Wesleyan/Holiness Denominations
Affirm Women in the Pastoral Role
June 2000
The following denominations, all sponsors of Wesleyan/Holiness Women Clergy, have declared their historic, biblically-based inclusion of women in all pastoral offices. Collectively these denominations declare their disagreement with the position prohibiting women from the pastoral ministry that is under consideration by the Southern Baptist Convention. Click on the denomination's name in the list below to read their statement. Clicking on the denominational name in the statements themselves will take you to their web site.
Brethren in Christ
Church of God Anderson
The Church of the Nazarene
The Free Methodist Church
The Salvation Army
The Wesleyan Church
Brethren in Christ
The Brethren in Christ are open to women serving in all areas of Christian ministry according to their gifting and ability. We do not make a distinction among female and male applicants for ministerial license and or ordination.
The call of licensed or ordained persons is up to the local congregation or group seeking to have a person come and serve with them in pastoral or other forms of ministry.
Women are encouraged to follow the Lord's leading as to their gifting and then pursue the appropriate places where they may be actively involved in ministry.
These statements reflect our official position. I regret, however, that I also need to say our practice has not been as open as what our official policies may indicate. We have not had a significant number of women assigned in lead pastoral positions. We do have a number of women serving in credentialed positions on pastoral teams.
I am grateful, however, for our official stance. It keeps the door open and keeps the issue of women serving in ministry at all levels of credentialed church leadership actively on the table.
Ken Hoke
General Secretary
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The Church of God Anderson
The Church of God, whose North American headquarters are in Anderson Indiana, wholeheartedly endorses the ordination of women as a biblical teaching. At one time nearly 25% of our pastors were women. Today a number of our prominent Church of God leaders are women clergy.
Bob Pearson
General Secretary
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Church of the Nazarene
Dr. Wilbur Brannon, on behalf of the Church of the Nazarene states, "we strongly disagree with those who would presume to deny God's call on women. This interpretation of biblical texts is diametrically opposite to the biblical, historical, and theological affirmations of gifted women who have filled prophetic, pastoral, and leadership roles both in the Old and New Testaments.
The Wesleyan/Holiness tradition, including the Church of the Nazarene, has been committed to recognizing and supporting women clergy by ordaining those whom God has called. I grieve over the prospect of making this a divisive issue among evangelicals and especially among those of us in the Holiness/Wesleyan tradition."
Wilbur Brannon
Director, Office of the Ministry
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The Free Methodist Church
What does the Free Methodist Church believe the Scriptures teach about the place of women in the Church? Bishop B. T. Roberts summarized these beliefs well [in his treatise On Ordaining Women-Biblical and Historical Insights published in 1891].
- Man and women were created equal, each possessing the same rights and privileges as the other.
- At the fall, women...became subject to the husband.
- Christ re-enacted the primitive law and restored the original relations of equality of the sexes.
- The objections to the equality of man and woman in the Christian Church, based upon the Bible, rest upon a wrong translation of the some passages and a misinterpretation of others.
- We come, then, to this final conclusion: The Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the provisions which it makes, and in the agencies which it employs, for the salvation of humankind, knows no distinction of race, condition, or sex (Roberts, pp. 103-104).
With these beliefs, women should be encouraged to take their place in all areas of church leadership and ministry. Jesus calls us all, women and men, to make disciples and build the kingdom of God.
The Board of Bishops
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The Salvation Army
The officers of The Salvation Army are men and women who, in response to a divine call, have relinquished secular employment so as to devote all their time and energies to the service of God and the people and who, having successfully completed the required period of training, are commissioned as officers and ordained as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
National Office
Representing a denomination which has been ordaining and commissioning women as ministers of the Gospel for over 135 years, and having traveled to at least 75 of the 106 countries in which they fulfill their calling and commitment as Salvation Army officers, we confirm the words of truth spoken by the Army's 8th General (1963-69), Frederick L. Coutts, when he said, ". . .Seeing that the grace of the Spirit and the gift of the office of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher have been, and are, so undeniably granted to women as well as men for 'the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,' who are we to withstand God?"
General Paul A. and Commander Kay F. Rader (R)
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The Wesleyan Church
The Wesleyan Church, on the basis of the total content of Scripture, believes a woman is fully equal to man in terms of her right (as directed by the Holy Spirit and authorized by the Church) to teach, preach, lead, or govern (including supervisory roles and board memberships), lead worship, or serve in any other office or ministry of the Church.
In looking for a scriptural answer to the question about women's role in the church, we have a clear-cut decision to make. We can take 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12 as definitive statements on the issue and then have to distort, twist, and try to explain many, many other statements and accounts throughout the Old and New Testaments that are at variance with those statements. Or, we can take the entire scriptural context which supports the full equality of men and women in the church as being the norm and look upon these two passages as intended for some local situations, the details of which are not known to us in modern times. The entire holiness movement, of which The Wesleyan Church is a part, has tended to accept the full equality of the sexes and to view the Corinthians and Timothy references as special, localized situations.
Dr. Lee M. Haines
General Superintendent
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