我们一样，谁能禁止用水给他们施洗呢？' 同样，上帝既然也拣选了这些姐妹，当她们宣讲话语的时候，圣灵就充满她们，那谁能够拦阻她们不让她们讲道呢？”
对于这一现象，他也观察和思考过。他的分析是：“不让姐妹讲道的教会基本上都是和这十几年来受到国外的一些宗派的影响有关系。以前我上神学的时候学习的也是这些，只是老师对此并没有什么特别强调。但对我来说，我信仰的成长环境跟这些（禁止女人讲道的教会）有很大的不同。在我小的时候，十来岁学习圣经的时候，那时候有很多的姐妹们站起来，得到培训和装备然后讲道，非常火热，给我留下的印象也非常深刻。”
W牧师对于姐妹讲道并不排斥，相反，W牧师发现：“很多姐妹在讲道方面其实都是非常优秀的，可能相对来说有些姐妹在理性方面和神学解释方面有一些许欠缺，但是这却并不影响姐妹在教会中做工，她们很能够鼓励别人，劝勉别人，让人们在真道上扎根。"
“姐妹们一般来说都是更加热心一些，而弟兄们就要更加稳重，有时候太冷静，太理性了。而姐妹们却更加容易激动，容易变得火热，能够很好的把信徒带动起来。现在我们这边，讲道人基本都是姐妹，弟兄非常非常少。”
在很多的农村教会，姐妹信徒的比例很高。W牧师说他们那边以前差不多60-70%的信徒都是姐妹，而最近几年来姐妹信徒的比例变得更高了，可能90%左右的信徒都是姐妹，这和背后的时代大背景相关，这十多年来中原很多青壮劳动力去东部沿海城市打工有关系，导致农村教会多留下的是妇女、儿童和老年人，而在牧养中，培养姐妹讲道人在他看来成为实际牧会中非常重要的经验。
那么这些姐妹讲道人是怎么被培养起来的呢？
对此，W牧师说，哪怕只有十个人八个人，这个小群体当中一定需要有领导者，不论是谁，但是一定需要，甚至哪怕只有三个人，从中也会产生领导者，不然的话大家就无法聚集到一起。“现在农村教会中，让姐妹站出来讲道有很大的优势。我是弟兄，如果我过去教会里面的话，那些信徒对我就会有一些疏离感，他们会觉得我毕竟是一个大的传道人，看我就会比较远一些，而且我本身时间也有限，没有多少时间能够和他们一起分享交流。但是那几个当地的姐妹讲道人就不一样了，这些姐妹和信徒的关系原本就要更近一些，信徒又什么事情都能够和她们说，因此那几个姐妹讲道人能够很好的带领信徒一起成长。”
“如果我过去的话她们就会让我讲道，她们自己就不讲，所以很多时候我就不愿意去，特意避开，不去她们那边的聚会点，给她们讲道的机会，让她们自己讲道，这样才能够很好的成长。”W牧师如此说。
而且W牧师还发现，那些带领别人的人——他们的成长在所有信徒当中是最快的。因为他们有牧养的压力，因此不得不投入时间脚踏实地的学习。W牧师会把学习方法教给他们，教他们怎么读经，怎么看书，怎么预备讲道，当一个人学会了正确的学习方法以后，他自己就会成长的。
最终实践下来，W牧师认为这样做的效果还是很好的。“这也是目前我能够找到的最好的方法，当下农村教会男少女多、城市化和教会传道人基本没有薪资的现实环境下我认为没有别的更好的方法。”
观点| 中原地区农村教会一牧者：鼓励姐妹站起来走上讲台对牧养有益处
For a long time, among Christian communities in China, women have outnumbered men. But in terms of preaching, in some churches, the situation is exactly the opposite — these churches do not encourage women to preach but let them serve in less visible roles.
Pastor W, who has served in rural churches for decades in the Central Plains Region shared with the Christian Times his view on this issue based on the reality in the region he served. On the one hand, he holds that we should interpret the Bible verses that say ‘do not allow women to preach’ in a dogmatic way; on the other hand, considering the reality of pastoral care of churches in China, especially rural churches, he argues that women encouraged to stand up and preach in the pulpit is helpful and beneficial to churches and believers.
First of all, Pastor W stated that some Bible verses in the New Testament say Paul forbids women to preach, we should not explain them rigidly.
He claimed that one of the important reasons why Paul did not allow women to preach in the Bible was because, in the early church, many women were disrespectful to men. But it does not mean that God won’t use women but only men; God never did in that way.
"When women work for the Lord, they have power and spiritual authority. They can cast out demons and heal the sick in the name of the Lord, which cannot be hindered by man. No matter what kind of theological view you hold or no matter how long the tradition was, they are vulnerable and cannot oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. People cannot oppose God. Peter also said, ' Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.' In the same way, since God has chosen them, and Holy Spirit fills them when they preach, who can stop them from preaching?" the pastor explained.
He said, "The churches that do not allow women to preach are basically influenced by some foreign denominations in the past decades. I studied theology abroad and the textbook also says women should not preach, but the teacher did not give special comments on this issue. But the church I grew up in was very different from churches that forbid women to preach. When I was a teenager, studying the Bible in the church, many women were trained and equipped to preach. They were in zeal for God’s work, I was very impressed.”
Pastor W did not reject sisters in preaching, on the contrary, he argued, "Many women are actually very good at preaching. Maybe some of them relatively lack rational and theological interpretation in preaching, which does not affect they do the work in church since they are very able to encourage others, exhort others, and let people take root in the faith."
"Women are generally more enthusiastic, while men are more stable, sometimes too calm, too rational. Women are more easily excited and zealous and can motivate believers well. In the region I serve now, the preachers are mainly women, and very few men are preachers," he added.
In many rural churches, the proportion of women congregation is very high. Pastor W said that in the past, almost 60-70% of the believers in the region he serves were female, but in recent years, the proportion has increased — around 90% of the congregation is now female. The reason could be related to the situation of our time. In the past decades, many young adults in the Central Plains Region have gone to work in the eastern coastal cities. As a result, women, children, and the elderly are left in rural churches. In his opinion, training women to be preachers is very important for pastoral caring work in the church.
In response to the question 'how can women be trained to be preachers?', Pastor W replied that even for eight to ten people, there must be a leader among them, no matter who he or she was, but a leader is necessary for a group of people. Even for three people, a leader is necessary, or people cannot gather.
"Now for rural churches, there are a lot of advantages to having local women believers come forward and preach. I am a man, and when I go to one church to preach, believers in that church think I am a minister in a higher position and they are not close with me. Also, I do not have enough time to talk with them below the surface. But the situation would be different if the churches let the local women ministers preach. They are much closer to believers, and believers can talk about anything with them. Then these women preachers can lead the believers to grow together very well."
"If I go there, they will let me preach, and they won't preach. So many times I don't want to go, and I avoid going there on purpose. I want to give them the opportunity to preach, and then they can improve” Pastor W said.
Pastor W also found that those who lead others are people who grow the fastest. Because they have the pressure to care for others, they have to invest time in down-to-earth learning. Pastor W teaches them the study method — how to read the Bible, how to read books, and how to prepare for sermons. When a person knows the correct study method, they can improve themselves.
"This is also the best method I can find so far. I don't think there is any better method in the current situation where women are more than men in rural churches, urbanization, and church ministers are basically unpaid," he concluded.
- Translated by Katherine Guo
Rural Pastor Encourages Women to Preach in the Pulpit 'for Church's Benefit'
