street preachers

By Elizabeth Prata

“Women are excluded from certain ministries”

“Our freedom to serve is restricted”

“We’re not equal, it’s not fair”

“Men are oppressing us with an overreach in their interpretation of a few verses”

These are statements I read and hear feminist women say when confronted with verses that affirm God’s plan for men to lead the church. These are not infrequent comments nor are they limited to a small group. The push to get women into the pulpit has heated up and is a massive groundswell.

But, do you notice some things about those statements?

1. They are similar to the conversation in the Garden when the serpent awoke the woman’s desire for more than what had been given, and for what she couldn’t have. Rather than focusing on all the bounty around her freely given and available without cost to her, the woman instead became desirous of the one thing she may not eat. Suddenly she thought that God was holding out on her and that He was not a Good and Perfect God. This is deadly thinking. It’s terrible sin, too.

It’s a similar vein with the usurping women who want the pulpit. The Lord gave women so many opportunities for ministry in order to glorify His name. Childbearing &childrearing is one- we have an opportunity to shape the minds and hearts of the gracious gift of children for His name. We can teach, perform administrative tasks, host, do mercy ministry, so many ways to work for Jesus. Yet, rejecting those, the usurpers want what is forbidden.

2. Gratitude. We have a God who includes sinful humans to share His name, to minister to Him, to come to his throne freely, to glorify Him with our work on earth, to be co-heirs! What a God! We should be grateful He wants us to do ANYTHING for Him, that He justifies us, sanctifies us, adopts us, is in union with us, rewards us, gives us His word, gives us His Spirit, gives us understanding of His word, and gives us LIFE. Being discontent and grasping for the one thing that He put out of reach is demonic in the extreme. It’s the Garden all over again. It is a desire worthy of spiritual death and banishment from His paradise.

God assigned men to lead Has church. He is allowed to do that, He’s GOD! If that is His design, so be it. We content ourselves with every bit of what He HAS given us to do, and we look forward with joy at the future with Him. If women complain, want more, strive for that forbidden fruit, they are being Eve influenced by satan. It is as simple as that.

If you are a woman who wants roles not assigned to you (preaching in church, teaching men) you should ask yourself why. Look at God as revealed in the Bible; holy, just, perfect. Look at yourself; sinner, polluted, depraved- and think why you are not content with what the Lord has given you. He has given us so much. Was God pleased to crush His Son on our behalf just so we could complain that we can’t stand in front of the church and preach? Did Jesus die a horrible death just so we can say what He has given us to do isn’t enough, we want more? Check yourself, woman.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18 KJV)

There are different ways to share the Gospel. Witnessing isn’t only one method. Men preach the Gospel from pulpits. We cold-witness to strangers. We befriend people and share the Gospel. We witness at work either directly or by continually living His doctrines and speaking of Him with honor. There isn’t only one way.

But there is a way I respect and admire. I’m grateful for street preachers. They speak truth to a world that does not want to hear it. They are spit upon, mocked, yelled at and arrested. Some street or public preachers are beaten or even killed. Yet the unsaved don’t always go to church. They don’t even always have Christian friends around them.

I lived in New England for most of my life before I got saved. Now I live in the American Bible Belt. Church is a deeply cultural event here. Most people go. However in New England, I spent an almost entire lifetime without any Christian friends. I never owned a Bible. I never even saw a Bible. I had no friends who went to church. I never heard the name Jesus. It was easy to avoid the Light.

Hugh Hefner died this week. Hefner was 91 years old. If you did not already know, Hugh Hefner founded the print publication Playboy magazine in 1953. This magazine is pornography. It depicts women in various states of undress, in lascivious poses, for the purpose of inciting lust. From the success of the magazine, Hefner then founded Playboy Enterprises, bought a mansion, and lived the life that was pervertedly displayed on the pages of his pornography. He famously said,

“The major civilizing force in the world is not religion, it is sex.”

Of course this is incorrect. Sex outside of marriage between one man and one woman is a rebellion of a worst kind of sin because it is against your own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18). Living in Christ is civilizing because we have the Holy Spirit to aid us in subduing the sinful nature we possess. Without the Spirit, we are uncivilized, sinful, rebellious people. Society suffers.

In the 58-second clip below, a street preacher shared the Gospel as Hugh Hefner walked by, a ‘Bunny’ the age of his granddaughter on his arm. Perhaps God sent many messengers to share the Gospel with a sinner like Hefner, or perhaps this was the only time. Only God knows.

Street preachers are in the public arena speaking truth to those who would try to insulate themselves from people who bring Light to the conscience. I’m glad that street preachers do what they do. The world needs Light and Salt, and the street preachers are there to shake things up. God was merciful to Hefner, allowing him to hear the Good News and to be warned to repent and believe. Thank you, street preachers, for being instruments of God’s mercy and love.