Is Women's Ministry Failing Women?

Have you ever thought about the popular Christian women's ministry in America today?

Have you read the books by the popular teachers, attended the quote -unquote Bible studies, and those

sold -out conferences?

Do you feel more mature in your Christian walk than you did 5, 10, or even 20 years ago?

Do you ever wonder if they are producing the maturity that Christ calls His women to?

Is there a problem?

Is the popular Christian women's ministry of today failing Christian women?

I think this is a topic we should start talking about, so let's dive in.

Women's ministry is reaching and discipling women for Christ.

Coming into alignment with the Lion of the tribe of Judah and saying, I'm His, I'm called,

I'm an ambassador, I'm a part of a chosen people and a royal priesthood, I'm saved, I'm redeemed.

Women's ministry is a fertile place for women to grow and learn together.

I'm here to tell you right now, your gender is for your earthly assignment, and yes, that's important, but

your gender has nothing to do with your eternal assignment.

That same Holy Spirit that filled the men of God of old and filled the men of God today,.

They fill women of God too.

Women's ministry to me is connecting women with Jesus and connecting women with others.

To say there is one way, one that says you are a part of something bigger, called to belong to

something greater.

It is time now to move as one, speak as one, and act as one.

We who are many are never more powerful than when we are one.

Women's ministry is word -based.

And it should be multi -generational.

Something is going to come out of you that you didn't even know that you had.

Your great -great -great -grandchildren are going to kiss your picture and tell the stories about what happened to you

because you dared to evolve into the power of what God was going to do in your life.

Women's ministry to me is pointing others to the glory of God.

Because she understands that she is too powerful to let a serpent have her destiny, because she recognizes that the

weapons only prosper if she lets them, but because the power of life and death is in her

tongue, she will release her mouth and life will spring forth.

I thank you that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is sitting on the tip of her lips.

Women's ministry is everything I do for a woman to help reach her for Christ, help her grow in her faith, to help her evolve in

ministry.

That's what women's ministry is.

I'd spoken on biblical womanhood and a college woman afterwards asked me this question, how can I

possibly think biblically about my womanhood when I'm constantly being told to seek my own self

-fulfillment, to determine my own destiny and that independence is power?

I understood what she was asking me, and my answer to her was, get involved in the women's ministry in your

church and go to godly women and ask them to speak the truth of womanhood into

your life as a counterpoint to what you're hearing.

But I trembled as I answered because I wondered, is the church that she is in

equipping women for this calling?

Welcome to the Thoroughly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry,

books, conferences, bible studies, etc. to scripture.

Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all scripture is God

-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so the man or

woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast.

May this episode bless you and bring glory to God.

Hey ladies, welcome to Thoroughly Equipped.

If you are new to this channel, welcome.

Before we get into this week's topic, thank you to all the new subscribers.

I was pleasantly surprised to go in and into the channel and see that it went up.

I'm now at, I think it's 145 subscribers, so thank you guys.

I'm just, I'm shocked and I'm very thankful for it.

You guys who have decided to subscribe, that tells me that you at least find some worth in the content

and I hope that I can continue to provide you with, I don't know, resources,

encouragement, scriptural truths,

just whatever you guys need to help you become more godly women

and minister to other women in the same way.

All right, so to the topic at hand.

The best way I think to go about this is, of course, to go back to scripture to see what scripture

says about women's role in the ministry of the church and what God has called women to

do.

From there, we can look at popular women's ministry as a whole and ask if the tools, books, conferences,

etc. that are provided are actually producing the same results

or the same standard that God has for women or the same calling that God

has for women.

So, in this, there are certain questions that we ask to get and arrive at that.

One would be, what does scripture say the goal of women's ministry is?

Two, what is said or encouraged to women in

American evangelical women's ministry today, specifically as a Christian woman, what is the

focus of their books and conferences and quote -unquote Bible studies?

And we can then look at the purpose of these books and conferences

to see why they are produced.

This will tell us where they see a need.

So, therefore, this, looking at what they think the need is, it will show us

their purpose for women's ministry as a whole.

The third question would be, are the results produced by American popular evangelical women's

ministry the same results than we see in scripture?

And the fourth question would be, if they are not, if the result of American popular

evangelical women's ministry, the results of it, the outcomes of it looks different than what scripture

calls women to do, then what is it that is lacking in women's

ministry today that's not producing what scripture calls women to?

So, by looking at a woman's role in scripture, we can see God's goal.

First, I want to clarify a word I'm going to be using here, and that's the word church.

I'm going to use it in two different ways.

One, as the institution, the building and the offices that are involved therein.

So, when I say a woman's role in the office of church, you all know I mean the building, the

way a local church congregation and

the local church ministry is set up, the offices

therein.

Then I will use the word church as the called out ones, and I'll use the word

Catholic here to represent the whole, the universal church basically.

And I want to look at both separately.

The woman's role in the office of church, or the ministry of the church, and

the woman's role in the church Catholic.

So, let's look at what scripture says the goal of a woman's life should be in the Catholic, or the

whole, the universal of the church.

The scripture is inspired by God, as we know, to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness

so we are thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Its goal is that our love abound more and more in knowledge and discernment, Philippians 1, 9 to 10,

pointing us to Christ so that by the Holy Spirit we will accomplish the good works God

prepared in advance for us to do, Ephesians 2, 10.

In Genesis, we see that God made a woman for man to be

his helper, Genesis 2, 18.

In Proverbs, the wise woman of God works for her husband and her children.

A godly wife is described in Proverbs 31.

As with the rest of the church Catholic, she trusts God's word, the scriptures.

She's a child of Sarah, trusting God's promises found in scripture and fearing nothing, calling her husband

Lord, doing what is right and is not given to fear.

That's 1 Peter 3, 16.

In fact, this is not done on her own but through the careful study of Christ and his work found in scripture.

She holds to the more sure word regardless of any experience she may have, that's 2

Peter 1, 19.

Her goal is to love her children and her husband, be pure, kind, self -controlled,

working from home and submissive to her husband because she knows this is how God's word is

honored and not reviled.

Those were taken from Ephesians 5, 22 -24, Titus 2, 4 -5,

Colossians 3, 18, 1 Timothy 2, 9 -10.

The woman who continues in faith, love and holiness will be saved through the hardships and

curse brought about from sin in childbearing.

This means that through Christ and his work, she can be brought safely through all the

hardships of the curse in childbearing.

Motherhood will look more like God intended, the bringing up of children to know and love God.

She desires to be a gentle and quiet spirit because it pleases God, 1

Peter 3, 3 -4, 1 Timothy 2, 9 -10, 3 -11,

Proverbs 21, 9 -19.

So as you can see, scripture has a lot to say about a godly

woman in the church Catholic.

Now we fail in this.

You know, I fail to meet these standards.

But this is an example or a calling of what women are to be like.

There's many other verses that we could use here, but I think I gave you plenty right now to study.

And you can go back to scripture and look up the verses that I provided.

This is basically what the righteousness of a woman looks like.

And at the very foundation of this righteousness, of course, is Christ.

It's the gospel because a woman knows her righteousness is filthy.

Her own righteousness is filthy, that her heart is deceitful and wicked.

But it is Christ's righteousness that makes her perfect

before the Lord.

So the Holy Spirit works in her because of Christ and what he's done.

So let's go to now Titus 2, 3 -5.

Here we can see what a woman's role is,

what she can do in the institution of the church.

So the role of woman in the church is displayed here.

They are to teach what is good and so train the young woman to love their husbands and children, to be self

-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word

of God may not be reviled.

So the role of a woman is to teach the younger woman what is good.

The good works taught to all women in the church catholic.

Individual churches do not have separate visions for where they want to or how they want to

instruct women.

In all the churches together, we are all supposed to be under Christ's headship and

men are to submit to that headship.

The pastors are to submit themselves to scripture and what Christ

has already taught and their goal is to shepherd the flock by teaching them all that Christ

commanded and that's found in scripture.

And then women are to take that good theology and apply it to more gender -specific

roles, which we find here.

The teaching what is good, right, encourages young women to do something.

And this is where you're going to see the purpose of women's ministry and popular

evangelicalism versus women's ministry that holds to a biblical view of womanhood and

women in ministry.

The teaching what is good results in women who love children and

husbands, who are pure, self -controlled, workers from home, kind, and submissive to

husbands, right?

Because the word of God to live this way is to honor the word of God

and not revile it.

This is the result of teaching what is good.

This is what God wants women in the institution of the church to train up other women into.

So this is the biblical purpose of women's ministry, to encourage the young woman not to revile God's word,

to be Titus to women.

Proverbs 31 displays the wife, the godly wife and what she looks

like and all that she accomplishes.

So we get into the purpose and result of our popular women's ministry today.

The question is, will it or does it match up?

Are these female teachers teaching what is good, resulting in encouragement towards

being a Titus to women?

Back in my twenties, early on, me and my husband were members of a Baptist, seeker

-sensitive, non -denominational kind of church steeped in purpose -driven theology.

We were very heavily involved in ministry there.

Every season, my goal was to attend women's small group study, attend the

women's retreats, then the women's conferences, and I had a blast, and I loved the women that I was with, and I loved the

connection and things like that.

We both were just determined not to be a seat warmer, and that's what purpose -driven

kind of theology does, urge you to get involved quite specifically

with the church.

It is how, and I think it's just the

whole way the church polity is set up and the way it's run, and it's meant for it

to grow because you get volunteers and people who, instead of

going back home, to focus on the home and go back into wider society.

Most of the ministry work is actually done in the church building, and you get more people

involved in church structure, in audio, in setting up

stage, in lighting, in dance.

I mean, you have all these separate fields that people get involved in to

bring in entertainment, basically, is what it's going to do.

So, of course, that brings people in for entertainment, but for me, getting heavily involved

in women's ministry, it became a fair circle for me to think that

I was in the top 20 of the church, actually following the push that told me to

follow my purpose.

I thought I was accomplishing it until I started really reading scripture and diving

into scripture.

Almost 17 years later, that's how kind of old I am, 17 years later,

and women's ministry, I mean, it has grown.

It's become this national thing.

Female leaders such as Beth Moore, Priscilla Schreier, Jenny Allen, Liza Turkers, Christine Kane,

et cetera, et cetera, all have literally become brand names.

They produce studies and books with their own names on it.

Their names are what makes the book sell now instead of technically the content within it,

and they are used all across the world.

Now think about the money that goes into women's ministry, the whole

caboose.

The average individual books are about $20.

The study guides can be maybe $8.

DVDs for a group study can be about $30.

Tickets to attend a conference can range from $60 to $120 to, I don't know,

I've seen somewhere around $200, depending on where they, which

women's conference it is.

Now add your hotel and travel expenses, prices really add up as

you get involved in the world of the evangelical women's ministry.

So are women getting their money's worth?

Well, a lot of women would say yes, right?

Because they're not thinking about where they're going and what they're going for.

They are going for entertainment and encouragement and to feel empowered.

So we need to be asking this question here.

The question we need to be asking is, are Christian women being equipped in Jesus

Christ at the whole women's ministry world, under the whole women's ministry world, or

are they just being entertained?

The constant teaching is a steady stream of learning to hear God's voice apart from scripture

so we can receive revelation from him about our calling in life.

The individual books and conferences are given to you provide how to's and

overcoming obstacles that get in the way of this.

The calling is always the bigger purpose in your life.

Something special God has given only to you.

Look through a Christian bookstore catalog and you can fit most studies and books for women under these

topics.

Topic one, how to discern God's voice.

Topic two, how to chase after that God -sized dream.

And topic three, how to conquer any obstacles that may get in the way of this dream.

This is the purpose.

This is the need that popular evangelical women's ministry today is

trying to provide resources for.

Okay, don't get me wrong, ministry in the church institution is needed and good,

but I see clearly from Titus 2 that it is

the older women, first off, to teach what is good.

There is an understanding that these women have or are married,

had children, and now she can teach and encourage the younger to love her children and submit to

husbands.

Now, I connect this with Paul's guidelines regarding the type of widows the church is to honor.

These women are described as being married and, you know, having brought up children.

I'm not stating that only widows can teach for women's ministry, but I'm trying to expose this

golden thread that is related to women involved in church ministry.

Marriage and family are somehow always brought up.

Why is that?

Because submitting to husbands and bringing up children are good works and are the universal

calling that's embedded in our creation.

This is so very, very different from what's being encouraged through these popular female teachers.

So, of course, the result is going to be very different.

And because of this difference, it's lacking in producing women who actually love children,

submit to husbands, are pure kind, and whose main focus is the home.

And so when I say focus is the home, I don't mean you just are barefoot and

cooking all day and raising up 10 kids and homeschooling

and, you know, all that.

The Proverbs 31 wife describes her, it's basically she's just a

servant, but her servanthood or her focus

on service is directed first and foremost to the family and then

broadens out to the community.

And that can happen from the home

and from, you know, from a very localized sphere.

She has a priority to do what God has called her and instructed her to do, to

submit to her husband, to be his helper, and in

performing dominion by assisting him in taking care of the home, making

it hospitable, and raising up children to know Christ,

and then reaching out to the community also in providing,

you know, you could sell product or you can go into church

ministry.

These are good things.

The issue is that she understands that these are good

works and is a goal she should focus on instead of some

far out there type of individual calling, meaning

that there's some grand thing God has for you in bringing about salvation to

people or bringing about the gospel to people.

That's just, it neglects what God has called

women to in marriage and motherhood and things like that,

takes our eyes off of it.

So, all that to say that this is very different from what's being encouraged

through these popular female teachers.

So, of course, the result's going to be different because of this.

It is, I believe, that popular evangelical

women's ministry is failing Christian sisters today.

Now, I'm merely an observer, and you can go ahead and scrap my observations if you

see fit, but through my observations, I believe there are six reasons, and there are more, but these are

the main reasons that the popular evangelical women's ministry has been failing and

not producing spiritually strong Christian women in the church, women who are without fear and

are strong in the tightest two results that are brought about by teaching what is good.

And I want to say a caveat here.

I still have thinkings and philosophies and presuppositions that

I hold to that have to be challenged for me all the time, but

these are the presuppositions here, these six ones, these six teachings

that I at once held to and completely changed.

And because I completely changed and looked at scripture in light of what I had been

taught in the popular evangelical, secret sensitive women's ministry,

it has changed my life dramatically, and my trust in

Christ has grown more, and I continually look to God's sovereignty in

all of it.

So anyway, back to these six points or reasons

that I think the popular evangelical women's ministry is failing.

And that first one is egalitarianism.

This basically, if you don't know what it is, this is the belief that sex, gender, sex, I'm using these

interchangeably, does not inform or give guidelines to roles.

A woman can be a president, she can rule a nation as a queen, she can build a corporation, et cetera, and she can

therefore also preach and shepherd over a flock.

So man can also do all these things, and he can be a stay -at -home dad.

Roles have nothing to do with how you were created.

Egalitarianism roots truth regarding our identity and roles in this world

based off our feelings or desires, and how I would define it are basically our

spiritual beings.

It grasps at a form of narcissism that rejects the material and exalts the spiritual, in this

case, our physical bodies.

The way God created us has nothing to do with who we really are and how we are to live faithfully

and function in this world.

When applied to the institution of the church, this opens the door to twisting scripture and allowing

women to shepherd and preach over a congregation.

I want to state very clearly, women as pastors and women as shepherds is not a secondary

issue.

It's not an essentially gospel issue, though it affects the gospel, which I

hope to show in another episode, but it is not a secondary issue.

It's not something we can just agree to disagree on.

It's something we need to firmly stand on and argue against, I

believe.

Lord willing, I will go over this as we look at how we can discern if a woman is a pastor or a false teacher.

It will be a whole episode on female pastors because understanding why female pastors

are not is not a secondary issue will help you understand why then she's a false teacher.

The second point or second reason why I think women's ministry is

failing is that we have grown up under feminism.

Feminism has definitely had a hand in all of our lives.

We cannot avoid it.

The feminist idea of women working outside of the home now has been

redeemed by claiming that God has something better for them outside of the home.

I call this Christian feminism.

It's all okay because God told you because God needs you to advance the kingdom by any means

necessary as long as it's apart from marriage and the home.

They'll give kudos to women who are homemakers, but

they'll add on to it or being a corporate woman or

running your own business or being a pastor like Joyce Meyer

or things like that.

Of course, we're all called.

To live on mission.

Stay at home mom, homeschooling 10 kids, global Grammy award winning singer, you know, massive media,

media ministry, whatever we call dance, dance, dance,.

Being a wife and marriage and, and, and being a mother, it's just kind of like poo pooed under

the rug.

And that's because these things are more housework and homework and

being a wife and a mother are more seem to be a burden and a hindrance really to real ministry.

They are not the actual ministry in, in and of itself.

The home is not a place of serving.

It's not seen as a place of evangelism.

These, those things, you know, happen either in the church building or ministry within the institution of the church.

Of course, how do I know this?

Cause I fell for it in the end.

You know, it pointed me to a higher calling again within the institution and away from calling of the home in the

church Catholic.

So number three, uh, I believe this next failure is a result of Christian feminism that's hidden in

plain sight and the teachings of most women's ministry.

And that is to urge women onto ministry apart from the home, something apart from scripture must

convince women to head in this direction.

And so it must be backed up by God to be redeemed, right?

This is where the discerning God's voice doctrine comes in handy.

It's easy to justify a God sized dream for some supposed inner direction and heart nudges

that come from God.

But if scripture was our only guide for life, godliness and good works, then it's not easy

justified, is it?

Instead, it points you away from yourself and your heart nudges and clearly defines how a woman should

live in God's kingdom.

The lack of the sufficiency of scripture is a driving force behind all the books and conferences themselves here.

If scripture is enough and Christian women knew that and trusted that these female writers and teachers

really could not sell thing because American evangelicalism today doesn't

believe that scripture is enough to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness so we can be

thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We then need their books and teachings and conferences to instruct us

and encourage us on how to be good Christian women.

So, number four, the failure within women's ministry and number four

is to call out sin.

Women are relational beings who pride themselves and judge themselves

by our relationships.

So, we tend to be cautious about what we say and how we say it and this affects the teachings we

hear.

We don't like when we are told that we are wrong.

We don't like to tell other people that they are wrong either.

We fight for peace and unity and yes, most of the time it's done at the expense of truth

unfortunately and this is a big issue.

Sin is not identified as sin and therefore it's merely written off as mistakes or mess -ups or.

Hindrances to your purpose.

Especially in Romans chapter 7, it's one of my favorite passages because he's just a little bit scatterbrained and I can relate to that.

So, he's talking about like, hey, the things that I want to do I don't do, things I know I should do.

It's kind of like I know I should not have the donut but then the donut has a whisper and it's like,

yes, it won't be that bad.

Remember you ate a salad yesterday.

That's what happens, right?

And you're like, yeah, the salad is going to go in and with the donut it's going to win and so we start telling ourselves.

Stuff because there's an internal war being waged.

Somehow it negatively affects you and your

growth which is true but the real problem with sin is as

offense to God.

But that's not portrayed in the typical teachings

within purpose -driven theology.

Things like restlessness and discontentment, worry and anxiety are

tossed around as obstacles to work through but never looked at deeply enough to point

out the sin that's at the foundation.

Desires of restlessness and discontentment may come from a heart that converts something

other than what God has given.

Like worry and anxiety may be a result of a lack of faith in God and his sovereignty.

So, sin is not dived into.

It is not held up and looked up at scripturally and broadened.

Women are not brought in to be aware of their own sin within the purpose -driven and seeker -sensitive

theology.

So, number five, failure is a result from failure.

Number four, the gospel is not the goal.

If sin is not called out then Christ is not proclaimed for these sins instead because sins

are now merely, you know, obstacles.

These teachers can write books, hold conferences, giving you disciplines and rules on how to overcome them.

These women have, you know, gone through just what you're going through and they've achieved success.

Look how successful they are standing up on stage, traveling the world, giving presentations

and teachings and the books that they've written.

So, they know what they're talking about.

So, believe them.

They know the rules and the disciplines that got them there and now they're giving it to you.

And guess what?

These rules and disciplines can be found in scripture, right?

Now, I'm being a bit sarcastic here, but you see where I'm going.

They teach the law.

These rules and regulations, these are law, these disciplines.

They are a law and way to get you to success.

So, the law is very different.

What basically the sins are in purpose -driven

theology is anything that keeps you from accomplishing your purpose, right?

This makes the Ten Commandments, it presents them as what I

would call law light, meaning you can totally accomplish it if you only surrender.

You're going to see this, especially Elisa Turkers, a lot of talk about surrender.

Same with Jenny Allen.

Surrender, surrender, surrender.

But if you don't get law and gospel right, surrendering is law.

It becomes law.

And what really scripture calls you is trust.

And trust will lead to surrender.

But it's not theologically dived in as well as it really should be.

It makes it more of a surrender to the inner voice of what God is calling you to

do day by day.

Take, for example, Beth Moore, who wants to talk about how the Holy Spirit just

exudes through her because she listens to that inner voice.

It tells her to brush a man's hair.

Out of the blue.

It's such a statement in my own life and such a memory of God overtaking me and

enabling me to do something I couldn't do.

You have no idea how dangerous you would be if you would live filled to the measure with the fullness of Christ.

And now I'm going to tell you as clear as I'm talking to you now, the Lord spoke to my heart.

Been very few times I've ever heard God be this articulate with me.

And I'm telling you word for word, these words came into my heart.

I'm not asking you witness to him.

I'm asking you to brush his hair.

Lord, that man needs witnessing to.

Yeah, that's not.

That's what they mean by surrender.

But that is not what scripture means by surrender.

And nor is it kind of surrenders, not really a teaching you see consistent through scripture,

trust, faith, belief.

That's what we see.

And then walking in that faith and walking in that trust, trusting in the gospel

day by day.

Again, all within the surrender teaching is, you know, don't

worry too much about being perfect.

You are enough, right?

God doesn't expect perfection.

He only wants you to surrender, you know, wink, wink.

But like I said, it's not scripture.

This is not scriptural.

Scripture tells us that God too does want perfect obedience.

The law was given to show us our sin and how we do not meet that perfection, therefore causing us to cry

out for a savior.

Romans 7, 7 to 25, Galatians 3, 19.

They search the scriptures thinking they can find life and right living, John 5, 39, and teach

others to do the same.

All the while they miss that the scriptures testify about Christ and what he has done.

And because of that, they see no need to proclaim him.

And you can understand this and grasp this if you've been sitting under a teacher for a certain amount of time, and it's all about

you and it's not about Christ.

This is a call to.

Wake up, a call to dream, a call to dare to believe that God has a purpose and a

design for your life.

Finally, number six is the failure to depend on the Holy Spirit to teach

us through the scriptures, how to grow spiritually.

There's a lot of talk about relying on the Holy Spirit, but it never gets pointed back

to scripture.

Never is a very solid term, but rarely, for my, for correction's sake,

rarely does it go back to the Holy Spirit will guide you in scripture on

how to go spiritually.

The Holy Spirit is just this tool we use

to guide us day by day instead of looking at scripture as the tool and the Holy Spirit as the

enlightener of that tool.

This is a pragmatic view of church growth and is very prevalent in American

evangelicalism today.

In the women's ministry, it's expressed in emotionalism.

So emotionalism is how you stir women and encourage them

to believe in themselves and their God -given purpose and pursue the dream or vision in the books that they sell you.

So one of the ways they stoke emotionalism and your emotions

and try to encourage you is by stories.

So they'll tell when they write a book, it's less about exegeting the scriptures or trying to

help you understand the scriptures better.

It's more about understanding their lives, stories.

I'm social.

I love social media.

There was part of my brain at seven years old.

Recently, I was driving Missy to school.

She goes to a Christian school.

In the middle of fasting and praying, I found myself lost driving a rental car somewhere on a winding road in the state of Tennessee.

My husband has.

A five -foot sword underneath our bed.

Their experiences, and they use them to bring laughter, tears, and

sometimes, ignatiation, all to get your heart moved to do, right?

Moved to be encouraged and stuff like that.

So the books, even the books that you read by Beth Moore, Priscilla Schreier, Lisa

Turkers, it's always some kind of story within the stories,

always to give you a lesson instead of using scripture to give a lesson.

And this, the books sell very, very well.

And that's because we're relational beings and we like to relate to the woman who's teaching us

when, and that's, that's good.

I'm not saying avoid that.

I'm just saying when you, when there's a difference

between a woman who's teaching about themselves and a woman who's teaching about Christ, you're going to see it in a book.

So the Holy Spirit, what we talked about and given to you to

succeed in your God -given purpose, but any talk of him pointing to scripture and what it says on how to grow the individual

and the kingdom is missing.

If they believed that the Holy Spirit worked through the written word, they would teach it.

In fact, I think that they just mostly believe that the Holy Spirit works through you,

through inner impressions and through heart nudges.

So now you're trying to hear the voice of God and understand what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you instead

of looking clearly to work, to his word, his already written word, and then letting the

Holy Spirit grab and understand the written word and apply it to your life.

They truly believe the Holy Spirit uses their encounters to help other women grow.

But scripture tells us that no encounter, whether ours or someone else's will convince us of the kingdom of God, nor

will it cause us to grow in Christ.

And that's Luke 16, 19 to 31.

The Holy Spirit uses scripture to make us more like Christ, whom they testify of.

Stories can entertain and can also encourage, but they don't revive the soul, make wise the simple,

rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, declare our hidden faults, Psalm 19.

The scriptures keep us from shame and our ways pure.

They are our counselors and so much more.

That's Psalm 119.

Read both of those Psalms in its entirety and it tells you about the law of God and the written word of

God and its benefits in the life of the person who abides in it.

So, all that.

I'm sure many will say that I'm being very picky and picking apart women's ministry and

claiming that it's failing Christian women, right?

The argument would probably be it's done a lot of good for so many women.

That is understandable, but I can't help but wonder,

what do they mean by good?

Do they mean their standard of good?

If it encourages women to do good works for the church institution, bring them into service and a

calling focused more out away from submission to

husband and working at home and loving their children and training their children.

Some people may say that is good because they claim that all of this, look at the sizes

of the churches, look at how many women are attending the conferences.

It's advancing the kingdom.

Please know, I'm not saying this is all bad.

I'm only pointing out that God has told us in His word what the good works of a

godly wife and mother look like.

They are focused on our children, our husbands, our purity, our self -control and the

home and yes, the community.

This is how God's word is not reviled.

I truly, truly believe that these good works are the ways marriage and

motherhood advance the kingdom.

They not only advance it, but they reveal it and expose it and magnify God's

kingdom in our homes.

The home is a micro kingdom and that kingdom is either under the submission of Christ's rule

or in rebellion against it.

Even a woman married to an unbeliever has an evangelistic ministry to her family as a Titus

II woman.

Even God says that a woman married to an unbeliever sanctifies that home.

Women's ministry, I think my just complete opinion

is failing Christian women.

If you came across this video and realize that your church's women's ministry is under these type of false teachings and

beliefs, ask yourself, do I believe scripture is authoritative and sufficient to help me and my sisters in Christ?

And if I do, will I submit to whatever it has to teach me?

Did the Holy Spirit know that 2000 years ago from laying what he wanted to say on paper,

it would still be true, right, and good to disciple us 21st century

wives on how to be godly.

I pray God grant you the eyes to see scripture as sufficient and then to see the shining light of

Jesus Christ in them.

Scripture magnifies the beauty of the role of a godly wife and mother as excellent and

more precious than jewels.

Why are we so quick to dismiss what God claims is excellent?

If you are part of women's ministry in your church, let's start teaching our younger women that being a wife and mother are the great

callings that God calls most of his women to.

Let's call women's ministry back to that.

That means not just teaching women about their callings as wife and mothers, but they need to be taught good

doctrine and theology that is drawn out from scripture.

Because it is scripture that sanctify God's women so that they will love husbands and

children, be self -controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their husbands, so that the word

of God is not reviled.

For we are sanctified in the truth.

His word is truth.

John 17 17.

I pray you and the church's women's ministry are in

his word.

Ladies, thanks for listening or watching this episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

If this episode blessed you, would you give it a rating or a thumbs up?

And if you think Thoroughly Equipped is a much -needed ministry, consider subscribing.

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If you are interested to know more about Thoroughly Equipped, check out the blog, or just find some other great

Christian resources, you can go to my website at ttew .org.

You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, links in the description below, or email me at

melbatost at ttew .org.

Thoroughly Equipped is part of Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community, a one -stop resource

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Check that out at christianpodcastcommunity .org.

I pray the God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ, as

the Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through his written word for every good work.

I pray you are in his word.