Cheryl

teknomom,

Let me add one thing….the question is also whether someone who doesn’t agree with us is sinning against God. This is my main point of contention with Matt. He says that women Pastors are sinning against God. It is a serious thing to charge someone with sin. I myself can say that someone is deceived if I truly believe that they have been influenced to believe tradition on a debatable issue. I still believe this to be kind because it is not saying that a person is a deliberate deceiver. Someone who is deceived will only know that they have been deceived by false tradition when someone else is able to refute their argument and give them evidence that they have not considered before that removes their “solid” evidence.

I may not be able to do that with Matt tonight because he appears to me to be quite closed-minded, but I will be challenging those women who have been listening to him and his tradition and thus staying away from their call from God. If I can touch just one amazing woman who is gifted and called by God to be a Pastor, this woman (me!) will be jumping for joy!

For other women, I hope to help to remove some of their burden. It must be very difficult to do their job in the body of Christ while faced with “friendly” fire that accuses them of sinning against God. I am not ashamed to stand up for them. God is helping me to get some tough skin so that I can take more and more abuse and not respond back. If I can take some of that “heat” away from another woman of God, I will gladly submit. The body of our precious Lord Jesus is what is important and when we love each other, we are in essence loving Jesus himself!