Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Should Women Open-Air Preach?

All I ask my Sisters and Brothers in the Lord, is that you please read this post written with a tone of love. I know this may be a sensitive issue with many evangelists, and I believe in the Spirit of Christ we can disagree with this topic and still love one another. Many of my dear sisters in Christ have a love for the Lord and a love for the lost and that is not what is in question with this post. A while ago I saw on another blog a story about a sister who was open air preaching and was verbally and basically physically assaulted by an angry heckler which lead me to ask the question: Should women open-air preach?

Keep in mind the question is not one of ability but SHOULD women open-air preach?

There are three biblical cases that lead me to belive that women should NOT be open-air preachers.

FIRST: What God requires of men
When open-air preaching you are opening yourself to verbal and in some cases physical abuse from angry hecklers. As men I believe we do our sisters a great disservice by encouraging them to be put in a potentially dangerous situation. We are to be protectors of women. I would not like my wife or for that matter my sister in the Lord to be verbally cursed at or worse... lets just say it would probably not bring the best side of me out. At that point the men on an evangelism team are put into a precarious place. Protect her and escalate a confrontation or allow her to be abused for the sake of the gospel. A situation that I believe could have been avoided had the men on the team lead in preaching.

SECOND: What God requires of women
"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." 1 Peter 3:4
The Lord expects His daughters to exemplify a spirit of gentlness. Anyone who has seen open air preaching knows that it's anything but "gentle & quiet". By nature it is confrontational and loud. This is counter to the design of women.

THIRD: What scripture doesn't say on the subject
The absense of scripture that show women as preachers. All the prophets were men, the apostles were men and church leadership... all men.

I believe my sisters have a vital part in evangelism by their effective 1-on-1 witnessing (many times they can reach people I cannot), their godly gentilness can have an effect on people. Their prayers are vital and we have sisters on our team who can out tract the best of em'.

So hear me again with love dear brothers and sisters, we all have our roles. None of which is more or less vital in fullfilling the Great Commission!


Take the poll and cast your vote on: SHOULD women open-air preach?

FINAL POLL RESULTS:
YES
6 (50%)
NO
6 (50%)





2 comments:

  1. this post is very surprising to me as a woman. i definitely will go to the Scriptures and read in content the passages to which you post and some others to make sure what God's Word has to say.

    first of all, i know that i am not a prophet or a preacher...i am a messenger of the reading of the Word and of the Gospel. plus, i do not recall Jesus stating...[Men only] go into all the world.

    you, a mere man, have no authority to stop women from heralding the Gospel I have experienced the working of the Holy Spirit in my life as He uses me to point to Christ.

    if i feel lead, i will come back to share what i have found in God's Word and frankly, i will do what God leads me to do to further His kingdom because, it has been my experience that men, even Christians men and women are used by the enemy to stop the message of eternal life.

    repectfully,
    dede <><

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  2. Hey Sister Dede,

    Couple of things to point out; when I look at the scriptures as a whole I can see verses that say we need to share the gospel and verses on what a woman's role is. Saying a woman cannot open-air preach is not saying she cannot share the gospel or publicly preach to other women.

    If the bible supports the view that women can and should preach in the open-air, I would agree with you that a "mere man" has no authority to stop you. However I'm sure you would agree that our Creator does have authority to tell us what our rolls are as He has designed us for a specific purpose that best gives Him glory. I guess a couple questions to consider: Do you know of anywhere in the letters to the churches where the Apostles instruct women to preach? (Remember I'm NOT saying they cannot evangelize... public preaching is the issue.) Also just thinking of church history (in my limited knowledge) has there ever been a time when women were public preachers like Whitfield, Spurgeon or Wesley?

    Thank you for your willingness to search the scriptures.

    Love in Christ,

    David

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