This week, we continue our discussion of women in the pulpit. Is there a higher calling?
This week, we continue our discussion of women in the pulpit.
Is there a higher calling?
“I would have been a bishop 15 years ago, but because of my gender, that blocked the discussion,” Bishop Connie Bansa said. She is pastor of Church of the Living God and was appointed bishop five years ago. “It’s been a great challenge,” she said. Bansa recalls the public humiliation that surrounded her being elevated to bishop.
“One of the (sitting) bishops said ‘over my dead body will I see a woman be a bishop.’ In spite of the tremendous change that the church and the world has embraced, it is still rather difficult for some folk to get used to women in the pulpit, let alone those holding higher positions that have traditionally been reserved for men,” she said.
“This is the time that God is raising up the women. However, you still have some that still do not believe that apostles exist to this day, whether they are men or women,” said Pastor Edith Wright of Fellowship of Faith in Chicago.
Wright, who was elevated to apostle almost three years ago, admits that she even resisted the call “because I had a problem at first when God was prompting me in that direction and questioning does God really call women. I was on my knees one day, and I heard God call me an apostle and this is what I want you to do.”
“If God can use a jackass or a rooster, He can use whoever He wants to and we can’t put Him in a box or limit God on whoever He wants to use,” said the Rev. Clay Evans.
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