3. A Woman's Place is in the . . . Church?

I despise labeling myself with those words that we religious folk use to distinguish between "us" and "them." Labels such as liberal, conservative, right-wing, left-wing . . . they're all subjective. I've been called both a right-wing fascist and a flaming liberal (by different people, of course) and my point of view hasn't changed THAT much over the years.

If forced at gunpoint, or by threat of having my name erased from the Lamb's Book of Life (by the way, yes I believe in eternal security), I suppose I'd like to think of myself as a "middle of the road" type of person when it comes to most things, politically and theologically, with a conservative leaning. However, based on your point of view, you might label me differently after this post.

I agree with most in my denomination concerning the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message which states that only men are biblically qualified for the office of pastor. From there, though, I believe that our churches perform a disservice to many of our women who long to use their gifts to serve the Lord in a local church.

Unless you're a member of one of "those" churches, you can probably count on one hand the number of times you've seen a woman perform ushering or offering duties.
Even in churches where there are women teaching a mixed-gender Sunday School or Bible study class, you won't most likely see anyone in a skirt pass the offering plate. I don't understand this.

I've been in churches where women teach, pray during the service, "speak" (not preach! On Baptist Women's Day, we have "speakers!") but not pass the offering plate. We have women on the counting and finance committees. Women are allowed to donate money during the offering, but from the time it enters the plate until a few minutes later when control is transferred to the counting committee, for some reason we've deemed it necessary that only those with the XY chromosome set are allowed to handle the money. I don't get it, do you?

I understand the pastor qualification. That's a scriptural issue. I understand why some churches won't allow women to teach men in adult Bible study classes. That's an interpretation issue. But to not allow women (or even consider) them as offering bearers? This is strictly a traditional issue.

Let's test our traditions against scripture. If they're anti-scriptural, then it's a no brainer -- those traditions need to stop. But if they're merely ascriptural then it should be safe to challenge those traditions without one fearing moving toward the left on that slippery "label" scale.