“Why is it, then, that Christian women are *not* to preach in church, lead in prayer, offer ‘mini-sermons’ as musicians, or participate in administering the sacraments?”  This is a fair question.  The answer is, “Because God has not constituted them [in their very being, as women] to do these things.” . . .

The church’s Christian women are to be treated with the highest levels of respect, dignity, honor, and deference.  They are to be given the loftiest places in the church; and they are to be regarded, in one sense, as being “above” men.  Adam was made of the dust; Eve was formed from Adam’s rib. 

And though it is true, that God constituted men in such a way that they are to lovingly shepherd His church–this “difference” does not make men better, or higher, or more important than women, (the women that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, in particular).

The fact that uniquely-called and -qualified men are to do the preaching of the gospel in the church’s convocated Sunday (Sabbath) Worship Services, does not make them superior to women.  The same may be said of the administration of the sacraments of the church; and the leading in her (the church’s) prayers and confessions of faith/catechisms/and/or creeds; and the handling of vows.

Women, just like men, are to worship God in and through Jesus Christ with hearty adoration–not only in the Sunday Services, but throughout all of life.  In the Sabbath Worship Services, they are to participate in the sermons (by praying for them, and receiving them with faith); in the prayers, by praying along with the officer enjoined in this duty; by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, and the confessions of faith, etc.

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