What Role Can Women Play in Leading Worship?

I have read through the New Testament at least a handful of times, and it always amazes me how a verse or passage will one day just "pop" out at me as if I had never read it before. One day, it was the following passage in Luke 8:1-3:

Not long afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby cities and villages to announce the Good News concerning the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women he had healed and from whom he had cast out evil spirits. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.

Why would the author take the time to make sure that women were listed, by name, in this particular passage?

Attending conservative protestant churches after becoming a Christian, I learned early on that women were expected to basically "sit up and shut up". But over the past few years, God has stretched me in this area. What is a woman's place in ministry, and more specifically in leading worship*?

(*Though worship encompasses a variety of religious practices, including prayer and study, in this context I am initially using the terms worship and leading worship in reference to leading the musical portion of a church service.)

A few years ago, my husband was pastoring a small church in the Midwest. When our volunteer music minister left one fall, I began to lead music...well, sort of. I was already choosing the songs for each service, but now I became the lead voice. However, I hid behind the mike, while my husband, who played rhythm guitar along with fulfilling the preaching duties, spoke between songs if he had the inclination.

A few months later, I had the bright idea to invite a missionary to speak to our music team. This missionary had been the worship leader at a large church in another city before deciding to go to the mission field. My husband and I had heard him speak before, and I knew he would give a great "charge" for the New Year to our team. I was excited!

What I did not expect was for him to encourage me to make the song service more than just some songs to sing. "A worship set", he called it. Incorporating speaking, Scripture, prayer, and instrumental leads into each song. He systematically dismissed every excuse I had for why I could not do that, including the "but I am a woman and women are not supposed to lead worship" one.

So, I took the challenge. I began to read my Bible and devotional with a new purpose in mind - what was God trying to speak to my heart concerning worship that week - and how might I incorporate that into our service? That meant speaking. In the service.

Me. A woman.

No matter how convinced my husband and I were that we were following God's direction concerning the leadership of that ministry, it did not change the paradigms and ministry taboos that many carried into those services each week. Yes, there was opposition - and sometimes, quite a bit! And yet I am still convinced that I was the person for that leadership role during that time.

What role can - and should - a woman play in leading worship in a church setting? Here are some "points to ponder" gleaned from experience and searching Scripture on the matter.

1. Do not try to put God in a box.

Too often, Christians try to compartmentalize God based on how they were brought up - church traditions, personal preferences, and/or cultural morays. But God is so much bigger than what we make Him! He does not think like us. He does not have the hang-ups that we do. And the fact of the matter is, He can do whatever He wants.

Now, He always operates based on His character, which does not change. He is truth. He is all-knowing. He is love. He knows us - our strengths, our weaknesses. He is mercy. This means that there are some things that we can definitely bank on as far as how He relates to us and our world.

With that in mind, we then must be careful to look at the teachings of the Bible in the context in which it was written. Who was He talking to? What were the traditions of that time period? What does that word mean in the original language?

It is a very dangerous thing to take a verse or two and isolate them outside of the "who, what, where, and why". When we do that, we are often seeing only a small facet of who God is and what He meant.

2. Worship itself is much more than just a few songs to be sung on a Sunday morning.

The definition for worship is "reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred." It says nothing specific about singing or music, though that can be a part of the act of worship. Worship, plainly stated is the act of honoring someone or something.

Check out worship in a thesaurus and you will find plenty synonyms: admire, adore, adulate, bow down, canonize, celebrate, esteem, exalt, extol, glorify, laud, love, magnify, praise, pray to, respect, revere, reverence, sanctify, sing, venerate. And may I submit that in order to worship God, we need to incorporate many - if not all - of these verbs into our daily lives. Worship then becomes a lifestyle.

And living a lifestyle of worship brings us to an encounter with God. The living God of all the universe Who spoke the world into existence! "Let there be..." And it was.

This same God wants an encounter with me. With you.

You see, God's passion is to be near us, as near as our very breath. As near as the air we breathe. A relationship that is personal, real, intimate, life-giving, abundant. Check out what happened when the prophet Isaiah had an encounter with God:

"In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Hovering around him were mighty seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with the remaining two they flew. In a great chorus they sang, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!" The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke.
"Then I said, "My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!" Then one of the seraphim flew over to the altar, and he picked up a burning coal with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, "See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven." Then I heard the Lord asking, "Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?" And I said, "Lord, I'll go! Send me." [Isaiah was changed!] (Isaiah 6:1-8)

When I viewed worship as simply singing a few songs, it was so easy! I could perform - hit all the notes, close my eyes, and raise my hands, and lift my voice. But was that worship?

In and of itself, no. Because in true worship, you meet with God, and if you meet with God, you will be changed. Your personal, private relationship with God will deepen and grow.

3. Embracing God's idea about a woman's role in worship may mean stepping out of your box.

First, I had to embrace the fact that I am a strong woman. Strong in the sense that I am not afraid to speak my mind, though I am learning that my speech must be tempered with love. Strong in the sense that I want to be who I am and no one else. Not setting out to purposely offend others (I really am a rebel at heart, so I have to watch myself sometimes), but not making apologies for being who I am either.

And strong in the sense that God had indeed called me to fill certain roles despite the fact that those bucked traditionalism and cultural "norms" within our denomination.

Times will come during your Christian walk that you will need to examine, and even discard, some traditions in order to bow your spirit before a Holy God. Doing so - assessing why you believe what you believe and determining whether it is a mandate or preference - allows you to come to a place where you are fully open to God's leading and calling. Determining His purpose for your life and doing it is worship!

That is what should happen. How can one - no matter who they are - attempt to lead people in any manner, including worship, without following and worshiping God?

4. Embracing the idea that women can have active, visible ministry roles often brings misunderstanding and opposition.

Anyone with a fairly conservative Protestant background can attest to this. Even in Catholic circles, there is considerable debate about what women can and can not do in regards to church leadership.

In my personal experience, when the naysayers began their squealing, I began to doubt. I wondered, "Even if a woman leading is not unscriptural, what if it isn't beneficial? What if it is not the best thing?" A battle raged in my head and heart.

I began to search Scripture at the challenge of some. It is amazing what you will find when you go to the original language, when you read a passage in the context of the cultural setting, in the context of the entire passage. My study only strengthened my belief that women-led ministries can be entirely appropriate and acceptable.

An often-cited verse in support of women staying on the sidelines when it comes to ministry leadership - or saying anything at all in a church setting - is 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. The apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church:

"Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions to ask, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings."

At first glance, that seems pretty cut and dry. In reality, however, the apostle Paul was not actually saying that women can not speak in church. Spiros Zodhiates, in The Complete Word Study New Testament^†, explains Paul's intent:

When Paul says, "Your women in the church, let them be silent", it was not an instruction to all men in general not to permit any women to speak in church, but to husbands to guide and teach their own wives lest they produce confusion and disturbance in a meeting. This may have resulted from the exercising of a gift that they thought they had and were anxious to externalize. One can not take Paul's indirect imperative in 1 Corinthians 14:34, "Let the women keep silent in the churches," as absolute. It must be taken in conjunction with what follows: "for they are not permitted to speak." The word "speak" should be taken to mean "uttering sounds that are incoherent and not understood by others."...Paul uses the same word "keep silent" to admonish a man who speaks in an unknown tongue without an interpreter (vv. 28, 30). ...Under no circumstances does the injunction of Paul indicate that women should not utter a word at any time during the church service. The issue is not men versus women, but it is confusion versus order.

Zodhiates also goes on to say that the Greek word translated "women" would be better rendered "wives". With that in mind, it would seem that the Apostle Paul is not forbidding women to hold active, vocal leadership roles, but rather he is admonishing any and all confusion in the worship service. While asking that all things be done "decently and in order" (vs. 40), he defers to the roles of husbands and wives and how they should relate to one another. Paul is simply asking husbands to restrain their wives from unnecessary and/or inappropriate outbursts during the worship service.

In retrospect, I can not help but wonder if some of the opposition I and other women have experienced when stepping up and leading was merely that there are those who are threatened by strong women. Uncomfortable with women in leadership. We must be careful not to transpose our personal fears or hang-ups onto God's Word. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." I encourage you to search out the truth for yourself.

5. If you are a woman who feels led to lead in ministry, do not lose heart!

Beth Moore states in her book, Praying God's Word, "Why does God allow us to spend so much of life in the heat of battle? Because He never meant for us to sip His Spirit like a proper cup of tea. He meant for us to hold our sweating hands over the fountain and lap up His life with unquenchable thirst."

Proposing and promoting that women do have a place in active ministry leadership can become wearisome and discouraging - believe me, I know! I have tired of trying to tear down paradigms and forge new ground. I have wearied of trying to be a trail blazer.

Please don't misunderstand; I am not insinuating that I attempted to do some new, great thing. There are many incredible women serving God in thriving ministries today. And my foray into ministry leadership has come no where close to them.

I also believe there are some boundaries in men's and women's roles in ministry (that would be a whole article unto itself). There are some lines that I do believe have been drawn by Scripture.

Above all, our desire should be to find God's purpose for our lives and fulfill it. I want to do what God has called me to do - I want to fulfill His destiny for my life. And that is what I would encourage you to do. Follow His calling without excuse or apology.

Be the woman God created you to be and embrace her.

^†Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study New Testament with Parallel Greek. © 1992 by AMG Publishers.