Christian Chronicle

Should women preach in a mixed-gender assembly?

This graduate theology student — one of four sisters and the mother of five girls — doesn’t think so.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

ARLINGTON, Texas — Christa Sanders Bryant has a passion for teaching the Bible.

The mother of five believes God has called her — and all Christians — to lead souls to Jesus.

But even though she is pursuing a master’s degree in biblical studies, Bryant, 42, said she has no desire to step to the pulpit in a mixed-gender worship assembly.


Full coverage: Women in the church


“I would never get up in a formal worship service and preach, and I would never get up and pray, because I do believe that 1 Timothy prohibits that,” she said. “But I don’t think that takes away from our role of being evangelistic or being a teacher or being the best Christian that I can be.”

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12 (New International Version), the apostle Paul writes, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

Bryant’s husband, Dewayne, serves as the evangelist for the New York Avenue Church of Christ, a 300-member congregation in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Besides homeschooling her daughters — who range in age from 6 to 16 — Christa Bryant stays busy with her own online coursework.

This semester, she’s studying biblical interpretation and hermeneutics through the Kearley Graduate School of Theology at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala.

Read the full story.

This story appears in the March edition of The Christian Chronicle. 

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