Equipping Eve: How Healthy Is the Women's Ministry In Your Church

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Ebendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello ladies and welcome to Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we can stand strong and firm on that Word in an age of deception.

Deception that we find within our churches, within the world, of course, that's a little more obvious, but sometimes the deception in our churches is a little more disguised, it's a little more difficult to detect, especially if we are in a somewhat doctrinally sound church, but we can still be deceived by certain things.

We must be mindful that we are so aware and knowledgeable about the truth that is contained in God's Word alone that when we hear error, we will recognize it and that error may not be something blatant.

Your pastor may not stand up, probably won't, stand up and say,

Jesus is not God. If he does, run for your car and get out of there because he's a heretic.

But there are subtle ways to distort the truth. There are subtle ways to distort the gospel and turn it into a list of do's and don'ts and if you don't do this, then you probably aren't saved and if you don't do it this way, then you probably need to question your salvation.

Ladies, we have to be mindful that God's Word is being honored by being proclaimed without compromise and without distortion.

That's not always easy to detect, but by God's grace and by the knowledge of the truth that he has graciously given us in the 66 books of the

Bible, we will be able to detect that false information when it comes our way or if it comes our way.

And if you're in a good church, praise God. How wonderful. Thank your pastor and of course, thank the

Lord. Okay, so I just realized I talked for two minutes and didn't introduce myself.

If you're new to the show, my name is Erin Benziger. I am the host here at Equipping Eve. You can find us at equippingeve .com

or .org. Both of those addresses will work. We're on Facebook. That is

Equipping Eve. Type that into the search bar and you should find us and we're also on Twitter at Equipping Eve.

If you really want to get hold of me quickly, you can find me on Twitter. The Twitter handle is, do they still call them handles?

I don't know. Do you remember back in the early days of the internet, the chat rooms and then didn't we have handles in the chat rooms?

That was a long time ago. I'm showing my age. Anyway, on Twitter, you can also get hold of me at ebenzblog and that will come up as Do Not Be Surprised because that is my other blog, donotbesurprised .com.

So, that's how to find me. That's how to holler at me through social media.

Go ahead, do it. If you're giving me compliments, I'll respond right away and if you're being mean,

I'll just tell you you're being mean and ignore you. Not at all. I love when people contact me. I try to get to emails or comments or tweets as quickly as I can.

It's not always as quickly as I'd like, so I apologize in advance for that, but please reach out, ask questions, give me ideas.

I love hearing from you ladies, so that's how we make the show better is by hearing from you because you are the ones listening to the show, right?

Okay. So, as you well know, if you've been listening for a while and if you're new, then you don't know, except I just told you, we seek to equip from the word of God here.

The word of God is our only foundation of truth. It is objective truth. It is without error in its original writings.

It is infallible, inerrant, inspired by God. It is

God's very word. Those 66 books, I am saying 66 books for a reason.

There are only 66 books in the Bible, so put away your Catholic Bibles, please. 66 books inspired by God.

That's kind of amazing, isn't it? Without error, without contradiction, no internal contradictions.

It's kind of fascinating, isn't it? It's kind of mind boggling that God would be so good to give us such a word that contains all that we need to know pertaining to life and godliness.

And ladies, I'd like to invite you, if you'd like to hear more about that wonderful word, I'd like to invite you to join me in April of 2017 at the

Answers for Women conference that is hosted by Answers in Genesis, put on by Answers in Genesis.

It will actually be hosted by Florence Baptist Church in Florence, Kentucky. So that is happening

April 7th and 8th of 2017. I had the privilege of speaking at this conference in 2016 as well.

Georgia Purdom, Dr. Georgia Purdom of Answers in Genesis, she organizes this conference every year and it's a great resource for ladies.

So I'm excited and honored to have been asked to come back this year and speak again.

So there are some great speakers in the lineup. Some of you might be familiar with Amy Spreeman. My friend

Amy will be speaking as well. Dr. Corey Abney is the pastor there at Florence Baptist and he'll be speaking along with Dr.

Purdom, Bodie Hodge, Marsha Montenegro. So there are some names there that you might know.

There might be some names that you don't know, but they will still be offering you some edifying teachings.

So come on out to Florence, Kentucky and full disclosure, complete disclaimer here,

I was not asked to advertise this at all. I just would love to meet you ladies. I'm just here sitting in my office talking to myself and I don't get to meet you unless you email me and then

I'm only meeting you through email. So I would love to meet you and this is a great way to do it.

We can all be in one place, we can worship together, we can learn about God together and I will actually be speaking on the topic of the sufficiency of scripture.

So I'm really excited about that and would love to see you there. So if you come, come up and say hi.

Okay. So that's my shameless plug. What should we talk about today? Well, we are ladies.

This is a show for ladies. So let's talk about lady things, shall we? Not baking.

No, no, not knitting, not babies even because we all know those are my favorite topics. No, no.

I would like to talk about women's ministry. I came across an article last year now.

It was in late 2016 that this article was posted, let's see, October 25th actually, 2016.

The article is called, How Healthy is the Women's Ministry in Your Church? It was posted at the

Gospel Coalition, which is not my favorite website, but every now and then they have a few good things and this was one of them.

So this is written by Melissa Kruger and Melissa Kruger is the wife of Michael J.

Kruger and he is the president of the Reform Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina and he also has a great blog that I highly recommend.

It's Michael J. Kruger, that's K -R -U -G -E -R .com and the blog is called

Canon Fodder, C -A -N -O -N, F -O -D -D -E -R and Dr.

Kruger usually has some really good articles that he posts there. So I recommend that as well as a resource for you.

So anyway, Melissa Kruger wrote this article called, How Healthy is the Women's Ministry in Your Church? And I loved it.

I loved it and I sent it to people and now we're going to talk about it because it's my show and I can talk about whatever

I want. Okay, so Melissa Kruger writes, Last winter, more than 70 women ventured out on a chilly evening to attend a women's leadership event.

Our pastor led the discussion and I left the evening thankful for a church that fully supports, trains, values, and encourages the ministry of women in their midst.

My church ordains male pastors, elders, and deacons, yet women participate in every type of ministry, outreach, teaching other women, missions, mercy, administration, hospitality, budgeting, ministry to children, and evangelism.

We may not have ordained roles, we are highly valued within the areas we serve.

Stop right there. Do you see that in your church? Ladies, we're going to see very soon how valued women are in the eyes of Christ and how valued they were in his eyes when he walked this earth.

So it's vital that the church is the visible body of Christ and our local church are acknowledging that and not just relegating women to menial household cliched roles of babies and baking, which is my favorite phrase.

So I apologize. I don't mean to offend anybody by that phrase because quite honestly, I love baking and I don't have children.

That's not a desire that's been given to me, but I certainly acknowledge the role of motherhood, being a wife and a mother as the highest calling of a woman from God.

So I certainly don't mean to denigrate that, but I also don't think it's healthy for the

Christian community to view women as only able to have babies and bake cookies because that is not how

Christ viewed women. Anyway, moving on. Melissa Kruger continues, the more

I've traveled to a variety of churches, the more I've realized that many women struggle to know how to use their gifts. Some wonder if their service has value or importance.

These women embrace complimentary and teaching, but are often unsure about what that means for their role in the church.

Their concerns have prompted me to write a few questions to help evaluate the overall health of women's ministry in your church.

The ministry of women within any congregation is vital for the strength of the entire body. Amen. Amen.

Melissa Kruger. If half of the church is unaware of how to use their gifts or incorrectly believes that in -depth study of theological truth is only for men, then our churches will suffer.

I write as a sister who loves the church and wants to see all her members flourish. I want to say amen after almost every sentence here.

Let's go back. She says, if half of the church is unaware of how to use their gifts or incorrectly, mark this, incorrectly believes that in -depth study of theological truth is only for men, then our churches will suffer.

Do you know how often I hear church leaders addressing just the men and implying that men are really the only ones who need this in -depth teaching?

Because you women, you know, you're in the kitchen and how much theology do you need over there? No, no, no, no, no, no.

The whole counsel of God is for all of God's people. We are all called to know the whole counsel of God.

That's the entire canon. That's all 66 books, not just half of Proverbs 31.

But if you have women, if your women are in your church and they are under the impression because of the way that the church operates and the leadership talks that in -depth study of theological truth, as Melissa Kruger puts it, is only for men, yes, your church, your local church body will suffer.

It will. Okay, moving on. Her first question that she wrote, and I like to think, not every church has a formal women's ministry with formal women's

Bible studies. A lot of them that do are doing some really horrible studies, you know, the Beth Moore studies, Lisa Turku studies.

But women's ministry, women have their own ministries. Like she says in her church, they participate in all of these areas of ministry.

So let's think about women's ministry, that particular phrase, in terms, in those types of terms, not necessarily a specific, here's where the women gather and, and sip their tea every week, but rather women's, women serving in ministry, however that looks within the local body, of course, not in ordained authoritative roles, because that is contrary to scripture.

And we would never advocate that here at Equipping Eve. Let me make that very clear. So she writes, do the women in your congregation have opportunities to use their spiritual gifts?

She says in many churches, much time is devoted to explaining the various roles of men and women. And I agree with the need for this type of teaching and training.

However, it's also important to ask, is just as much time devoted to helping women understand their spiritual gifts and encouraging them to use them within the church?

Are women within your local body being encouraged to use their spiritual gifts within the church?

Does your church provide women opportunities to grow their gifts by actively using them to serve in a wide array of ministries?

Do women have avenues in which they can serve the body in the areas of finance, mercy, leadership, hospitality, counseling, evangelism, administration, and teaching, teaching other women, a la

Titus 2, of course? Those are good questions. Important question, ladies.

The next one, she says, are the older women teaching the younger? And I'm going to interject here before I read her further explanation.

I would say older teaching the younger does not necessarily just have to be by chronological age.

A person of 40 who has been saved for 20 years may be able to teach a woman of 70 who has been saved only five years because she is more mature spiritually, and that's okay.

But the older women chronologically, of course, have so much practical wisdom and the way that they've lived out the pursuit of righteousness and holiness in Christ in their life, that can be shared with the younger women and should be.

Kruger writes, Titus 2 provides instruction regarding the importance of sound doctrine within the church. One method

Paul instructs Titus to employ is to encourage older godly women to teach the younger women. Women's ministry within the early church flowed from the instruction and direction of male pastors.

Paul understood the importance of women learning from other women as part of the overall health of the church. Are the godly older women in your midst training the younger women?

Does your church provide teaching opportunities for women? Does your leadership have a plan to encourage female discipleship within the church?

Good questions. Her next main question, she says, do you know of female authors and Bible study resources that are beneficial for your women's groups?

We've talked about that at length here. The female authors available out there, Bible studies are awful, most of them, not all of them, but 99 .145

% of them are horrible, stay away. But there are trustworthy resources out there.

Maybe they haven't been written by women, but they exist nonetheless, written by men and in a context, a setting of a women's ministry, a women's group, a women teaching women, they can be utilized for your benefit and for God's glory.

Her next question, do you know the spiritually influential women in your congregation? In what ways do you encourage them in their service?

I would add, are they encouraging in more than just talking about motherhood?

I don't mean to get on a soapbox, but are we encouraging women who serve in ways beyond the typical roles of motherhood and being a wife?

Let's not limit our ladies, let's encourage those who are ministering in tangible ways, whether it's through prayer, which yes, is a tangible ministry because God answers prayers in his own way and own time, whether it's sending notes of encouragement or if it's something more formal like teaching other ladies or children.

Kruger writes, often the ministry of women within the church is unseen. Many women leaders faithfully pour out their lives teaching

Bible studies, organizing retreats, sharing the gospel, providing wise counsel, praying for the church and serving in humble acts of care.

Taking the time to inquire about and encourage women in their service will be a blessing for them and for the entire congregation.

As the writer of Hebrews exhorts, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us encourage one another.

The appreciative words of a pastor, elder, or deacon have the power to spur on much kingdom service. Is this happening in your church?

You know, ladies, we're not asking to be deacons or elders. We're not asking for that and we're not asking you, the leadership or the other members of the congregation to constantly raise us up and pat us on the back, but are you encouraging the women in your church who are serving and ministering because they are often unseen?

Is the leadership encouraging them? These are the men who we look to for teaching.

These are the men who we look to to model our Christian lives after. Are they encouraging the women in their church?

Next question is a great one. Melissa Kruger asks, do you, meaning your local church, provide theological training specifically for women?

Ladies, this is so important. Are there opportunities for the women in your church to obtain theological training?

Do the pastors and elders take an interest specifically in the women as a group within the church?

Is the theological training offered truly comprehensive? Is it not just a rehash of Proverbs 31?

She writes, one of the blessings I've experienced is that our pastors take the time to specifically instruct and train our women in theological truths on a variety of topics.

On multiple occasions, our pastors told me that it is a delight for him to teach the women because of their thoughtful engagement with biblical issues as well as their insightful questions.

Personally, I can say that growing in my understanding of theology has affected and blessed every area of my life.

Providing opportunities to train and teach women or encouraging women in your midst to consider going to seminary and,

I would say, consider pursuing outside education if they have the opportunity.

I'm a little apprehensive about actually attending a formal seminary with male students who are training to be pastors.

I would not encourage that, but there are biblical programs where you as a woman can attend and take classes and learn more.

Such knowledge is important for women, writes Kruger, and provides the church with a solid base of female teachers.

And she's right. She's right. She's absolutely right. And I was actually looking at the podcast not too long ago from Jerry Ragg's church down there in Jupiter, Florida, Pastor Jerry Ragg, and there was a message on the podcast where he was speaking to the women in the church, and I just thought, how neat, how wonderful that the leadership is investing in the ladies in the church.

And if this is offered at your church, that's amazing and wonderful, and you should thank your leadership.

And I think this is something, too, where let's leave the kids at home. So often it's just, oh, there's kids running around because the mothers are there.

You know what? It's okay for the men to babysit. It doesn't take anything away from their masculinity.

In fact, it increases it if they can watch the kids for a couple of hours while mom goes and gets some

Bible truth. It's okay. And so I would encourage, if that's happening in your church, that's amazing.

And then she asks, have you considered hiring a woman on staff? It's precisely because we acknowledge the differences between men and women that our churches should value having women on staff teams.

Women have the ability to help provide perspective, insight, and expertise to help the church in a variety of ways.

A woman on staff can devote her time to researching and developing theologically rich Bible studies, encouraging and supporting other female leaders, and helping the elders as they shepherd the women in their midst.

Complementarian teaching actually lends itself towards inclusion on staff teams because we value and celebrate the distinctions that each gender offers.

I love this. I love, like I said, I love almost this entire article. So often, ladies, the extreme reaction to egalitarian thought that women should be able to be pastors, you know, everybody's equal.

So often the reaction is to go to the other extreme and exclude women from all things church related.

But God created men and women with complementary roles for a reason. This isn't just a function within marriage and then women are just seen and not heard within the church body.

No, no. Are there opportunities for ladies to serve their brothers and sisters in Christ in your church and perhaps even on staff if that's something that your church has the ability to do?

If not, do you think that's hurtful or helpful to the church body? What do you think, ladies?

Think on these things. And Kruger ends. She says she's thankful for the men she knows who work with diligent efforts to build the church.

I see their tireless effort and love poured out on a daily basis. Women are called to labor alongside them in this

God -glorifying task. My hope is that we serve together in our various roles as one body, praying with a unified resolve,

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. And I agree. I agree 100 % and I love that article by Melissa Kruger.

And to just play off of this topic that we've been talking about and I alluded earlier that we would talk a little bit more about how women were valued in Christ's ministry,

I just want to take a look at a little article by John MacArthur. It's actually excerpted from his book, 12

Extraordinary Women. And that's a fantastic book, ladies, that I think you should pick up a copy of.

If you don't have one already, if you haven't read it, you should read it. It's wonderful. It's very accessible, very easy to read as John MacArthur's material always is.

And in fact, we may even consider doing a giveaway here one of these days and we'll give away a copy of 12

Extraordinary Women because it's a book that I certainly have treasured since I read it a couple of years ago, several years ago now.

So there's an article that is adapted from that book on gty .org and it's called The Biblical Portrait of Women Setting the

Record Straight. MacArthur writes, the Bible is and always has been a revolutionary book.

It stands like a coastal rock cliff to resist the surging, crashing waves of cultural change. And there may be no clearer demonstration of the

Bible's immutable worth than what it teaches about genuine femininity. The Bible rightly exalts women against cultures that distort, degrade, and debase them.

Many in our society tout the sexual and reproductive liberation of women against the supposed oppressive, outmoded structures of the

Bible, but I have to ask, in what way are women truly free? In what way does our culture honor them?

Sure, they can vote. Sure, they have opportunities to compete in the marketplace, but are they really free? Is their dignity and honor intact?

I contend, says John MacArthur, that women are used and abused more today than at any time in history.

Amen. I agree. And I'll skip over some of this. He mentions how modern technology has really increased the degradation of women, but he says ancient cultures were no better.

Women in pagan societies during biblical times were often treated with little more dignity than animals. Some of the best -known

Greek philosophers consider the brightest minds of their era taught that women are inferior creatures by nature, and that is so unfortunate, but again, it's why

Christ, when he came along, stood so contrary to the culture. He said pagan religion tended to fuel and encourage the devaluation of women even more.

Of course, Greek and Roman mythology had its goddesses, but don't imagine for a moment that goddess worship in any way raised the status of women in society.

The opposite was true. Most temples devoted to goddesses were served by sacred prostitutes, priestesses who sold themselves for money, supposing they were performing a religious sacrament.

Both the mythology and the practice of pagan religion have usually been overtly demeaning to women.

Male pagan deities were capricious and sometimes wantonly misogynistic. Religious ceremonies were often blatantly obscene, including such things as erotic fertility rites, drunken temple orgies, perverted homosexual practices, and in the very worst cases, even human sacrifices.

Contrast all of that, says MacArthur, ancient and contemporary with the Bible. From cover to cover, the

Bible exalts women. In fact, it often seems to go out of the way to pay homage to them, to ennoble their roles in society and family, to acknowledge the importance of their influence, and to exalt the virtues of women who were particularly godly examples.

From the very first chapter of the Bible, we are taught that women, like men, bear the stamp of God's own image. Women play prominent roles in many key biblical narratives.

Wives are seen as venerated partners and cherished companions to their husbands, not merely slaves or pieces of household furniture.

At Sinai, God commanded children to honor both father and mother. Of course, the

Bible teaches divinely ordained role distinctions between men and women, many of which are perfectly evident from the circumstances of creation alone.

For example, women have a unique and vital role in childbearing and the nurture of little ones. Women themselves have a particular need for support and protection because physically they are weaker vessels, although I have met a few men that I think

I could probably lift more than them, but that's beside the point. Scripture establishes the proper order in the family and in the church accordingly, assigning the duties of headship and protection in the home to husbands, and appointing men in the church to the teaching and leadership roles, yet women are by no means marginalized or relegated to any second -class status.

The Bible teaches women are not only equals with men, Galatians 3 .28, but are also set apart for special honor, 1

Peter 3 .7. Husbands are commanded to love their wives sacrificially as Christ loves the church even if necessary at the cost of their own lives,

Ephesians 5. The Bible acknowledges and celebrates the priceless value of a virtuous woman,

Proverbs 12, Proverbs 31, 1 Corinthians 11 .7. And here's something

I want you to think on, ladies. John MacArthur writes, Christianity, born at the intersection of East and West, elevated the status of women to an unprecedented height.

Jesus' disciples included several women, a practice almost unheard of among the rabbis of his day.

So take a look at Luke 8 .1 -3 for that. Not only that, he encouraged their discipleship by portraying it as something more needful than domestic service.

In fact, Christ first recorded explicit disclosure of his own identity as the true Messiah was made to a

Samaritan woman. He always treated women with the utmost dignity, even women who might otherwise be regarded as outcasts.

He blessed their children, raised their dead, forgave their sin, and restored their virtue and honor.

Thus, he exalted the position of womanhood itself. It is no surprise, therefore, that women became prominent in the ministry of the early church.

On the day of Pentecost, when the New Testament church was born, women were there with the chief disciples praying. Some were renowned for their good deeds, others for their hospitality, still others for their understanding of sound doctrine and their spiritual giftedness.

John's second epistle was addressed to a prominent woman in one of the churches under his oversight. Even the apostle

Paul, sometimes falsely caricatured by critics of scripture as a male chauvinist, regularly ministered alongside women.

In C. Philippians 4 .3, he recognized and applauded their faithfulness and their giftedness.

Naturally, as Christianity began to influence Western society, the status of women was dramatically improved.

And skipping over a little bit here, just for the sake of time, MacArthur goes on, even when secular movements have arisen claiming to be concerned with women's rights, their efforts have generally been detrimental to the status of women.

The feminist movement of our generation, for example, is a case in point. Feminism has devalued and defamed femininity.

Natural gender distinctions are usually downplayed, dismissed, despised, or denied. As a result, women are now being sent into combat situations subjected to grueling physical labor once reserved for men, exposed to all kinds of indignities in the workplace, and otherwise encouraged to act and talk like men.

Meanwhile, modern feminists heap scorn on women who want family and household to be their first priorities. In so doing, they disparage the role of motherhood, the one calling that is most uniquely and exclusively feminine.

And as I said before, I would wholeheartedly agree with that. However, teaching of women must go beyond motherhood and maintaining the household.

But we've already discussed that and John MacArthur in this article makes it very clear that that is what we see in scripture.

He goes on, he says, And that, says

John MacArthur, is setting the record straight. And I would agree, and I would give this a hearty amen, and I would say that in light of scripture's teaching on the feminine virtue and what is truly significant and influential of a woman is that of her character, not anything outward, not worldly success.

I would say, based on that, we go back to Melissa Kruger's article and we ask, are we encouraging women through a women's ministry, regardless of what that looks like, to cultivate that character?

Are we encouraging them to teach one another? Are we teaching them and investing in them because they do have a ministry, whether it's their own children, which might be sons who will one day grow up and be those leaders in the church.

Timothy's mother and grandmother were the influence in his life. But ladies, if we are not offered the theological training and we're told that we just need to stay in the kitchen while the men learn the deep hearted stuff, we're hurting the church.

And we're not just hurting our local body, we're hurting the church, big C, because we're stifling half of the population of that church.

And so it's important, and so I encourage you to participate and minister within your church in whatever ways are available to you.

I encourage you to encourage your leaders to invest in the ladies of the church.

You know, women are raising the next generation. The husbands are at work, the women are with the children all day, but they need to be fed as well.

And if the women aren't fed, the whole family is going to starve. There's just so much to consider here, ladies, and we'll continue on this topic, whether it's in the next show or not.

I'm not certain at this point in time, but we will revisit this. We'll look a little bit more into the ministry of Christ and the role of women in that ministry and in the early church, because I think it's important and I'm not trying to take a feminist turn here.

I'm trying to encourage you, ladies. I'm trying to encourage you to see the necessity of your role within the body of Christ.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Don't let anyone,

Christian or otherwise, denigrate your role because you are a woman.

Christ would have none of that. And it's not about making you feel good and it's not about patting you on the back and saying you're amazing.

No, no. It's about saying that there is no male or female in Christ. Christ died to save sinners, male and female.

And if you have been saved, it is indeed your duty to know the whole counsel of God, to proclaim that, to proclaim the gospel where opportunity is given to you.

And so I encourage you in that direction, ladies. And we will come back next time and do a little more truth talking.

Ladies, until that time, get in your Bibles and get on your knees and get equipped.