Shoreline Analogy and Women Teaching in the Church

There is an analogy that helps to clarify any issue where the line of what is acceptable or unacceptable: The Shoreline Analogy. If you’re walking along the beach, at any given point, it can be difficult to determine where the water begins and the land ends, but if you go thirty feet in any direction, you clearly know when you’re in the water or on the land. The point is that you can’t figure out the line without reference to the larger framework of what the sea and land are.

The point for our discussion of where the “line” is for the service of women in the church, confessing versus teaching, is not helped by looking for the line at any give point, but must take into consideration the foundational doctrinal statements. And in taking that into consideration, you are able more easily to see what is clearly in the water and what is clearly on land.

Here is my proposal for helping to make that clarification.

Theses on Women teaching in the Church

Thesis 1 — Women are forbidden by Holy Scripture from the public instruction of men: worship, Bible study, theological conferences, Voters’ Assemblies, et al. (1 Cor 14; 1 Tim 2:12)

Thesis 2 — God has commanded older women to teach what is good to the younger women, training them to love their husbands and children,  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled (Titus 2:3-5).

Thesis 3 — God desires that women raise children, which includes teaching, a task of utmost importance (1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 1:5).

Thesis 4 — There are times when it is appropriate for a woman to explain the way of God in a private context to an individual man. But this should be done with the knowledge and permission of her head (Acts 18:26).

Thesis 5 — It may be permissible for a woman to give public expression in writing (books, magazines, blog posts) to her faith in order to carry out Thesis 2 and 3. 

Thesis 6 — Theses 2, 3, 4, 5 are to be carried out according to the opportunity which God and Christian love offer, so that they do not violently obtrude themselves upon anyone, but only deal with those who are ready to accept such offices in love (Phil 2:3).

Thesis 7 — As members of the priesthood of the baptized, Christian women, within the proper divinely created order, exercise this spiritual office in confessing their faith, consoling those who are afflicted, encouraging those who weary, both within and outside the Divine Service (Eph 5:18–21; 1 Cor 11:5; Joel 2:28–29; Acts 21:9).

Thesis 8 — While there is certainly a recognition of the distinction between the general and exceptional, being clear on the general, foundational principles help to ensure a properly framed discussion about the difficult or hard cases.