14: “CALLING” TRUMPS SCRIPTURE 133experience alone to go on, it would be impossible to be certain that we
had reached the right answer, because we would have only our own
human interpretations of the event, not an interpretation given in God’s
own words.
What a woman perceives as a call from God to a pastoral ministry
may be a genuine call to some other full-time ministry that is approved
by Scripture. Many ministries that include Bible teaching are open to
women.^4 It may be that a strong sense of calling from God is in fact a
calling from God to these kinds of ministries.
But I do not believe that God calls a woman to be a pastor or elder
where she would teach God’s Word and have governing authority over
men. Women who dismiss any Scripture-based objections with a claim
that a sense of God’s calling has led them into such ministry are putting
subjective experience above Scripture, and that is another step on the
path toward liberalism.
(^4) See Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah,
2004), 84-101, for a list of many ministries that I think we should encourage for women.