A professor of New Testament Studies (Literature, Theology, Exegesis, and African Biblical Hermeneutics), Professor Olubayo Olugbenga Obijole, has spoken on women possessing a lot to offer in church leadership.
He made the statement while delivering the 574th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Arts.
The title of the lecture was “Revolution in African Christianity: Women Church Leadership.”
Professor Obijole examined the role of women in Christianity and asked fundamental questions: If women are in the majority in church population, why are they deprived of leading the church of God? Is leadership the exclusive preserve of the male folk? What was God’s purpose for making them male and female? Are women not also made by God to be leaders? What is the biblical and Christian position of women?
He submitted that the fact that women are accepted as spiritual leaders in pentecostal and Aladura churches is a revolutionary change in African Christianity which has broken down the barriers of the exclusively male dominated leadership of christian churches in Africa.
Professor Obijole said research showed that although women were of low status in the sociocultural life of the ancient world, few women still played outstanding leadership roles in the Old Testament, Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism and in the Greco-Roman World.
He said despite the general low status of women, Jesus Christ accorded women recognition and defended them in their state of societal rejection, and accepted them as disciples, as examples of faith and committed life, but appointed no woman as an Apostle probably because the then sociocultural environment did not favour it.
The inaugural lecturer argued that the unity of the human race in Christ without any human discrimination overrides all other issues for and against women leadership in church ministry.
He said that the African Indigenous Aladura and Pentecostal churches have keyed into the unity of mankind in Christ to give more space for women in leadership.
He stated that this shows that women can do better, not just as the majority in church membership but can also be leaders of church ministry and better spiritual leaders if given the opportunity.
He concluded that the church must continue to listen to the Holy Spirit and accord women their rightful place in all the ministeries of the church.
Professor Obijole however, cautioned that women must not seek to be like men nor should men seek to be like women in unhealthy rivalry, but recognize that God created the two sexes to be united, complimentary, interdependent, cooperative, and in unity in diversity for the beauty and order of creation.
The inaugural lecture was the twenty- fourth in the series for the 2023/2024 academic session.
