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"Matters of Opinion" is an occasional department that allows discussion of perspectives not necessarily shared by Christianity Today or the evangelical community as a whole. It is intended to encourage dialogue, and we welcome readers' responses.—The Editors

When Southern Baptists recently asserted that women's ordination is an unscriptural capitulation to the values of a postmodern culture, they used fighting words for denominations that claim a Wesleyan/Holiness theological heritage.

Before the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was organized in 1845, holiness female preachers—conservative, Bible-quoting women who cherished traditional family values—crisscrossed this country holding revivals, starting colleges, and spearheading rescue missions. They were ordained to ministry a century before the civil-rights movement wedged open the door for female ministers in mainline denominations like the Methodists and Presbyterians. The Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Anderson, Ind.), Evangelical Friends, Free Meth odists, the Salvation Army, and the Wesleyan Church all take their Bibles seriously and share a long heritage of ordaining women.

The Wesleyan/Holiness view of women's ordination is founded not on modern feminism but on four scriptural cornerstones.

First, creation. Women are created as equal inheritors of God's image, and the subsequent subjugation of wom en is a sinful consequence of the Fall. Faith and new life in Christ restore the created intention of God and eliminate this distortion.

Second, public proclamation. Both testaments record the faithful and fearless service of women, including prophets like Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and the Corinthian women who were told to cover their heads when they prophesied. Jesus chose a woman as the first to hear his charge to proclaim his resurrection.

Third, God's new order. The same Paul who told unruly women at Corinth and Ephesus to be quiet in worship declared that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (Galatians 3:28).

Fourth, the Spirit's calling. Pentecost made it plain that God pours out his Spirit upon all flesh so that "sons and daughters" prophesy.

These scriptural premises provide what Susie Stanley of Messiah College calls "prophetic authority"—an empowerment of the Spirit that compels all God's people to serve and witness to his grace.

Wesleyan/Holiness denominations, as the moniker implies, trace their heritage to John Wesley, the 18th-century British Reformer. A lifelong member of the all-male Anglican clergy, Wesley saw his mother, Susanna, turn the family worship into a prayer meeting regularly attended by 200 people. Wesley also drew inspiration from the many women who were his prayer-band leaders (one woman's group numbered several hundred). These godly examples convinced him that the Spirit opened the way for anyone called by God to preach, regardless of their sex.

As Methodism crossed the Atlantic and the 19th-century Holiness movement prompted thousands to seek a deeper spir itual life, any man or wom an who claimed an experience of God's sanctification was encouraged to give public witness. Soon the boundary between such testimony and traditional exhortation from Scrip ture disappeared, and women were preaching. Phoebe Palmer became a household name for her revival preaching and social reform. In Wesleyan/Holiness denominations, ordination confirms what God has already begun. As inheritors of the Protestant Reformation, these churches believe the pastor is primarily to preach from the Bible and bring new believers into the congregation. Priestly and liturgical tasks receive less emphasis.

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September 4 2000, Vol. 44, No. 10