1. Free to Change
2. Freedom and Responsibility
3. My Kind of People
4. "Come Out And Be Separate"
5. Private Intepretation
6. A "Monkey-Wrench" Scripture
7. The Truth That Frees
8. Literary Devices
9. Fear of God
10. A Love Story
11. The Three Trees In Eden
12. Imputed Righteousness
13. Different Essentials For Different People
14. God's Sons In All Ages
15. Looking To Lust
16. Divorce Her!
17. "While Her Husband Is Alive"
18. "They Won't Let Me Preach!"
19. God's Perplexing Prophets
20. Religous Titles
21. Who Sinned?
22. "I'll Join Your Church"
23. The Church As The Route To Heaven
24. One Hundred Years Old
25. Can Our Churches Unite?
26. Can The Cause Of Sickness Be The Cure?
27. When Life Begins
28. Abortion: Law Or Principle?
29. Human Chattel
30. The Hope of Israel
31. The Great Temptation of Jesus
32. The Rich Man And Lazarus
33. My Hermeneutic
34. Is Immersion Proved By Example?
35. Who Gets The Credit?
36. Hook's Points
37. Heresy
38. I Am A Debtor

Other Books at Freedom's Ring

"I would like to be a preacher," Sarah laments, "but in the Church of Christ, they won't let me preach because I am a woman." "Even though I am a man, they won't let me preach," Mark states sadly. "I tried preaching for a while, but I always got into trouble because I did not adhere to the old, legalistic, exclusive line. After word got around that I was preaching something different, the churches would not let me preach. So I gave up."

My sympathy goes to both Sarah and Mark and I know something firsthand about what Mark is talking about, but both of these persons need to do some rethinking. Their limited understanding is a part of their problem. They have let a congregational system prevent their preaching when no congregation or association of churches has control over whether they can or cannot preach. Whether you are male or female, no one can forbid that you preach. As misdirected as we have become, we still have not set up a Bureau of Licenses.

A great part of our problem in this matter has been our expectation that the church supply us a pulpit or class with a semi-captive audience and permit us to expound our views which may be unacceptable to the majority in the group. While there is a wide world out there to be evangelized and taught, we have chained ourselves to the ready-made pulpit. You are commissioned by Christ to preach and you have no need to ask elders or anyone else for permission to do it. You need not ask a church to sponsor you or pay you to do it. If God gave you the gift, use it! The spread of the message has always depended more upon dedicated disciples than on church sponsored programs. So don't complain that you are not permitted to speak for there are many places besides the church pulpit and classroom where you can speak.

Our concept of preaching has been limited to the pulpit in our assemblies without which most of us would not know where to start. It is only reasonable to expect to have to gain permission from th elders or the group itself in order to use their forum. We must expect elders and groups to oppose presentations which vary from their accepted beliefs. They forbid women to address their groups because of convictions, whether their convictions are founded on truth or not. How can we expect groups of disciples to hire us to be their "official spokespersons" when we violate their convictions? You do not even retain a person to mow your lawn who does it contrary to your liking.

Any congregation and its elders, if it has elders, has both the right and responsibility to judge the appropriateness of what is being sponsored and taught from the pulpit and classroom. While granting this, many of us devoutly wish that there were more openness for challenge of traditional orthodoxy. I, like many others, have met with much frustration and rejection while trying to bring reformation through the pulpit. Being realistic, however, I cannot hope for people to hire me to teach what they think is error.

Ladies, no one can stop you from preaching! In fact, no one objects to your preaching. Preaching is evangelizing. When Philip got into the chariot with the Ethiopian, he preached (evangelized) to him Jesus. You can preach (evangelize) Jesus to your friend as you ride along the highway or in other situations. No one objects to that. You have a divine commission to do it. If your friend happens to be a man, you can evangelize him. The number of men makes no difference. We have labored under a false notion that teaching is private instruction and preaching is public teaching; however, preaching is evangelizing, whether to one person or a thousand, and teaching is giving instruction regardless of the circumstance in which it is done. There is no example of a person preaching to (evangelizing) the assembly of disciples; however, there were teaching, instruction, and prophecy in the assemblies of the saints. Preaching (evangelizing) involves teaching or heralding the facts concerning the gospel (good news, the "evangel") and it is directed to the unconverted instead of to those saints already converted. Saints need further indoctrination, but not evangelism.

Paul restricted women from teaching in the Corinthian assemblies, but he did not mention their preaching. Perhaps, that would be included in his prohibition of her speaking; yet, he had already indicated that she could properly pray and prophesy if her head was covered. Our women have always been evangelists, not in the sense of hired, professional, public evangelists, but in the private, but powerful, ministries that God has given them.

As to ladies teaching in our congregations, earlier in this century we fought a battle which divided our churches in order to provide that opportunity to them. They teach in church sponsored, ready-made pulpits in our classrooms. Surely, we have set some inconsistent limitations but at least we have recognized women as being qualified teachers as well as evangelists. So, ladies, you are approved for both teaching and evangelism by our own admission.

Yes, there is a hitch which I am not hiding: women still are not permitted to address the undivided assemblies among our people. I can see the inconsistency of some of our limitations of their activity, but I do not have a simple solution for the problem. Perhaps, it is more a matter of conditioning than understanding that prevents my full admission that Paul established that women can properly pray and prophesy in the assemblies and that he denied them that prerogative among the Greeks only because of their abuse of the privilege and due to the culture shock that it brought.

The point of this essay, rather than trying to solve all of the problems, is to cause you to see that neither women nor men need to gain permission from any person or group in order to teach and preach. Forget about the assembly for a moment. There is a wide world for you to reach. As God has given you the gift, use it. Go to it!

Our concepts about teaching and preaching have been so assembly-centered and church-sponsored that much of the dynamic of the message through individual initiative has been lost. While we would hope for the pulpit and classroom to sponsor reform, we recognize that spokespersons for reform have always had to do much of their work outside of the systems and then let their messages gradually trickle down through the cracks in the established systems. And though people respond to the gospel during the singing of the "invitation song" in our assemblies, I would venture to say that most of them were taught earlier by a woman.

Those who lead in the public assemblies get the notice by filling what we would term generally as honorary capacities. We do not choose the most godly and the most efficient to carry on our public services, but we pass around the honor of being in the spotlight. Is that what you want? That can be a very shallow understanding of what it means to be "working for the Lord." You, whether woman or man, can develop your own ministry of teaching and evangelizing which can be both effective and rewarding though it may not bring you stardom.

The pulpit is not nearly as important today as it has been in history. In the early church people had to depend heavily upon the public proclamation and teaching of Spirit-filled persons. Even after the scriptures were completed, they were not readily available to all and, besides, few were literate so as to be able to read them if they owned a copy. Throughout the centuries, the common man still had to depend mostly upon the pulpit and the system it represented for instruction. That situation gradually changed with the availability of the printed Bible and the improvement of literacy. Now, in our congregations, most everyone can read and has various versions of the scriptures to help in understanding. Also, there are periodicals, books, all sorts of study helps, correspondence courses, radio, television, tapes, video lessons, and private tutors readily available for teaching. Because of this change, the pulpit of today has lost much of its importance.

Any disciple today has the freedom to use these methods. In this essay I am not judging the appropriateness of a woman becoming a television or radio evangelist, for example, but I am simply saying that she does not have to ask for my opinion or permission, nor for that of a congregation. Neither Sarah nor Mark can rightfully complain, "The church won't let me preach in its pulpit; therefore, I am forbidden to preach."