Hi to all. I have been following several of the threads for several weeks and appreciate most of the comments that I have read. My question has to do with the validity/authority/place of women baptizing other people. Several issues that come to mind would be: 1) is it condemned/okayed by Scripture 2) is it a cultural issue (i.e. what happens if a female missionary teaches someone about Christ, but there are no men around to baptize that person) 3) how would/could this relate to the Christian churches hermeneutical stance that supports using music in the church

I have no hidden agenda and no personal bias concerning this issue. My desire and aim is to seek the biblical truth that our Father in heaven desires for His people. I would also desire and pray that this question would not be the cause for people using this forum to launch combative attacks toward others in the process of exploring God's truths through His word. May the Lord bless you.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Answers

There is not a single scriptural prohibition against women baptizing and/or serving at the Lord's table.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2000

I say they should go for it! I can't see anything in the Word that would prohibit it. I have encouraged mothers to immerse their children when the father is (a) out of the picture, or (b) not a Christian. btw -- I always encourage Christian parents to do the dunking.

I am of the opinion that the best person to immerse someone is the person who brought the new convert to Christ ... parent, friend, teacher, youth coach, etc.

Darrell H Combs

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

I don't see any prohibition ... are we not all priests, a royal priesthood? And there is neither male nor female ... I agree, go for it!

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2000

Danny,

Just as long as they "remain silent" while doing so, right:)

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2000

And never usurp authority over a man, even when he's wrong.

;-) ;-)

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2000

Our church is going through a crisis. Due to a severe falloff of membership recently, there is no one able, willing and/or qualified to serve in the office of deacon save one. And the conservative, old- school elders are against deaconesses at present. But radical times call for radical measures, and the elders need assistancedesperately! So we are having to get those in the congregation who are willing to serve, both men and women, and organize them into ministry teams or "committees" as we are calling them currently. These will fulfill the "table-waiting" duties normally covered by the deacons and hopefully allow the elders to devote their time once again to the job they should be doing. Even the more conservative elders are in favor of the women pitching in on this effort, realizing they have no other options. Women will also be assisting in the communion serving, which in our church is a radical concept. As Dylan sang, the times, they are a-changin'. Hopefully this bold stop-gap measure will work until the church membership grows again. And yes, you may be in prayer for our congregation, we need all the help we can get! =)

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

John,

I hope things work out for you... I know one church that tried having women serve the Lord's Supper (not for reason's you describe- just to involve women).

The preacher preached on how and why it was not biblical to say that women could not serve and yet when they did several walked out and some never returned... as far as I know they still do not have women serving there.

They are fortunate in the fact they don't need the help... unfortunate that people are so narrow minded.

Good luck and God bless

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

John,

I will pray for you and your church.

I think some of those realities came to Benjamin in his adaptation to the situation he is in, where almost all of his congregants are women.

Connie

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Apparently this thread started and expired during some period when I was too busy to monitor the forum regularly. I discovered it by accident while looking for another expired thread. Perhaps I can revive it long enough to say a few words myself about my experiences with the congregation I serve.

For the sake of any newcomers (the old-timers have heard this several times), I live in Hong Kong and serve a congregation that is made up almost entirely of people from the Philippines who are working here. People from the Philippines form the largest minority group here -- somewhere around 160,000 in a territory with a total population of around 6½ million. Most of this 160,000 are women, brought here to work as domestic servants, e.g. maids, housekeepers, cooks, nannies, etc. Consequently, most in the church are also women. Currently, with an average attendance of around 120, there is only one man besides myself who can come most Sundays, plus about 3 others who come occasionally.

This situation has led me to do a lot of study of what the Bible says about women's position and work in the church. I came very early (even before God led us into this particular work) to the conclusion that there is nothing in the Bible to prohibit women from passing the emblems for the Lord's Supper, or baptising others.

Even with frequent teaching on this, however, attitudes can be slow to change. From the time my son was baptised (at age 12) until he left for college at 18, he was the one everyone expected to pass the communion emblems. At that time the church was smaller and only one was needed. After he left, and the church also was growing bigger so we needed more people to help, some of the women started doing it part of the time, but they still expected men to do it if there were any.

This led to a couple of problems. One was that we never knew until the last minute who would do it. We would get ready for the Lord's Supper and then people would look around to see what men were there before reluctantly going up themselves. Secondly, they were drafting some quite unsuitable men, merely because they were male. We had a couple of occasions when they asked a man to do it who was not only a newcomer, but also a Roman Catholic and unimmersed! After this I talked to the deaconesses about it. (Yes, we have deaconesses, and I have told the whole story about that elsewhere.) They still felt that it was best for men to do it, but agreed that in future we would only use men that we knew were Christians, were regular members of this contregation, and were living a life that was a good example to others. And they would be ready to do it themselves whenever there were not enough of such men present. This has worked well.

As for baptising, I haven't yet gotten any women to do it alone, at least not here. They still feel a man should do it if he is available, and usually I am available. But we have started making a regular habit of having women "assist". Three of us go into the water. I stand on one side of the person being baptised; another Christian stands on the other side. I "say the words", then together we lower the person into the water and raise them up again. We try, when possible, to get someone who is a relative or close friend of the one being baptised, especially, if possible, the one who led her to Christ. Most of those who helped seem to have found it a moving experience and are willing to do it again when asked. Whenever we do it, we say that one reason for doing it is to let them get some experience so that they can do it alone if necessary another time. One said she hoped to baptise her brother the next time she went back to the Philippines. We've never heard whether she did or not.

In this, as in many things with the church, I don't "push" innovations further or faster than people are comfortable with. (Usually the advantages of the innovation are not worth splitting the church.) As long as either way is Biblically acceptable, if I think it would be better in our situation to do something unconventional, I try, by gentle teaching, to open their eyes to the possibility, then wait until people are ready to try it. After they've tried it, and can see the advantages themselves, they usually will come around to accepting it as a regular way to do it.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001