Can a sister write a lesson for one of the men to present?
Question:
Good morning,
I appreciate your website and all the helpful information it provides. I have gone to your site throughout the years. Again, thank you.
My wife and I are attending the Lord's church and we are fairly new to this congregation. It is a very loving church and strives diligently to stay according to God's word. We are blessed to have the opportunity to work in the Kingdom.
Is it scripturally correct to have a sister in Christ compose a sermon or an invitation lesson and have the preacher or one of the men present it for her? We do not have elders at this time, we are praying for this situation. I want to be able to answer myself with scripture as to where we get the authority.
Thank you for your time.
Answer:
Over the years, I have had men, who were too nervous to stand before the congregation, ask me to present a lesson that they had studied and written. If I think the lesson is good, I let the person know that I'm willing to use it if they don't mind that I alter it to fit my style. I often expand it and rearrange the flow. I will make sure that I mark in my notes the source of the ideas if I don't end up completely rewriting them. These are actions I would expect any teacher to do with the material he is given to present. The result is the teacher's way of communicating.
If a woman has a good idea for a lesson, I would treat it much the same way. I would alter it to fit my style, adjust the flow, and select verses that I think would be most appropriate.
Teaching involves personal effort. It is lazy to just present another person's work without alterations. But notice that the result is that the resulting lesson is actually the teacher's lesson and you don't run into the issue of a woman teaching, even indirectly.
But consider that in the Bible we can read and discuss Hannah's prayer in I Samuel 2:1-10. While it was composed by a woman, we don't see it as a woman usurping authority over men. Or consider the fact that a number of the songs we sing were composed by women. Even though we teach and admonish through songs, the use of those songs is not seen as the woman usurping authority because it is the song leader who selected the song and the congregation that is singing it.
