Guest Editorials
Mary Stephens - Guest Editorial
It was not a male-bashing event, though Milligan professors Pat and Lee Magness
did orchestrate the distribution and slicing of neckties (so as to say wearing
one should not be a major qualifier for pastoral ministry).
I was among the forty girls who attended the Why Not Women? retreat this past
weekend at the Appalachian Christian Camp. The retreat celebrated and encouraged
female participation in church leadership. We were fortunate: our mothers never
had this opportunity.
I laughed with others at Pat Magness’s quirky insights Friday night and was
comforted Saturday by Jennifer Morrow, an associate pastor in the United
Methodist Church, who based our morning devotion on a Gerard Manley Hopkins
poem. I would not want to be without these women, with all of their unique
personalities. I would never want them silenced, wrapped up and returned to God
out of preference for other kinds of gifts.
But an affirmation of the value of women in church leadership was not the
highlight of the trip. It was the joy that came as my images of humans and God
were broadened. Nathan Flora taught us that God couldn't be fully explained as
male or female or even by the Trinity. He also shared that God’s original order
in Creation was that man and woman should have equal dominion and unity. The sin
in the garden--the sin that disrupted God’s order and cursed woman to
subordination, dissolved when Christ was resurrected from the dead.
Jeff Miller taught us that Christ brought women to the foreground and called us
daughters of Abraham. Miller also taught us that Christ also calls us to a new
covenant, a covenant signified by communion and not circumcision, where “we are
all one” in him. (Galatians 3:28)
Crystal VanMeter - Guest Editorial
I would definitely have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Why Not Women?
conference. The weekend’s organizers completely enabled all of us women to
consider what the Bible and Christian tradition says about women in leadership
positions. This is an issue that I have dealt with in my home church and I am
confident that I will continue to deal with in the future.
The conference was in no way a “bra burning” event. It wasn’t a rally to excite
a bunch of young women into picketing our home churches until we get the pulpit.
But, what it did do was encourage us to minister. The message was that we are
able to minister wherever we are in whatever we are doing.
As we minister in our lives, men and women alike will be faced with certain
issues. The conference focused on the interpretations of women in church. We
each received multiple ways to approach this topic, whether biblically, through
traditions or through historical examples of women who served in the past. We
looked at what Jesus said about women, how Jesus loved women, how Jesus brought
a revolutionary new covenant (which most of us partake in every Sunday) with
communion and how that breaks down gender barriers. We talked about biblical
idolatry and how that can cause many issues. But most importantly, we were
encouraged as women to not be hindered by our gender but to embrace it and serve
God to our fullest ability as PEOPLE and as very capable children of God.
Kate Plaxco - Guest Editorial
“Why not women?” This question is one that I had wondered about for a long time,
and when the Why Not Women? conference was publicized, I knew that I needed to
go. As a woman preparing for full-time ministry, I understood that the answer to
this question was a key element in my future.
The workshops were very insightful because we were able to dig into scripture
and look at how God perceives women and how Jesus treated women while he was on
earth. The conference was also a time to acknowledge women who had been
influential in our lives. I returned to Milligan feeling spiritually renewed and
assured of God’s direction in my life.