This book is the work of a New Testament scholar. It deals with the problem of gender inequality and the empowerment of women in the Christian churches today. This problem led the author to do an exegetical study of the New Testament charismatic churches to see what role women played there. The author pointed out that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were freely, undeservedly and unconditionally given, without any gender restriction. Consequently, to equate gender with any of the gifts is to attach a non-existent condition because there was no gender discrimination in the charismatic churches. As the author noted, what changed in the course of Church history is the institutionalization of Christianity. This established church structures that emphasized hierarchy and power. With this the doors began to close on women. Gradually, women became victims of a patriarchal usurpation of power. Hence, the empowerment of women in the church today is not a question of whether God allows it or not, but whether an all-powerful male clergy is willing to share power with them. Consequently, the author concludes that it is time to get Martha out of the kitchen.
Book Title: The Empowerment of Women in the Church Today (The Relevance of the New Testament Charismatic Churches) Author: Adolphus Chinedu Amadi-Azuogu Publisher: Outskirts Press Year of Publication: 2007
Book Excerpt The author of this groundbreaking book, the empowerment of women in the Christian church today, is an outstanding biblical scholar and a professor of New Testament. He has taught in several higher institutions of learning in-cluding the renowned Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, USA. He is prolific writer. He has published two books this year. The first is: Women and Gender Equality: The Attitude of the Apostle Paul and the Church To-day, [ISBN: 978-1-59824-467-0], Montgomery Alabama: E-BookTime, LLC, 2007. The second is this present one on the empowerment of women.
Excerpt from the Prologue If women in past centuries were exploited and subordinated by the men controlling their societies, this still remains the feature of our society today, be it in the church or in the secular world. The call made in this book is a call for men and women to work together as joint heirs of grace, as the author 1Pet 3,7 pointed out. It is by no means a call for the male class to continue to hierarchically subordinate the female members of the Christian church. It is not right to pretend as if women have simply no divine vocation to be leaders in the Christian community or to occupy high places in the hierarchy of the church. The gift of anointing cannot be a male prerogative. And the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no exclusive reserve or prerogative of any person. If the Christian community advocates for an egalitarian secular society but does not remain egalitarian, it would not have demonstrated that it is serious and sincere in what it is promoting. At best, it could only be seen as putting up a cosmetic show, or a window dressing. This would simply be the case of preaching without deeds, a type of biblical Pharisaism. In effect, this church could even stand the risk of losing the moral authority to continue such a preaching or even risk being ignored by a secular society that is becoming increasingly egalitarian and democratic. A church that lacks the words “egalitarianism” and “equality” in her own internal vocabulary can hardly show that it can in fact champion the course of justice and fairness in this unjust world. If the Christian vocation is a vocation in Christ, why should gender be the exclusive factor that determines office bearers in the church? Unless the church opens itself up to the changing realities in the world, it may risk holding tenaciously to an empty shell of history. The leaders may risk paddling a canoe that has long been taken over by the tidal waves. Or they may be driving a train that is almost empty but still remain superficially convinced that the train is still full. This can be a real illusion facing Christianity in this 21st century.
Excerpt from the Introduction With this in mind the 21st century Christians are reminded that not to do something now about the role of women in the church is simply to prolong the womanist struggle and to make it even more confrontational. The present day Christian church must address the legitimate grievance of women in the church and in our world today. There is no need responding by calling them names or issuing intimidating church documents to further gag and muzzle them or those helping to champion their course. The time has come to confront the naked reality of the past and rectify accumulated centuries of anomalies and injustices against women. This problem puts a strain both on the unity and resources of the church. Instead of concentrating on the task of preaching the good news to all the nations, we may find ourselves devoting disproportionate amount of time to establish whether women should or should not be leaders in the church at all levels. If this were a settled topic, this author and others would have devoted the time spent in writing this and other books to other issues of greater importance. This shows that we weigh ourselves down by not resolving this thorny issue. Cosmetic solutions only highlight the problem more and more. There is no need pretending that the problem is not there because it will not go away unless it is satisfactorily addressed. And as long as secular society continues with its program of women empowerment and emancipation irresistible pressure will continue to build. The Christian church may have to crave in, when and how it may not want. It will be better for this church to do a controlled landing in order to avoid a crash landing. The time to do this is now. Indeed, the present one-sidedness against women in the church and in our world needs a radical rethinking in this 21st century and third millennium of Christianity. This sense of urgency is necessitated by the fact that a church that supports human rights ad extra (externally) should not be insulated from these same human rights ad intra (within). In this place, charity must and should begin at home first. Accordingly, the violations of women’s human rights, even in the name of God, are neither theologically excusable nor are they acts worth pardoning or condoning in this third millennium of the Christian religion. Indeed, this work is intended to help us make a bible-based contribution to the on going debate on the role of women in the ministry of the church in this 21st century. In view of this, it has two principal aims in mind. First of all, it is a partial discussion of charismata in the early Pauline Christianity. Secondly, it is a discussion of the role of women in such a charismatic setting. This work wants to show that the charismatic church was not based on gender discrimination. In other words, there were no gender-based charisms. The reason for this is that the Holy Spirit, the author and giver of these charisms, was not seen as a profiler. For the community this meant that this Spirit could give any of the gifts to whomsoever he chooses. His freedom to give was unconditionally recognized. In this regard, Isaiah, the prophet, was right to ask: “With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding” (Isaiah 40,14)?
Excerpt from Chapter 1
This is a very interesting topic supporting the present day women liberation movement and ministry roles for women in the Christian church. It helps to highlight the urgency needed in this 21st century to return to the ideals of the New Testament charismatic churches. It invites us to re-examine our opposition to the active participation of women in all aspects of church ministry in 21st century Christianity. In other words, we are called upon to de-politicize the ministry of the Christian church. As the facts show, the charismatic structure of Pauline Christianity favors equal opportunity for all. The reason for this is that it is based on the principle of non-discrimination, which recognized the equality of every Christian believer. Hence, justice, equity and equal opportunity for all were the hallmarks of the charismatic church. In this Christianity, gender-based charisms or ministry were unknown. The Spirit, distributing the charismata of the community, is an impartial patron. He is very independent-minded. He is neither under the spell of men, nor is he guided by human narrow-mindedness. Moreover, he is such an unbiased and unprejudiced arbiter that objectivity is his ‘nickname’ and fairness is his measuring rod. In short, he is a neutral mediator or umpire. All these emphasize his unrivalled open-mindedness. On account of all these attributes, he favored no particular sex and showed no preference for any. Hence, in the New Testament Charismatic Church, no one was profiled on account of gender or biology. Here, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were distributed in a non-prejudicial way, without gender consideration. Unfortunately, today, we act contrary to the noble ideals of the Holy Spirit, though we continue to pretend to be working with him and for him. We create gender-based sacraments and gender-based ministries in the belief that it is according to the mind of the Holy God. Contrarily, what we have succeeded in doing is making the Spirit of God a partial arbiter, biased in favor of the male class. In so doing, we give the false impression that God is primarily for the “he” and only secondarily for the “she.” In this way, we have made God and his Holy Spirit to take sides in our gender struggle, thereby making them fight on the side of men against women. Now, this becomes the theology of our own making, but propagated in the name of God, and under the canopy of the Holy Spirit. The Christianity of the apostle Paul frowns at this. Fortunately, it did it differently and upheld gender equality among its Christians. In view of this, it is time to change our gender-based ministry for better. As a result, this book emphatically insists that it is time to get Martha out of the kitchen. The time to do it is now and not later. Luckily, Paul recognized the non-profiling function of the Holy Spirit in toto. Hence, he accorded equal recognition to the various members of his church community, irrespective of gender or race. Of course, if his guiding anthropological principle was no male, no female; no Jew, no Gentile; no slave, no freeman (Gal 3.28), this makes his pneumatology, the doctrine of the Spirit, perfectly understandable. Accordingly, neither gender profiling, nor racial profiling characterized early Pauline Christianity. This is what makes the ultimate goal of the women liberation movement a reinstatement and a return to the noble charismatic ideals of Paul and his 1st century Christianity. Hence, this movement becomes a process set in motion to eliminate discrimination of the sexes at all levels of human existence. In view of this, it should be endorsed by Christian and secular authorities throughout the world. It should be supported and encouraged, and not castigated. But this should not be support for its sake. It should transcend words since the time for talking is over. Instead of “talking the talk,” it is now about “walking the walk.” Now is the time for action.
About Adolphus Chinedu Amadi-Azuogu
About the Author Adolphus Chinedu Amadi-Azuogu is a professor of biblical studies. He holds a doctorate degree in biblical studies from the University of Bonn, Germany and a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome. From 1995-2000 he was the chair of New Testament Studies at the Spiritan International School of Theology, Enugu, Nigeria. He has also taught at the Southern California School of Ministry, Los Angeles, where he was the director of the Doctor of Ministry program, and at Azusa Pacific Uni-versity, where he taught New Testament courses on Luke-Acts and Romans-Galatians. He is the author of numerous articles. Among his books are: Paul and the Law in the Ar-guments of Galatians, 1995; Biblical Exegesis and Inculturation, 2000 and Women and Gender Equality (978-1-59824-467-0), 2007 . The author is blessed with two boys (Ebere and Ikechi), one girl (Chioma) and a God-given wife, Edith.
This book is the work of a New Testament scholar. It deals with the problem of gender inequality and the empowerment of women in the Christian churches today. This problem led the author to do an exegetical study of the New Testament charismatic churches to see what role women played there. The author pointed out that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were freely, undeservedly and unconditionally given, without any gender restriction. Consequently, to equate gender with any of the gifts is to attach a non-existent condition because there was no gender discrimination in the charismatic churches. 
About the Author