More stories of women pastors - Ann Roda

[Tom Wetmore]

This is a sermon in a short series entitled "Our Stories" of the pastors at New Hope SDA Church telling their own personal stories:

http://www.lookingforachurch.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=346117&programId=214720 

 

Please take to time to watch it.  Pastor Ann is a dynamic speaker and wonderfully energetic and dedicated pastor.  She is one of the pastors at a church I often attend.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Tom Wetmore

[Tom Wetmore]

I suppose some may notice or wonder why I am posting so many videos of women pastors.  My motivation is simply a reflection of what I have recognized as the hard part of this ongoing debate in the Adventist Church over WO.  The strongest resistance often comes from a position of lack of exposure to or experience with women pastors.  We ordain that which we have witnessed and experienced.   Ordination calls for the living testimony of the calling of the one to be ordained that demonstrates the fruit of that calling.  I realize that sadly most members around the world have been deprived of even the most basic opportunities that I have, and that even many here in North America have not been exposed to enough women in ministry demonstrating the fruit of the calling to overcome their doubts about this issue.  Perhaps it is hard to blame them for not accepting something that they really have little or no experiential knowledge about. 

So the stories of women pastors are very important to get before the people.  They give witness to the reality that these women are genuinely called and should be recognized without reservation or partiality or distinction.

 

[brotherly love]

This is a sermon in a short series entitled "Our Stories" of the pastors at New Hope SDA Church telling their own personal stories:

http://www.lookingforachurch.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=346117&programId=214720 

 

Please take to time to watch it.  Pastor Ann is a dynamic speaker and wonderfully energetic and dedicated pastor.  She is one of the pastors at a church I often attend.

Dynamic speaker and energy are not qualifications based on the bible for being a pastor. These are your qualifications that can be applied to any person even if they are at odds with scripture for whatever reason

Edited June 22, 2015 by brotherly love

[Tom Wetmore]

Did you watch the sermon?  Did you listen to her story?

Edited June 22, 2015 by Tom Wetmore

[brotherly love]

Did you watch the sermon?  Did you listen to her story?

I watched around 20 minutes of her sermon, but my internet was slow and it had to keep loading every 3 minutes or so. As you pointed out, you are using examples of women preachers in order to make some people aware that what they have to say is not heretical. This is not the point, many people in different walks of life can give a good sermon, or a bad sermon-this is not dependant on someones sexual orientation, sex, marital status or occupation. There are good and bad in everything. The question is not whether a male or female can give a better sermon, the question is the wisdom and purpose of the bible on the subject

[Tom Wetmore]

Missing the point...

[brotherly love]

Missing the point...

Can you expand on this?

[Tom Wetmore]

What do you think was the point of her sermon?

[brotherly love]

What do you think was the point of her sermon?

I did not watch to the end of the video due to technical difficulties. Her sermon has no bearing on the issue of womens ordanation in any case. So far you have applied many arguments that have no bearing on the issue. You seem to use references that indicate that others are doing it, so then it must be right. This is not a truth filled method of discernment

[B/W Photodude]

I suppose some may notice or wonder why I am posting so many videos of women pastors.  My motivation is simply a reflection of what I have recognized as the hard part of this ongoing debate in the Adventist Church over WO.  

I posted one where a woman was the speaker and she got trashed for not being a good speaker! Maybe it was because she was not a supporter of WO. 

 

[Tom Wetmore]

I don't recall anyone here trashing a woman speaking against WO because she was a bad speaker.  I do recall critical comments about the content of what she said.  There is a difference.  I do recall several here responding to my request for opponents of WO to relate their own personal experience with women pastors specifically acting in a pastoral capacity and all I got in response were several harsh comments about having once heard an isolate remark or idea stated by a women pastor in a sermon that they found offensive or inappropriate.  Maybe that was what you recall?  

But you do highlight an odd irony that has been noted already about women as speakers.  Many who oppose women as pastors readily refer to the passages about women needing to be silent in church and not teaching men. Yet if seems painfully obvious that they intentionally use..., include women in public speaking and teaching against women doing  that very thing.  But I think it seems a rather intentional ploy to use women to lend credibility to what they are saying against women as pastors.  Seems hypocritical to me.

[Tom Wetmore]

But my point in even mentioning that Ann Roda is a dynamic speaker was simply to refute what I have heard quite often by those that oppose women as pastors. Specifically I have heard objections about their speaking and preaching ability without any regard for the content of their sermons -  things like they speak too softly or that they just don't like hearing a woman's voice delivering a sermon.  

I agree that that is not necessarily an essential quality of being a good pastor, even if it might be a superficial distraction.  But I think we can all agree that being a dynamic speaker is an asset to getting a message across.  It is hard to pay attention to someone that is not a good public speaker.

[brotherly love]

But my point in even mentioning that Ann Roda is a dynamic speaker was simply to refute what I have heard quite often by those that oppose women as pastors. Specifically I have heard objections about their speaking and preaching ability without any regard for the content of their sermons -  things like they speak too softly or that they just don't like hearing a woman's voice delivering a sermon.  

I agree that that is not necessarily an essential quality of being a good pastor, even if it might be a superficial distraction.  But I think we can all agree that being a dynamic speaker is an asset to getting a message across.  It is hard to pay attention to someone that is not a good public speaker.

A woman speaker can be just as good as a male speaker. A women's mouth, tongue and brain are ontologically equal with their male counterparts. A good speaker is also a subjective opinion, some are drawn to sermons that are emotionally driven. Jim baker and others were very good at being fishers of funds using this method. Others are drawn to substance, music and many more avenues of preaching.

This is not a good datum point on the subject-it leads nowhere

 

[Tom Wetmore]

My point exactly.   I am merely refuting the objection to women that has been raised by those opposed to women as pastors.  Such objections are indeed foolish and apply to many men as well.  That it leads nowhere is just further evidence that many opposed to women as pastors  oppose WO endlessly using numerous similar red herring arguments, diversionary tactics, engage in trollish baiting tactics to derail discussions, diverting attention from the real issues and valid points of discussion.  It all ends up avoiding coming to terms with the important decison on the matter and just causes further delay of moving forward and actually making a decison.  On the issue of WO this has been going on for my entire adult life,  more than 40 years.  And before that, from the very beginning of Adventism the issue was continually punted for the next generation to fix.  This is the time. This is the generation. 

In that very same mode it seems clear to a number of people on this forum that that is your apparent strategy of posting meaningless empty responses  that do nothing but draw attention away from the topic in question.  It needs to stop now.