SECOND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION NEWSLETTER

EDITORIAL

By Barbara Collins

  You are receiving this first issue of the God’s Word to Women Newsletter because you either wrote to us, bought a copy of the book, God’s Word to Women, or are friends of Gay Anderson, Pat Joyce or Barbara Collins.   The newsletter is available in e-mail or Word format, and you can also view it online at www.godswordtowomen.org/newsletter  We encourage you to forward the newsletter to those who you believe would be interested.  They can subscribe by sending an E-Mail with subscribe in the subject line to gwtw@godswordtowomen.org, or by writing to God’s Word to Women, 600 Partridge Lane, Eagle Lake Texas 77434. It will be sent quarterly in Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.  If you wish to unsubscribe, send an E-Mail with unsubscribe in the subject line. It is also available snail mail on request.

	IT’S A “GOD THING” By Pat Joyce
The reason this article was written is because we thought you might like to know how this website got started.       As I began to write I asked the Lord what to call it, and came up with "It's a God Thing." A little while later I called Gay to get her input on how we developed our relationship with Barbara; and she said, "I don't know; it's a God thing."  What a neat confirmation that it really is!      In November of 1996, Gay attended a women’s conference at Eaglemount Church in Lewisville, a suburb of Dallas where Barbara was a speaker.  Between sessions, Barbara overheard Gay ask another of the speakers if she had read God’s Word to Women by Katherine Bushnell.  (Four years ago few people had heard of this book as it was only available from Ray Munson who had discovered it and had it privately republished.)  Barbara immediately broke off her conversation, went to Gay and asked intently, “ Where did you get that book!”    Gay explained that it was sent to her by a friend a couple of years ago, but she had only read it that past summer after her friend Pat borrowed it.  She related that I had called her long distance numerous times every day for a week to read portions to her.  I refused to give the book back, but I ordered her a new copy.         An immediate bonding in the Spirit took place between Barbara and Gay.  Some months later Barbara did a retreat called “Gender Benders,” and I got to meet her.  Over the next year we saw each other at a few times at conferences—we can’t remember just how it happened.  God things are like that, but with each meeting the ties deepened, and the “team” began to emerge.        One day Barbara called with a proposition.  God’s Word to Women was being republished and she had been offered the opportunity to purchase 1,000 copies.  She asked if we would like to partner with her in the venture.  Obviously, the answer was an enthusiastic yes!      A website had been in the discussion stage; but with the acquisition of the books, it became a priority.  God had prepared the way.  Gay once owned a Christian bookstore, Barbara had taught grammar and composition during her time at Fountain Gate College, and I had a writing background and had just learned to do websites.        With this newsletter we celebrate two years of ministry through the God’s Word to Women website.  God continues to link us with others who are writing and ministering in this area.  What a joy and privilege it is to be part of a “God Thing.”
In March, Revival Net (IRN News Digest, Tony Black, www.revivalnet.net) put out a call for people who would like to help them expand their focus, making it more evangelistic.  They plan to slowly phase out Revival Net into a new domain called Open Heaven.  They were looking for webmasters to develop new areas including articles, mission, and prayer.     Barbara, Gay and I agreed that we should offer to take a portion of “articles” to address women’s issues.  They responded by adding a women’s section to their format and asking me, as webmaster, to develop it.  Naturally, Barbara and Gay will be helping.  There are few guidelines except to keep in international in scope and non-commercial.         A draft of the first page is up and can be viewed at www.openheaven.com/women .   I plan to have the site active in early August.  We welcome your help in looking for outstanding articles or information on the following categories:   Knowing God –Articles on relating to God.  They’ll range from finding Him as Savior to knowing Him as Lord—basic through mature levels with Him.  Relationship – Articles on relating to family, spouse, friends, authority, work, church, the world—anyplace that we relate. Calling—I believe we need to help people to see that a calling from God can, but does not necessarily, mean being ordained.  We also need to address traditional limitations put on women by the church and the world.  Does God actually call women into the five-fold ministry?  How is it confirmed?  Abuse—Since this site is to be international in scope it would provide a place to report and inform on atrocities, and target them for prayer as well as expose the abuse problems of the developed nations.  As I understand it, few Christian sites are covering this area—information comes mostly from radical feminist groups.  I am looking for a volunteer who would be willing to keep up with Lars Widerberg's Intercessors Network and send me all material pertaining specifically to women. Conferences—A place to list conferences, seminars or workshops of particular interest to women.  They could be those that have a broader scope, but contain sessions that are of interest.  Again, we need an international menu, so those of you from outside and inside the US—HELP.  Links—There are more and more fantastic websites with a wealth of information and counsel.  Send your favorites--ones that relate to women and that you know are sound. Prophecy—This needs to go in the prophecy section, but I am going to see if we can get them to make women a subtopic.  Then, we can see what God is currently saying.  If you know of a good word, please send it to me or directly to the prophecy page.  (www.openheaven.com/prophecy ) I think it would be excellent to see what kind of pattern we get on an international basis.  Any help you can give on locating outstanding material in any of these areas would be greatly appreciated   WOMEN AND THE CHURCH GOD'S WORD TO WOMEN IN THE 21st CENTURY Anointed Bible Teaching & Eye-Opening Studies from Revival History  by Drs. Eddie & Susan Hyatt  Houston Area August 25-26, 2000 What does the Bible REALLY say about women in Leadership? Why does so much of the Church teach the subjugation of women? What did Jesus teach about women and about women in ministry and marriage?    God's Word to Women is sponsoring it's first seminar.  Sue and Eddie Hyatt will present Women and the Church based on Sue's book In the Spirit We’re Equal and used in conjunction with her course manual, The Spirit, The Bible and Women.  They address the critical and timely issues that Christians need to know about women's place in God's economy.  This is a "not to be missed...life changing experience" for both men and women.  "I am in awe of the truth you speak, the research you have done, and the excellence with which you write," Marilyn Hickey. For further information and a map Note:  An offering will be received Images of Revival         Kathryn Riss has been a wonderful contributor to the God's Word to Women website.  You can take a look at her work under the History section.  She and her husband, Richard, have written a book, Images of Revival, which we highly recommend.  They examine the many images of revivals that have occurred throughout the years.  God's moves upon His people are exciting and sometimes unexpected. Learn how revival could come to your community!

  
   To understand Southern Baptists' recent prohibition against women pastors, one must first understand the root cause, which is embedded in their view of the relationship between husband and wife.  In the Religion section of The Dallas Morning News, June 20, 1998, an article on "Wifely Submission" reports that Southern Baptists bolster their position on "God deciding to create a 'helper' for Adam."  What is a "helper?"  Since Adam even needed a helper shows us that he needed more than he was in himself. 
 
     The traditional Jewish interpretation quoted in the article is right on--the combined Hebrew word meaning "a helper who stands opposite but on the same level with a sense of equivalence that is often lost in translation."  Adam's counterpart, then, is not identical but complementary, offering mutual support through companionship.  Woman's role as helper does not mean she is an inferior assistant created for man's comfort, pleasure and use.  Nowhere in the creation account do we see man ruling over woman, and woman living out the idea that she was created to serve her husband.  The man ruling over the woman was a consequence of sin but was removed at the Cross.  (Gen. 3:16)  In the beginning, man and woman were co-workers and co-regents ruling together.  That truth holds under the Old Covenant as well as the New.

        The national group of Southern Baptists, some 15 million members, added an amendment last year to the family life section of the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message.  That amendment calls upon the wife to "submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."  To truly understand this statement on submission, the meaning of “head” as Paul intended in Eph 5:21-33 is vital.  “Head,” as used in this passage, doesn’t mean "authority over" or "superior rank," but rather it means "source of life" that nourishes and enables.  As Christ is the enabler of the church, so the husband is to enable and bring to completion all that his wife is meant to be.  The husband is to nourish and cherish his wife as he does his own body, even as Christ nourishes and cherishes the church (v. 29).  For an amplification of headship in the New Testament, see God's Word to Women, by Katherine Bushnell, p. 128-136.

"The concept of sacrificial self-giving so that a spouse can achieve full potential has been the role traditionally given to the wife.  Here Paul gives it to the husband."  (Who Says a Woman Can't Teach? by Charles Trombley, p. 131.) Self-giving involves mutual submission (v. 21) as the husband learns how to yield to and become one with his wife.  As her head, he has the source of strength to make or break her.  The wife submits to her husband "as unto the Lord."  Likewise, the husband submits to her and God's desire for her.  Baptists should clarify their understanding of "head" for women who have husbands with a carnal mindset who exercise a heavy hand of authority and superiority over their wives to the standpoint of, and sometimes including, abuse rather than expressing themselves as "servant leaders."

A distorted view of male-female, man-woman, and husband-wife relationships will always relegate woman to a secondary and inferior position.  In present-day restoration, God doesn't want us to return to the fallen state of Gen. 3:16 where the husband is ruling over his wife.  Rather, He wants to restore us to the place of our being co-laborers and co-rulers with Him over the universe, fish, and birds, but never over one another.  Nowhere in the New Testament is the husband instructed to rule his wife.  As co-equals in the household, the husband and wife share jointly in that rulership.  

  Since the Apostle Paul gets the blame for restricting women from serving as pastors, his words need to be closely examined in light of the whole of his teachings as well as in the context and cultural atmosphere in which they were written to determine what Paul really meant.  Long ago, when the hierarchical leadership model was adopted; the ministry of laymen and laywomen disappeared and paralyzed the ministry of the Body.  Since many today are members of churches that have been organized beyond the New Testament pattern, countless individual gift ministries either lie dormant or are seldom used. God hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which represents the whole clergy/laity system.  (Revelation 2:15)  

What happened to women's ministry following its glorious initiation in the early church as women were delivered from Jewish traditions as well as the Gnostic heresy which included male superiority?  Women’s ministry all but disappeared along with the decline of Christianity in general in the first few centuries when apostasy crept in, which included the doctrine of a select priesthood.  Women were ordained as deacons in the early church.  By the third century, they were being called "deaconesses," and their ministry was looked upon as something less than a male deacon.  Charles Trombley said the progressive decline of women's status and acceptance in the church reached a peak in the fifth century when "the church's mistrust and misunderstanding of women was complete; the women were back in bondage again."  (Ibid, p. 207)

"The elect lady," to whom II John is addressed, was indeed a church leader.  The term "elect" was used to designate the overseer (bishop/elder) of a church.  Most scholars agree that in the early church, there were no differences between episkopos (bishop) and presbuteros (presbyter or elder).  Both words describe the same office.  For an insightful article on women pastors, go to www.godswordtowomen.org  and click "History," then "Women Pastors" to read an article by Kathryn Riss about other women who fulfilled the role of pastor such as Chloe, Lydia, Nympha, and Priscilla.

The release of women into their God-ordained ministries is vital to the life of the Body of Christ.  If Paul is correct in saying that no distinction exists between male and female because we are all one in Christ Jesus, then the wall of male dominance, superiority, and exclusive right to eldership must come down along with all of our other prejudices toward other races and denominations.  The Body of Christ will never reach that full stature, maturity, and completion until all members, including women, make their own unique contribution to that completion of His personality in His Body. (Ephesians 4:13, Amp.) 

The lack of the release of women in the Church has given rise to the warped women's liberation and feminist movement.  Jessie Penn-Lewis in her book, The Magna Charta of Woman, originally published in 1919, wrote: "God's time has come for the emancipation of women, but it will be woe to the world and a terrible loss to the Church if they are not won for Christ and for His service.  For it is certain that if Christ does not get hold of the women today, the devil will."  She concluded by saying that it will be woe to the "serpent" and to his kingdom when the women he has so oppressed and persecuted lay hold of the fact of his utter defeat at Calvary and in the power of their triumphant Christ turn upon their foe in assurance of victory. (p. 103) When will women's emancipation come?  When the Church recognizes that the Spirit of the Lord doesn't operate by gender but by anointing, release will come.   

 How can women have a part in carrying and speaking the gospel since they're supposed to be silent in the Church?  Is the scripture in Acts 2:17, which quotes Joel 2:28-29, inerrant? --And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. . .  Or, is it ignored when it doesn't fit into our theology box about women?  God's prophetic word in Psalms 68:11 is yet to come to pass:  "The Lord gave the word; great was the company of those who proclaimed it." (NKJV)  "The Lord gives the word; (of power); the women who bear and publish the news are a great host."  (Amplified)  Did David's prophetic psalm miss the mark, or is it God's desire to restore woman to her before-the-fall condition?  How can women publish, proclaim, preach, or teach the gospel to anyone except children and other women without "usurping authority" according to traditional interpretation?

 The prohibition of women pastors by Southern Baptists challenges us all to dig into God's Word as well as the history of the first few centuries, examining statements of early church fathers to gain clarification.  All Christians, including women, need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for His interpretation of controversial scriptures concerning women rather than relying on the prejudices and biased opinions that have been passed down through the centuries in a spirit of patriarchy that is anti-women. Then, a hastening of the fulfillment of Psalm 68:11 will be possible.

They're coming!  Don't you hear them marching?  It's that great company of women that the Lord is assembling to bear and to publish the good news.  If you're a man, do you rightfully acknowledge the freedom in Christ by His blood that women have to carry and minister the gospel as well as their freedom from the bondage of Christian traditions that have been humanly interpreted?  If you're a woman, let the Lord know that you don't want to be left out. Ask Him to wash you of all the false concepts about who you are and what you can and cannot do and to give you His divine ability to rightly divide the word of truth.  Further, ask Him to propel you into the destiny that He has ordained for you.