Adventist Women's Center : Ordination of women elders and pastors

A:         Ordination is not an absolute requirement in either the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy for either men OR women.

            It appears that an ordination-type of service was held for the deacons in the early church as noted in Acts, and also for Paul and Barnabas as they set out in missionary work. That is, it is not called an ordination but it involved special prayer and laying on of hands.

            This has developed into the custom we call "ordination." The Roman Catholic Church developed this custom into a sacred rite. For pastors (priests), Roman Catholics believe ordination invests the individual with special gifts of grace and authority. They also see ordination as being a succession--Peter being the first, and he, in turn, ordaining others in an unbroken line to the present. Most Protestants, however, see ordination as recognition of a person's spiritual gifts. Each church adds other things to this. In the Adventist Church, for example, we may require certain education and training, and a number of years of experience. (In some Protestant churches, once you have completed certain education and passed certain interviews you can be ordained even without experience in a pastoral setting.)

            Scripture does not say that men (or women) NEED ordination to function as a pastor, elder, deacon, or deaconess. However, early Seventh-day Adventists discovered that individuals could call themselves Adventists but not be from the same group or not have the same beliefs. This caused confusion and ill feelings. Adventists, therefore, began to ORDAIN people as a practical solution to this problem. The individual ordained carried a certificate or license signed by recognized individuals in the Seventh-day Adventist church. This validated their adherence to SDA teachings, beliefs, etc. Willie White writes about women ordained as deaconesses in an Australian Adventist church as a normal event during his mother’s lifetime. Many women in the early Adventist Church were endorsed and licensed to preach.

            So, in a very practical way, ORDINATION among Seventh-day Adventists
(1) recognizes a person's gifts for ministry given to him or her by God,
(2) fulfills specific requirements of the church in various parts of the world--education, experience, etc--and these requirements vary because education available to people is different in the U.S. than it is in Africa or South America,
(3) indicates that the individual has demonstrated mature and fruitful leadership in ministry,
(4) authorizes the individual to perform certain duties and rites.

            There is no specific reference in Scripture or the Spirit of Prophecy that prohibits the ordination of men or women. The debate about women's ordination usually fails to take this fact into account.

            We are used to the custom of ordaining men and so it seems good and right. (And, I think, it does serve good and right purposes.) We are not used to ordaining women and so questions arise about women that are not usually posed to men.

            For example, women are sometimes blamed for "seeking power" by desiring ordination.
If that is true, men who desire ordination (and most men in ministry desire it highly) are also “seeking power.”