Why Women Should Speak Up in the Church

Men: I encourage you, like the women, to cultivate the voice of women in your life. Thabiti Anyabwile wrote a great article for The Gospel-Centered Woman on the neglect of pastors to disciple and use women in their congregations. If you have women who gossip in your church, the tendency is to preach against gossip and encourage silence instead of doing the real work of cultivating life giving speech among these women. But I add a second encouragement as well—as you encourage women toward better speech, then respect that voice when she uses it! This second step has been a missing link in a lot of homes and congregations. Listen when women speak with wisdom. Respect the role of helper, and value God’s image bearing role in women. What if husbands, pastors and leaders in churches started valuing the voices of women who were speaking into their lives with wisdom?

The main problem seems that some men can’t distinguish between women speaking with wisdom and women speaking with authority. They are so afraid of a woman telling them authoritatively what to do that they can’t hear feedback or suggestions from them without defensiveness. To be fair, women can and should work on how to say the good things they have to contribute in a way that doesn’t create hurdles for the one who needs to hear it.

For both men and women, the Bible indicates the same words said in different ways can have very different results. But men, whether a woman says it exactly right in your estimation or not, don’t let yourself be deceived into thinking her tone negates the truth of what she offers you. That particular temptation seems a tool of Satan to undermine the woman as the helper God intended.

I’ll end with a positive observation. I am seeing much more evidence of men in the church respecting the voice of the helper in just the last 6 months or so than I have for many years previously. I appreciate The Village Church’s current sermon series on Biblical manhood and womanhood in particular. One thing that has been clear in the series is that Matt Chandler values women in his church speaking into his life. In one particular illustration he gave about his wife, he shared the wise way she pointed out a problem area in his life to him. She spoke with wisdom in a way that was easy for him to receive.

But, in the same illustration, Matt also acknowledged that he needed to listen to her input whether she said it exactly right or not. That can be a missing link for men—discounting the wisdom of what was said because a woman didn’t articulate it as softly as the man thought she should. Honestly, men, admit that sometimes you just don’t want to hear it from a woman, and there is no amount of soft terms that would make her words acceptable to you. For some men, the choice for women’s voices seems to be between the negative of gossip and nagging manipulation to the positive, in their heads, of women who don’t say anything challenging at all. In silencing, ignoring or shaming women for speaking, those men lose a valuable gift God has given them for their flourishing.

If you want wisdom from the women around you, and you should, I encourage you to consider the voice of the helper, the ezer, as part of the help God intended her to provide. Then respond accordingly even if it makes you temporarily uncomfortable. May we all work toward cultivating wise, helpful speech in ourselves and others, and may we listen well when the ezer speaks wise and helpful words to us personally.

Adapted from Wendy Alsup’s blog, theologyforwomen.org. Wendy has authored three books including By His Wounds You are Healed: How the Message of Ephesians Transforms a Woman’s Identity. She is also a wife, mom and college math teacher who loves ministering to women.