Many are making the assumption that spiritual equality in Christ is the one overriding truth that makes it necessary to explain away the gender-linked ministry roles found in the Bible. There is a certain justice to this overadjustment. In the past, the opposite occurred. The Bible was approached with a view that caused women to be taken for granted, their gifts wasted, and their opinions ignored. The Bible was used to establish the kind of male dominance that lacked balance and regard for the spiritual equality and complementary roles designed by our Creator.
All truth is held in tension by counterbalancing factors.
The same is true in the issue of men and women. We are both called to submit to one another, yet men are called to sacrifice their interests for the sake of women in different ways than women are to selectively submit to men. It would be easier to do away with either headship or equality. But in either case we would satisfy our minds at the expense of the other side of an important biblical truth. The following pages are presented in summary fashion to help us realize that there is not just one but many factors that must be considered before we can have a balanced, biblical view of women in ministry.