Paster Women?

[Ariel82]

Yes I got the idea that you tried to help her and explain that she was angry. Let's all pray for her husband instead of this useless quarreling.

Praying is always good. Everyone should agree even women are allowed to do,that. So let is pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you broken and with heavy heart. Lord we seek your wisdom and know that you will give it to us abundantly.Father God Abba help us to,feel love and compassion for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us to bridle,our tongues and seek first Your will before we speak. Let our words be life giving water and not salty seas. Let our hands and feet be used to glorify Your name o God. We pray for all who are called to ministry and ask,that you guide and protect their minds so that they might teach Your words with wisdom from above and not the vain unprofitable wisdom of the world. God we lift up our sister Lynn, her husband pickles and her hubby and all who are suffering physical, emotional or spiritual pain today. You know the hearts and minds of your people. God reveal to us this day Your,will for our lives and encompass us with, Your love and peace. In Jesus Holy name we pray, amen.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

I was never booted. I have the same name I came in here with.

 

[JosephsDreams]

So, someone said earlier, that even though Eve sinned first, that the word says that only Adam mentioned as being responsible for the sin. That it was Adams sin that caused the fall.
First, is this correct?
Second, if it is, then do we extrapolate that husbands are held accountable for their wives sin?

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Yes I got the idea that you tried to help her and explain that she was angry. Let's all pray for her husband instead of this useless quarreling.

Yes, we will continue to pray. It helps me that you are able to see my motive was not hateful, coby.

 

[Elizabeth619]

Talking about someones pain is not gossip.
If we have a bad motive in our heart, it can become gossip.

And if we are walking in the Spirit, we do not lose respect and common decency for each other. It is when we are not walking by the Spirit that this happens.

If you really wanted to help her you'd talk to her directly and not air out her problems openly in a group where others like myself had no idea there may have been issues. Now many others know of it and it is t our place to know and certainly not part of the thread topic. You were gossiping and using her problems against her to make yourself look more holy.

 

[kaylagrl]

So what did you feel called to do?

I kind if ignored this thread cuz the first few pages setup the downward decline, but might as well try and uplift it maybe by stating what we do agree women can do.

Well I was quite young but I was in Sunday school. After I left the class I met my mother,who had her own class,and I was upset and crying. As we talked I thought I was being called to the mission field. I was young so I felt scared. My mother assured me I would be a lot older and God would prepare me if He was calling me to the mission field.

Only a few years later I began to sing,I was 16yrs old. I traveled and sang in hundreds of churches the next 20yrs. As I said there were times I felt called to speak while we,my family, were doing a service. As an example, we sang/spoke at a church one New Years Eve. There was to be food after the service and people were distracted.Women were coming and going from the kitchen,no one seemed to be paying attention to the Word or the songs. My father was speaking,trying to get things back on track. I felt such disrespect from the people,like they cared less about the service.I picked up my microphone and said basically "Folks,people are attending all kinds of parties tonight. You didnt have to come to church tonight,but we're here. But what is the point of coming to church if we leave the same way we came? We can go to a country club and get the same experience. We dont need to come to a church. People have needs and no one knows because they come to church and leave with the same burden they came with. So why bother to come to church if we leave the way we came?" We went back to the service,my father looked surprised that I spoke. When time came for a break I was headed to the back of the church when my mother grabbed my arm. She pulled me along and said "you have to come,this lady needs to speak to you!" I followed her to a lady that was sobbing. Most of the women in the church were surrounding her, crying too. She said that what I had said was for her.Her husband had told her he did not love her anymore Christmas day.He was moving in his new younger love and she had to leave. She had only been a stay at home wife and mother,she had no support and no idea what to do. None of the women in the church knew this. But because the Lord laid it on my heart,I spoke. Then all of the women in the church knew her plight and the pastors wife was able to help her and support her. I try to always follow what God lays on my heart.He's never steered me wrong yet.

 

[PennEd]

My husband did not know the Lord Jesus as His Savior although he grew up attending a protestant church. He read his Bible, knew a lot of scriptures, and even wore a cross on a chain. In fact, he eventually became an ordained minister. Yet he was spiritually lost, had no real joy and struggled with depression.

One day we were in a conversation about the Lord and he of course debated me into the ground with his brilliant logic and awesome recall of the scriptures. Afterwards, I silently sat on the edge of our bed watching him across the room at his desk with a smug look on his face and I felt so sad that he was in darkness.

I lifted up my eyes to heaven and said, "I give up, Lord! I tried but I can't reach him."

The Holy Spirit suddenly fell on me like a wave of a bird's wing or something and I sprang to my feet, walked over to his desk and what I said to him, I hardly remember. I do remember it was definitely spoken with exuberance. And I remember clearly that when I was done preaching, my husband's spiritual eyes were open.

I never in my life saw such a phenomenal change in someone as I did my husband. His facial expression changed right before my eyes and his countenance was of absolute joy! He grabbed his Bible and started reading aloud and every few moments would proclaim loudly, "I understand! I understand!" He was like a child, his heart was so light. It was a miracle of God's grace.

He left this earth some years back and is now in the Presence of the Lord for eternity. ♥ I praise Jesus for showing His love and mercy to my husband!

But according to some of you here, that exchange should have never happened.

TRUE testimony of how the Lord works in our life is ALWAYS better than reciting Law from Scripture. The Pharisees loved reciting Law to Jesus.

Matthew 12New King James Version (NKJV) [h=3]Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath[/h]12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. [SUP]2 [/SUP]And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
[SUP]3 [/SUP]But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: [SUP]4 [/SUP]how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? [SUP]5 [/SUP]Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? [SUP]6 [/SUP]Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. [SUP]7 [/SUP]But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’[SUP][a][/SUP] you would not have condemned the guiltless. [SUP]8 [/SUP]For the Son of Man is Lord even[SUP][b][/SUP] of the Sabbath.”
[h=3]Healing on the Sabbath[/h][SUP]9 [/SUP]Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. [SUP]10 [/SUP]And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? [SUP]12 [/SUP]Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” [SUP]13 [/SUP]Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. [SUP]14 [/SUP]Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

He desires us to love, and have mercy. NOT to blindly follow the letter of the Law.

God Bless you Auntie! Thanks for sharing that. The Lord has used my wife more times than I can remember to straighten me out.

 

[Ariel82]

Kayla that is wonderful. I am learning to be that bold, I wasn't raised Christian and had alot of demons telling me to sit down and shut up. I mean literally telling me they would kill anyone I told or prayed out loud for.

Toke me a while to learn they were liars and that God is stronger. Still finding my voice cuz i still hesitate to pray out loud in a group.

But God leads us to be more than we ever could be alone.

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

Some of my favorite pastors are women.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

So, someone said earlier, that even though Eve sinned first, that the word says that only Adam mentioned as being responsible for the sin. That it was Adams sin that caused the fall.
First, is this correct?
Second, if it is, then do we extrapolate that husbands are held accountable for their wives sin?

Men hold other mens sins against them, refusing to forgive.
But Jesus came and did a new thing.
God said, from now on, the parent will not be held responsible for the sin of the children and the children will not be held responsible for the sins of the parent, but every man will be responsible for his own sin. (my paraphrase).

The people replied to God that He was not doing what was right.
He replied that THEY were not doing what was right.

But even this was said before Jesus came and made all things new.
ALL things new.
Now there is forgiveness and anyone who wants to drink freely may do so.
Who will condemn us?
Who can drag us back to the beginning and say, He makes all things new EXCEPT for these curses that God laid on us because of sin?
Even God Himself said, from now on each man will be responsible for his own sins.
How can they lay the sins and curses of Adam on you, Jd, or lay the curses of Eve on me?
And why would we let them?
Why would we let them convince US to trample on this Precious Blood?

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

If you really wanted to help her you'd talk to her directly and not air out her problems openly in a group where others like myself had no idea there may have been issues. Now many others know of it and it is t our place to know and certainly not part of the thread topic. You were gossiping and using her problems against her to make yourself look more holy.

Just because you have not read her posts and were not aware of her heartbreak and struggle and testing of her faith does not mean that others did not read them.

 

[JosephsDreams]

LOL I've been to many churches over the years. When we moved, we needed to find a new church, so we checked a bunch out to find one that was home. (Pre-Internet days, so we had to hoof it.) Many many churches, and yet have never run into the type Kayagirl is with, nor one where a woman was afraid to talk to the pastor's wife. I keep thinking I understand stuff just to find out I haven't even covered a 10th of the stuff to understand. LOL

When I was living in NYC, I had a disagreement with the pastor over something, and eventually left the church because of that. If I had to do it again, I would have stayed a lot longer and tried to pray ti through and listen more for Gods word on it.
But I was somewhat impulsive in those days and still a immature Christian.
So about 12 years later, which was 2014, and I am NYC for a few things, I tend to hop around different church's when I am there, and I decide that ya know, I really ought to go back to that church. I am thinking, it was the first church I was involved in when I got saved, and I have some many fond memories. So i go, and it is not there. So I find out it has moved. So I go to the new building, and it is about 4 times smaller then the old one (they were renting, never owned either) and it is in a entrenched industrial area, and in a basement, no less.
So after I settle in, who do you think is preaching, a married woman who joined the church at about the same time as me. Her husband also had a disagreement with the same pastor I did, and although his wife continued to attend, he stopped, like around 1997 or 1998. She never stopped attending.
And who do you think is giving the sermon in this church was is now about 30% of the size it used to be. But please do not mis-read me, I am not implying church size is the be all and end all of how to determine church success.
So I go online a few months ago, because I like to keep up with them, and now the original pastor has moved out of state, and the church has to move again, because they can not even afford the drastically downsized building they were in.
It actually is a possibility they may have to disband or do a home church.
So Phil, and Chuck, and Elizabeth, and KJV, and Lynn, and whoever else I am missing, coincidence, or is God showing His disapproval?

 

[coby]

Adam was responsible because he also sinned, but if he hadn't and had just watched her eat it I think that wouldn't be good either.

 

[Depleted]

The Baptist church I attended had a deacons council of men who voted and made decisions about the church,..so I don't think pastors are deacons...but then what is a bishop? I know Roman Catholic bishops oversee a region with many pastors underneath, but that doesn't define pastor...all these terms...kind of confusing.

Bishop, aka "senior pastor," "Teaching Elder, "Leader of the pack." (Oh wait, I think that last one is a song, but it's kind of like that.)

In my denom, they do the sermons mostly. For the bigger churches within the denomination some of them write books and do radio sermons. (Donald Barnhouse and James Montgomery Boice were two Teaching Elders/"bishops" from our mother church... again, if I had a church, but when I did Boice really was our Teaching Elder for a while. Go ahead and google the names. You might even recognize the names without googling.) The sermon was the main thing they did, but they also had to go to presbyteries. (The name of our denomination specifically because it means gathering, so it's also what we call meetings when the churches in the area come together to make bigger decisions, and what we call the national gathering every year.) They had a voice. They often chose not to use it until something was important enough to speak up about, because when they talked, everyone listened. The American legislature branch was created around the formed used in the presbytery meetings, except for one huge difference. Our Teaching Elders cannot vote! Only Ruling Elders, (aka deacons... sort of), can.

Now our Ruling Elders can give sermons too, but they have their own missions they run, plus come together on the needs of the building and the members of the church. They're also called on to teach Bible classes for the adults, (women or men teach Bible classes for the kids), as well as membership classes. (No one can join until they know what they're joining and agree to the basic principles. And it is the basic principles. Our denomination doesn't believe tongues are for today, yet hubby speaks in tongues. They don't have a problem with that, just as long as hubby knew not to speak tongues during service. Since he usually worships in tongues, he simply chose to worship out loud in English only. So, we have to agree to the basic principles, not the side issues.) And they counsel people, and do what is expected of all members -- volunteer for whatever missionary work they do. And, they do services at people's homes, if the people can't come to church.

Now, although Ruling Elders are kind of like deacons, technically they aren't deacons. Deacons tend to help the widows and orphans. (Our Ruling Elders do that too, but it's not their main focus.) There is controversy in my church. Not about deacons, but deaconess. Frankly, they don't think women should be deaconess. That one caused a divide with us and another branch of Presbys. That was our split.

But, by nature, I am a deaconess, and did the job of a deaconess with the knowledge of the Elders. (Actually I worked with one of those elders. lol) So, yo? Don't want to give me the title? Okay. Really not a problem as long as I can keep doing what God has me do.

(And, sure enough, not much later I became disabled, so can't do that anymore. I take that as a sign from God not to do that anymore. lol)

That's just to give you an idea of how my denomination settles these issues. As already stated, I'm still amazed how many other ways other folks handle these issues.

 

[Depleted]

Roman Catholic have priest not pastors....I asked a pastor what the difference in terms meant once. It was interesting. Not sure If I can articulate it correctly but I can give it a go if anyone is interested. Otherwise I will just go clean my house or pray with someone.

I grew up a Catholic and thought they meant the same thing even now, so, yeah interested. But don't mind me. I got to get moving soon anyway so will be leaving shortly. (Not immediately, but shortly.) We always can come back.

 

[Depleted]

I'm thinking this thread needs to be closed before more gossip and lies fly out

If we close a thread for gossiping, then the easiest way to argue something you don't want to argue by content and context would be to gossip about someone. Say your point, then gossip about someone, so no one else can disagree or question.

Better to handle the gossiper than to teach how to use it as a tool to get your own way. (I have gossiper and sneaky in my background, so remember how the mind works like that.)

 

[JosephsDreams]

I know this is somewhat off subject, but this could tie into a woman pastor. In that God has His way, and We have ours. And sometimes we do not interpret His ways probably, or we are sometimes not sensitive to what He is telling us.
Is it an indictment on ALL the churches that they rarely deviate from the set pattern of worship, and sermon?
Is the charge at large guilty of being insensitive to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I just literally cry when I sense the Holy Spirit wants something different on a given Sunday.
I just can't believe that a Spirit filled church will not have a departure from that routine. Not even once ?
How about a service with just praise and worship. A service where the Holy Spirit prompts the congregation to give testimony? Or just to pray for a particular issue?
Not even once? God is a God that does new things.
God had a donkey talk, He converted a murderer into the greatest apostle of his day, He does things which we can not predict or fathom. So a donkey can speak, but a woman can't?
He can't be boxed in, unless the Spirit is being ignored, that is.

 

[coby]

I know this is somewhat off subject, but this could tie into a woman pastor. In that God has His way, and We have ours. And sometimes we do not interpret His ways probably, or we are sometimes not sensitive to what He is telling us.
Is it an indictment on ALL the churches that they rarely deviate from the set pattern of worship, and sermon?
Is the charge at large guilty of being insensitive to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I just literally cry when I sense the Holy Spirit wants something different on a given Sunday.
I just can't believe that a Spirit filled church will not have a departure from that routine. Not even once ?
How about a service with just praise and worship. A service where the Holy Spirit prompts the congregation to give testimony? Or just to pray for a particular issue?
Not even once? God is a God that does new things.
God had a donkey talk, He converted a murderer into the greatest apostle of his day, He does things which we can not predict or fathom. So a donkey can speak, but a woman can't?
He can't be boxed in, unless the Spirit is being ignored, that is.

Wasn't it a female donkey?
Lol I had that as a signature when I shared my testimony on an atheist forum and tried to answer their 200 questions for christians:
If God can use a donkey He can use me.

 

[Depleted]

Quote "I don't know why folks would seek,to be in charge of a congregation...it sounds like a big responsibility."

If done for the right reason most people feel a calling on their life. I was very young when I felt a call on my life. I believe its the same way with pastoring a church.

When we were first married a missionary from Haiti came to our church. After his testimony (and service was over lol), I talked to him for a while and found out something that would help him in his mission. I spent 1-2 months raising the money so he could buy it. But, because of that, I got to know him better.

Since I met him, I spent the next 20 years always fearful God would lead me to be a missionary in Haiti! I'd rather flip burgers at Micky D's without ever getting paid for it. (Flipping burgers at Micky D's for money was below cleaning the men's room in a nursing home for jobs I don't want, and I have cleaned those men's rooms. lol)

I really do get God calls people to do stuff, but there are some things I am eternally grateful he never called me to do -- including:
-- Becoming a missionary in Haiti
-- Being in charge of anything involved governing other people, but particularly governing a congregation,
and biggest one?
-- Ever becoming a politician!

Just because we don't get it, doesn't mean we don't get that God has given someone the very thing we don't get.

 

[Depleted]

I confessed to Nu2see I had a crush on him lol. Now he feels better. See? Men can't do those things. Everyone has their special gift in the Body.

I suspect NU2 would bust out laughing if a man said that to him. LOL