THE ROLE OF WOMEN (in the church)**

After the teen retreat, one of the CEMistes posed the question: “what is the role of women in the church? Is it just to make food and watch children?”

This launched a two-week-long discussion during our Boite-a-Question hour. Rather than jumping right to 2nd Timothy, our professors began with the idea that culture changes. Perhaps Paul’s letters were written for a specific cultural context and/or perhaps our culture has changed so much that it refuses to recognize the role that God has established, since the creation of man, for the different genders.

During the Church Family retreat, we split up into groups and listed all of the ministries we have at the Chapelle de Fuveau. We came up with over 60!
A sampling of the list: Group and individual Bible studies, pasturing, visiting the sick, visiting nursing homes, supporting an orphanage in Madagascar, Club Cool, teen group, dance classes, summer camp, homework help, agape meals, welcoming, cleaning the church, encouraging, women’s Bible study, preaching, making cards, media and brochures, prayers, organizing various retreats, etc.

We then went through the list and noted the things that women don’t do at this church: preaching, Lord’s supper etc.

The conclusion was:
“If you think of “church” as Sunday morning from 11-12 PM, women have hardly any role in the church. But if you see the church’s work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, women can do 95% of the work of the church.
The role of a woman in the church is to be a servant.
What is the role of a man in the church?
To be a servant.”



**Opinions expressed in this post may not express the views of the blog author. Depiction of opinion expressed by CEM Professors is not complete and may be inaccurate.