Matt and Nancy Heerema

A big can of ugly worms

So… last week I held an info meeting for those interested in being involved with the Rock’s music ministry. Much to my surprise and joy (and dismay) there were about 30 people that showed up.

After the meeting I was asked this question by an interested young woman.. “Do you think that women can be worship leaders?”

Ouuuf. This is a difficult question for several reasons.

1. there is almost always a question behind that question.
2. all of our worship leaders are male (women help to lead worship, but as far as coordinating and leading a worship band, it is always a man)
3. I’m not sure she actually wanted an answer
4. I hate being cornered like that

This particular young woman led worship at her old church and asked me if I thought it was wrong for her to have done that.

I dodged the initial question at first to try and get to the question behind the question. It came out that her actual question was “do you think women can/should lead?”

I answered her with what I thought and why I thought it (the biblical pattern I see is men/women leading with men taking point positions (especially in church) because of the various uniquenesses with which God has blessed us) and then I refered to a sister who is a friend of mine and leads small groups, women’s ministries, etc, to talk further.

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2003 at 8:44 amand is filed under Open Source Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “A big can of ugly worms”

1. Scott said on: October 13th, 2003 at 10:25 am

   Is there more in the Bible than Paul’s assertion that he does not let a woman teach a man? If this stands alone as the definitive answer to a woman’s role in the church, then I’m not sure it prohibits a woman from being a worship leader. However, young men, especially in a college setting, need as many examples of other men leading as possible, because a man’s tendency is to NOT lead, but to shrink back and let others take charge. Often women feel they need to fill in the gap created by men who won’t lead.

2. Ochuk said on: October 13th, 2003 at 12:30 pm

   I’m not exactly what “leading worship” entails, but as I have seen done in Ames, it is more than just being a quality musician; it’s actaully being a recognized leader of the church.

   At our church, leading worship is more about doing a service, and there isn’t really one over-arching leader, just a band.