Part 3 – Christianity, Complementarity and Equality: a compatible concoction?

This post makes up part of the series of posts on Christianity, Complementarity and Equality: a compatible concoction?  You can find the Intro, Part 1 and Conclusion here, and Part 2 here. 

 

PART 3: MEN AND WOMEN’S ROLES AS LAID OUT IN THE BIBLE

Women’s Unique Capacities

It’s not a sign of weakness to be naturally inclined to nurture, protect, cherish and support. It is a unique gifting that I wish women were not made to feel ashamed of. With the rise of modern feminism, which has largely gone beyond what first-wave feminism set out to accomplish – gaining social, economic and political rights for women – so many women nowadays dismiss their unique capacity to house another life within them and be loving mothers and instead put the pursuit of a career and competing with men in the workplace above all else. It’s gotten to the point where women who choose to be stay-at-home mothers are looked down upon as doing nothing meaningful with their lives. (Take a look at this rather hot-headed article, for example – http://thoughtcatalog.com/amy-glass/2014/01/i-look-down-on-young-women-with-husbands-and-kids-and-im-not-sorry/). Just think, what does it say about us when we consider the challenge, beautiful yet terrifying, rewarding yet one which often goes unpraised – of bringing new lives into the world and nurturing children to grow into great people – as meaningless?? It certainly isn’t – common sense and nature show us that without mothers the human race would die out.

The fact that I, like most women, desire to get married and have kids does not make me a weakling. The writer Amy Glass in her rather inflammatory article goes so far as to say: ‘You will never have the time, energy, freedom or mobility to be exceptional if you have a husband and kids.’ I would beg to differ.

So would the Bible. While the Bible exalts the position of a wife and mother, it by no means suggests that a woman should remain only within the limits of the home. The Proverbs 31 woman is a prime example of a multi-tasking, industrious woman who most of us wouldn’t see as that different from a 21^st-century working mum! She is the backbone of the family:

Her husband has full confidence in her
    and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.

[…]
She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family […]

Yet she is also an enterprising woman who makes and sells clothes and uses her earnings prudently to buy her own property. She also ‘opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.’ And she is an intelligent lady: ‘She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.’ She is also recognised as strong: ‘she is clothed with strength and dignity.’

It is thus perfectly clear in the Bible that the capability of women is not to be looked down upon: they are able to excel as wives, mothers and working women.

Something that is more of a contentious issue, however, is – does the Bible recognise the value of women in the church?

The Bible: an anti-sexism text

The Bible is often regarded nowadays as outdated in its teachings and therefore for many it is a common reflex action to simply dismiss its response to certain issues as irrelevant.

But although the Bible was written at a time when women were considered little more than the property of men, it led the way in reversing attitudes towards women. Take for instance the account of Zelophehad’s daughters in the Old Testament. At a time when female heirs were not given any property rights, these five daughters were each allotted their own inheritance after their father’s death. This is a clear example of the advocacy of women’s economic rights.

The Bible also stands up for the political rights of women. The life of Deborah, a female judge and leader over Israel, is hailed as leading God’s people to victory.

The Bible also chronicles events which confirm it to also be in favour of women’s social rights. Jesus, the cornerstone of the Christian faith, numerous times turned social conventions on their head in the manner in which he related with women. There’s the example of the woman at the well, whom Jesus approaches as she draws water. At this epoch it was completely unheard of for a man to talk to a woman; yet Jesus considered the Samaritan woman worth talking to. Another example which shows Jesus’ radical attitude is seen when he praises the sincere offering of a prostitute as she washes his feet with perfume. This same woman, called Mary, is later praised for choosing to sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to his teaching, rather than preoccupying herself with the domestic tasks, as her sister Martha does.

All these examples show that the Bible advocates the social, economic and political equality of the sexes: in other words, it – and Christianity by default – is wholeheartedly against sexism.

Women Precious in God’s Service

I was pretty sure of this already – I mean, a God of justice and love just doesn’t go hand in hand with the oppression of women. But what I did find myself asking was, Am I as a woman as valuable for God’s service as a man is?

Over the years I had read enough verses during church sermons that would seem to suggest that the answer was no. When Peter talked about women being the ‘weaker vessel’ I thought he was saying that we were less useful for God’s service (“vessels” are frequently used to describe an instrument for God’s use). In fact what he was referring to is physical strength, and the context is specifically advice to husbands and wives on how they should relate with one another. Husbands are admonished to give honour to their spouses. The idea of the ‘weaker vessel’ is in fact anything but demeaning; it is used to signify that women are like precious china – with a sign on them that tells the person charged with looking after them to “handle with care!” Men are to protect them – and as we have already discussed, their physical differences equip them well to do this.

So that’s that: women aren’t less valuable for God’s service. OK, happy with that. But what about that bit in Paul’s letter to Timothy saying:  “¹¹ Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. ¹² And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.”? He goes on to say: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve. ¹⁴ And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. ¹⁵ Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” (1 Tim 2:11-15) At first glance this seems like a profoundly sexist set of comments. A likely knee-jerk reaction (this is what went on in my mind): Say what now, Paul? Because Eve ate the forbidden fruit first you’re blaming all women for sin being in the world and telling us to shut up and be content with churning out babies?  

It’s easy to hastily dismiss passages like this as evidence of serious misogyny and decide to ignore them – but the truth is, we can only understand such texts when we examine them closely within their contextual frame. The first thing to note is that the apostle Paul is not talking about literal silence. The word used in the original Greek is (hesuchios/hesuchia) in fact used to denote peacefulness; indeed just nine verses earlier, it is used to lay down the importance of Christians leading ‘a quiet and peaceable life’. The next part reveals more about Paul’s meaning: he delineates the roles of men and women as marked out according to creation.

God’s Design and Order

As we’ve already seen, diversity and order are reflected in God’s design for men and women because diversity and order are at the very heart of the Godhead, and men and women were created in God’s image. Just as God the Son (Jesus) submits to the will of His Father, and the Spirit flows from them both, women are called to submit to the leadership of men. Paul’s reference to Adam and Eve is not pointing the finger at Eve and all women for sin being in the world; rather he is referring the designated order established by God when he created the man first. This connotes that men are the ones designed by God to lead. Thus when a woman ‘usurps authority over a man’ she is turning God’s intended order on its head.

God’s intended pattern for men and women is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His church. The man is to fulfil the position of a loving, humble head and the woman is called to intelligent, willing submission. However with the Fall in the Garden of Eden this perfect plan was marred: Adam abdicated his leadership role and allowed Eve to take his place. The passage in Genesis 3 that recounts the Fall tells us that Adam was ‘with her’ as she was tempted by Satan. Instead of taking the initiative to dissuade his wife as she was being deceived, Adam stood by passively. When Paul says ‘Adam was not deceived’, he does not mean that Adam did not sin. The implication is that whilst Eve was manipulated into thinking that eating the forbidden fruit would bring good, Adam took the fruit with full knowledge that it was a sin.

The consequences of Adam and Eve’s actions are clear: when we as humans take matters into our own hands and think we know more than God, trouble is sure to come. Adam and Eve learnt the hard way – when they disobeyed God’s instruction, they were cursed and banished from the utopian Garden of Eden.

The Implications of the Curse

The curse has resounding implications. The unique responsibilities that God had given man and woman would now become more difficult:

¹⁶ To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
¹⁹ In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”                                                                                                    Genesis 3:16-19

As a consequence of sin, the unique capacity to bear children that women have was made more difficult. The responsibility of the man to provide for and protect his family, helped by his physical strength, would now no longer be a smooth ride. As well as the primary capacities of men and women becoming more difficult to fulfil, in God’s words to Eve we see another ramification introduced by sin: ‘ “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” ’ The ‘desire’ referred to here is not sexual desire; rather it indicates a desire for mastery. To understand the real import of this words it is important to look at Genesis 4:7, which forms a close parallel: “[Sin’s] desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

What this reveals, therefore, is that with the Fall was introduced a flaw which means that instead of willingly submitting to her husband’s lead, the woman will tend to seek to dominate her husband. And rather than treat his wife with self-sacrificial love as he leads, the man will find himself battling to assert power over his wife in an autocratic, sometimes violent way. In other words, sin distorts the pattern God intended for men and women, resulting in a conflict where women either try to rule over men and men become passive, or on the other hand where men seek to master their wives and women become servile.

All this to say… When men and women place themselves in positions that go against what God commanded, a quest for supremacy rather than equality ensues, and the result is an image that does not resemble God, whom the church is called to reflect.

Men and Women to mirror the relationship between Christ and His Church

To continue with 1 Timothy 2:11-15, then, it is most useful to see the passage as reflective of the typological relationship between Jesus Christ and His church. Paul was a big fan of using metaphors and similes to illustrate his points; one key analogy that he used in Scripture being the likening of the dynamics between a husband and a wife to Christ’s selfless laying Himself down for the church under His guidance. In view of this, we can read the references to Adam and Eve as standing for Christ and the Church respectively. Through this lens, we can see that the sentence: ‘Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control’ is not saying that women have been relegated to second-class status and can only be saved from sin if they produce babies – rather than Christ’s atonement on the cross being their redemption.

Rather, it is saying that although mankind has sinned, God has freed them from the stigma of sin by providing a way for them to return to God’s intended design. The woman may have been the first to sin but it is through the woman that Christ, the giver of salvation, entered the world! If, instead of attempting to turn God’s plan on its head, the Church follows His lead, they will be able to bear fruit in Christ (grow to reflect His glory). This is only possible if they have faith in His plan and lay their own selfish desires down, committing themselves to love and holiness. Part of God’s plan is that men and women should have different functions. They are called to embrace these callings rather than reject them. Women are called not ‘to have authority over a man’, but are reminded of their unique abilities as women. The appellation of ‘childbearing’ in this passage is a synecdoche (a figure of speech which uses a part of something to represent the entire whole) for the essence of womanhood. That’s not to say that every woman will be a mother or a wife or that God places married mothers on a pedestal above single women (indeed Paul praises single women for being more devoted to God’s service, given that they are free from the added demands that marriage brings), instead it indicates that there are certain competences that women have that men do not, for the very reason that they can have children whilst men cannot. And it is these skills and capacities that they are called to exercise in the church.

Complementarity once more is key.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 12-20:

⁴ There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 

¹² For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 

¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 

This passage makes it very clear that every member of the body of Christ has an important part to play.  Although people in certain positions may get more glory than others, each part is indispensable.

It is this we need to bear in mind when we consider the roles marked out for men and women in the church. Instead of regarding the roles which are most visible as the most important, we need to recognise that those at the very heart of the church are what keep it together. To go back to Paul’s analogy (yep, I love analogies!), using the image of the body; think about the significance of the heart. We don’t see it but is the organ that keeps blood flowing through the entire body and keeps a human being alive!

Men and Women should recognise their Unique Giftings

I’ll now take up a couple of my illustrations from earlier. Let’s turn our attention first to the example of voice parts in a choir. Say one day one of the altos decides she’s had enough of sitting in the shadow and ups and moves to the soprano section – even though her voice doesn’t go higher than the D above Middle C. Naturally she’s going to struggle with singing musical lines that sometimes go as high as top C, nearly an octave above her vocal range. She’ll strain her voice and likely do it some serious damage, not to mention she won’t exactly be doing the choir any favours by belting out notes that her voice isn’t naturally developed to cover. Likewise with the defence in a football team, if a defender suddenly decides he wants the glory that the strikers on his team get when they score and abandons his area to try and score a goal, he leaves the defence weaker and ultimately abandons what he is best at to do something he’s not that skilled at.

God’s plan for the church is that it should be men that occupy the positions of ultimate authority – acting in overseeing roles, such as the ones we would call ‘pastors’ and ‘bishops’ etc. Yet women are called to minister in many arenas of the church. As 1 Peter 4:10 says, ‘As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.’ In verse 11, Peter adds: ‘If anyone ministers, let him [‘him’ here signifies people in general] do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ’.

Getting to Grips with Paul: Women in Mission

Paul encourages the ministration of women in the church. He in fact worked with women in his ministry. Phoebe in Romans 16 is described using the same word in Greek as Paul used to describe himself and others who proclaim the gospel – ‘diakonos’, which signifies a worker in the church. “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.” It is clear that this woman has been central to the furtherance of the gospel and has been a mighty instrument in God’s service.

Similarly, in his next breath Paul pays tribute to another woman and designates her the same term – in the original Greek the word ‘synergos’, meaning ‘co-worker’ – as he uses elsewhere in the Bible to indicate missionaries with whom he sees himself as a partner: ‘Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus’. Along with her husband Priscilla is described using the same term Paul uses for his own missionary service, and for the gospel work of Timothy, Mark and Luke, notable apostles in the Bible. Paul praises Priscilla and Aquila as having ‘risked their own necks for my life’, and is quick to say that he is not the only one who owes gratitude to the couple and their ministry, but ‘also all the churches of the Gentiles [non-Jewish believers].’ This couple’s Christian ministry is bound up with their home life: Paul goes on to extend his greetings to ‘the church that is in their house’.

It is evident that Priscilla is regarded as being an important missionary worker. This is not the only time she is mentioned in the Bible; another notable passage which highlights her significance in the Christian mission is found in Acts 18. Here we are told that alongside her husband, she engages in the instruction of Apollo, who is described as ‘an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures’ (verse 24). We are told: “This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.” In other words, Apollos is an anointed man of God and a gifted preacher, and teaches everything he knows with accuracy. The only thing is, his knowledge of Christ’s acts on Earth is limited; he only goes as far as Jesus’ baptism of John (pretty early on in terms of what Jesus accomplished while on Earth). The narrator tells us: ‘When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.’ The fact that Priscilla is in a position to teach a bold evangelist the Scriptures so that he can better understand them shows clearly that women are not excluded from teaching (or if you like, ‘imparting wisdom)’. It is not in dispute that women are capable of understanding the Scriptures and are capable of explaining them.

All Christians are called to guide one another: ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.’ (Colossians 3:16)

The thing to be remembered is that in all ministration, the Church is to uphold male and female distinctions as designed by God. This concept is emphasised in 1 Corinthians 11:

³ But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. ⁴ Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonours his head. ⁵ But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. ⁶ For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. ⁷ For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man is not from woman, but woman from man. ⁹ Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. ¹⁰ For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. ¹² For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.

¹³ Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴ Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonour to him? ¹⁵ But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. ¹⁶ But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

Whoooa, hold on there…, you might be thinking. Say what? A man is the image and the glory of God but the woman is the glory of man?!? Excuse me? (OK you might not have phrased your thoughts exactly like that, using black American phrasing and quite so many question marks, but you know what I mean…) That’s what I thought when I read it. And the whole ‘woman was created for man’ didn’t exactly get my heart racing. But once again, as I’ve come to realise, these types of passages need to be examined through a close-reading lens and picked apart to understand what their true meaning is. 

Well the first thing to note is that both men and women [‘mankind’] were created in the image of God. (See Part 2: Complementarity.) Next, the ‘glory of God’/’glory of man’ thing… 

From the first read it seems as though Paul is saying that men are closer to God and reveal more of His glory than women can – who are relegated to just the flash jewellery that their men like to show off. Thankfully that’s not what Paul’s on about; his reference to woman being created for the man and being his glory is in fact anything but derogatory. It signifies, as we discussed in Part 2, that the woman is the one who helps the man fulfil his purpose. Our culture already takes this as fact: the saying ‘Behind every great man there stands a woman’ is based on this very idea. In other words, the man gets his glory through the help of a woman.

The ‘glory of God’ thing is a different matter. This is indicative of the creation order that we explored in Part 2 and earlier on in Part 3. In being created first, the man is the ultimate leader and is the one accountable to God when it comes to matters of the home and church. He is the one who must take primary responsibility for failures within either system, at it is he who oversees. When he leads in both spheres in the way that God intended, he brings glory to God as he imitates the selfless headship that Christ has for the Church.

This does not at all mean that women cannot bring glory to God. All human beings are made in the image of God and can reflect His glory if they repent from their sins and turn to follow Him. So what does it mean then? It signifies that women honour God most when they occupy the position God designed for them – a design which is founded on complementarity. This is emphasised by verses 11 and 12: ‘neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. ¹² For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.’

In all of this we need to draw our attention to the fact that women are called to pray and prophesy in front of the whole church just as men can!  Paul goes on to say later that those who prophesy speak ‘edification and exhortation and comfort to men [people in general].’In fact, Paul takes it for granted that women can pray and explain revelations given to them by God – here his concern is to emphasise that the way in which men and women pray and prophesy should reflect their male-female distinctions rather than blur them. 

The thought pattern which governs Paul’s instruction on head-coverings at church is that ‘God is not the author of confusion but of peace’. This is the same paradigm that governs what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: ‘Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. ³⁵ And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.’ Clearly in context Paul is not saying that it is disgraceful for women to speak in the church: how would women be able to prophesy and minister, as he encouraged them to do just three chapters earlier, if they could not speak? No, rather this is a specific instruction to the Corinthian church.

 Corinth in Paul’s day was a place of paganism and sexual permissiveness, so much so that ‘Corinthian girl’ was synonymous with ‘prostitute’. The result was that when Corinthians converted to Christianity, the pagan background of the converts affected their comportment in the church. Corinthian women were largely uneducated, due to the fact that most of them had been prostitutes from a young age before their conversion. The result was that they were rather brazen in their behaviour and knew very little about the Christian faith. They had a lot of basic questions about Christianity and rather than respecting the pastor preaching as we would nowadays – well, the natural thing to do when your pastor is preaching a message and you don’t understand something is not to shout out, “MR. PASTOR, I HAVE A QUESTION!!!” – rather you’d have the sense to wait until after the service to ask him what he meant, right? Trouble is, the Corinthian women weren’t doing this: they were disrupting the service and making church gatherings disorderly. The suggestion is that their questions were so basic (due to lack of education they struggled with the simplest things) that they didn’t even need to ask their pastors, it was presumed that their husbands would know the answers. It is worth noting that Paul says ‘your women’ in this passage, rather than referring to women at large – it is clear that this instruction is meant only for the Corinthian church and women are most certainly not prohibited from speaking or asking questions in church, within the proper context. 

So now we’re clear: Paul wasn’t the misogynistic chauvinist that we all might have thought. His letters just need to be read with a close-reading lens to get the sense of what he’s saying.

Specific Callings of Women in the Church

As we looked at in Part 1, the physical differences between men and women equip them better for certain activities. The nurturing and protective instincts that are in-built into women are specialised to make them excel in their unique capacity to be mothers, for example. As I pointed out earlier in Part 3, this does not mean that a biological mother is looked upon as the best type of woman. It simply means that the roles that encourage women to utilise their interpersonal skills, including high sensibility to the emotions of others, capacities to comfort and much more – should be the ones that they preside over in the church. Some might like to call this the post of ‘spiritual mothers’.

Just as there are certain roles in the church that women cannot fill, there are certain roles in the church that men cannot fill. In Titus 2:3-5, Titus gives over the responsibility of teaching the young women in the church to the older women. Men having different biological functions, they’re not exactly the best people to advise women on what they should do on how they should look after themselves when they’re pregnant, or how to breastfeed, for example! Titus calls the older women ‘teachers of good things’ and calls for them to ‘admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.’ The older women are the best people to teach the younger ladies what it means to submit to their husbands and how to be a good mother, because they have already lived through it – whereas a man never will have!

Women’s relational instincts equip them in a special way for certain ministries. For example, woman’s heightened sensitivity to danger and her capacity to deeply feel the needs of others can make her a great prayer warrior. Many great men of God recount the role that their mothers had to play in making them the men they are today – through their endless hours on their knees, interceding for the needs of their family. The prophetess Anna and Hannah, the mother of Samuel, are great examples of intercessory women in the Bible.

Furthermore, the woman’s greater capacity for empathy can make her especially useful in encouraging others through counselling people in need in the church. The female capacity to nurture also means they are especially capable of making others feel welcomed in the church. Hospitality is seen to be a prevailing response of women in the Bible: Lydia, amidst several other women, is praised for welcoming the church into her home – the equivalent of which nowadays would be ‘house fellowships’ or ‘cell groups’.  The importance of hospitality in the furtherance of the gospel is also evident when we read about the women who travelled with Jesus as he preached to ‘care for his needs’.

Women’s tendency to be more relational also means that she is more likely to share the gospel with people, an obligation that all Christians are commanded to fulfil. There is certainly a minefield of mission work, including leadership roles, that women can fulfil: there is no distinction made between men and women as regards evangelisation.

Equipped with the skills needed to be mothers, women are often found in children and youth ministry in the church, raising up the younger generation for Christ, as they do as mothers in the home. I remember with fondness the female Sunday-school teachers that made Sunday mornings a delight for us kids.

Women’s skills in self-expression often mean they will often find themselves well-suited to musical ministry in the church, leading praise and worship, for example.

Click here to go back and read the conclusion.