The Compass

A Daily Personal Reflection & Small Group Discussion Guide

by John Hay, Jr.
Senior Pastor, West Morris Street Free Methodist Church

Series: Anticipating Pentecost
Week's focus: Women & Pentecost
Scriptures: Acts 2:1-4, 14-21
Week of: May 14, 2006

TRACKING THE WORD IN WORSHIP
What does Pentecost reveal & commend about women in the church?

1. In obedience to Jesus' direction, women gathered along with the eleven Apostles in prayerful anticipation of God's promised gift. Acts 1:12-14

2. When God poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, all of them--including women--were filled and began to speak of the wonders of God. Acts 2:1-4

3. Women prophesying, or declaring God's Word publicly under the unction of the Holy Spirit, is a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. Acts 2:16-18; Joel 2:28-32

4. Pentecost affirms Jesus' teaching and regard for women and sets the standard for the future of the church. Galatians 3:26-29

GUIDED JOURNALING / DISCUSSION
Explore these questions in personal devotions or group discussion

1. Spend a few minutes reflecting over the influence of Godly women in your salvation and life. List names and write down their positive contributions in witness, discipleship, and service. Journal or discuss one in particular as an example of a woman who did not hesitate to speak God's Word or reflect God's freedom and grace.

2. What special gifts or graces do you notice that women bring to living, demonstrating, sharing, declaring, teaching, or training in regard to the Good News? Journal or discuss your responses.

3. Read Acts 2 in full. Does the inclusion of women as being filled with the Spirit and prophesying strike you as new information? Thinking about Pentecost as fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy, what possibilities and opportunities does it open up for women in the church today? What barriers or limitations do you think women called to ministry face? How can they be overcome?

MARKINGS LEFT BY PREVIOUS TRAVELERS
Consider what other believers have affirmed about women in ministry

MINISTRY ACCESS FOR MEN & WOMEN. "Free Methodists recognize that God gifts spiritual gifts of service and leadership to both men and women. Since male and female are both created in the image of God, that image is most fully reflected when both women and men work in concert at all levels of the church. Therefore, all positions in the church are accessible to any whom God has called." - 2003 Book of Discipline of the Free Methodist Church

DOMINATION IS NOT "THE PLAN." "For those seeking to justify gender hierarchy, invariably they cite God's curse upon the woman in Genesis 3:16. What is of vital importance to note, however, is that man's domination over woman is part of the curse of sin after the Fall and does not represent God's original intention for male-female relationships! It is a prediction of the consequences of the Fall, rather than a prescription of God's ideal order...A consistent dimension of God's revelation of himself, throughout the Scriptures, is that neither judgment nor curse will have the last word. What began in grace (creation) will end in grace (redemption)." -- C. S. Cowles in A Woman's Place: Leadership in the Church

HOW ARE WOMEN DEFINED? "Keep women in their place! 'Blessed is the womb that bore you,' cries a woman in the crowd, 'and the breasts that nursed you!' Why not give his mother credit in the only way the culture allowed it? Jesus refuses: 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!' This woman persists in believing that her value, like his mother Mary's, lies in bearing a male child and living out her ambitions through him. But Jesus retorts: You do not have to be 'saved' any longer through bearing sons. You yourself, a woman, can hear the word of God and keep it. Indeed, if patriarchy is ever to be overturned, women will have to stop consenting to its expectations." -- Walter Wink in Engaging the Powers

CLEARLY FORETOLD. "That women are to take a prominent part in evangelizing the world was as clearly foretold in the prophecies of old as was the Gospel itself." -- B. T. Roberts in Ordaining Women

SAME IMPELLING POWER. "The same indwelling Spirit of might which fell upon Mary and the other women on the glorious day that ushered in the present dispensation still falls upon God's daughters…the same impelling power which constrained Mary and the other women to speak as the Spirit gave utterance impels them to testify to Christ." - Phoebe Palmer in The Promise of the Father

RESPONSES & OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE
Want to explore The Compass with others? Have questions?

If you'd like to connect with others who are working weekly with The Compass, e-mail me or call the church office (317.632.8311)

If you have questions about Scriptures or some of the questions, or just want to share what your are discovering through The Compass, you are welcome to e-mail me.

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