By Timothy L. Vanderpool

“If a woman starts to preach tonight, I’m going to get up and leave.” I spoke these words to my friend before leaving for church on a Wednesday night. The church was an old-school Pentecostal church that was pastored by my friend’s grandfather — the same church I had received Christ at just two months earlier. I was told there might be a woman preacher there and I didn’t believe this was biblical.

I was not raised in a Christian home, but there were Christians on both sides of my family. While my dad’s side of the family was mostly Pentecostal, my mom’s family was Southern Baptist. When I was a little boy I went to a tiny two-room Southern Baptist church with my grandmother and aunt. Although it has been years since I last attended a service there, the lessons I’d been taught were etched in my mind. Many of these lessons were unbiblical such as the notion that the King James is the only correct version of the Bible; a woman should obey her husband because he is the authority; and most importantly, a woman is never allowed to preach. I still find it amazing that after coming to Christ, these lessons were still at the forefront of my thinking.

That night at church I witnessed for the first time a woman preaching the Word of God. Despite my proud, defiant proclamations, I failed to carry through with the triumphant exit I had earlier boasted. Instead I sat and listened. This is the night that I first questioned the stances I so ignorantly held.

During the first six months of my salvation I attended every Bible study I could find. I was inquisitive about the problematic scriptures of women in ministry and had an interest in issues relating to women. As I queried different leaders, I would often get quick, unsatisfying answers to the traditional interpretation of female subordination. Even the best answers seemed to be void of logical understanding and left me unfulfilled. This led to an utter burning in my spirit for a grounded understanding of these scriptures, not just a superficial answer. I also eagerly desired to grasp the context in which the scriptures were written.

I embarked on a spiritual journey that proved to be more painful and rewarding than I would ever have anticipated. Through much prayer and breaking in my Strong’s Concordance, I began to dig into the problematic texts from Genesis 3:16 to 1 Timothy 2:11-15. I felt would be doing my testimony an injustice if I failed to mention a vexation of my spirit that spurred me on toward the truth. My stomach often turned and cramped because I was haunted by the great depths of Scripture to unearth and the truth I was to discover.

After 18 months of painstaking study that took me through concordances, commentaries, articles, discussions and meditations, I reached some conclusions. By the grace of our Lord I realized that women were not a subordinate afterthought of God’s. The opposite is true. I found that women were equally created in the image of God. They are held in God’s sight as equal and capable of any and every task or office that men are able to perform. I realized that a man was not the “king” of his house. Rather, husband and wife are to mutually submit to one another, creating a beautiful harmony within their marriage.

Shortly after all of this, my wife and I attended the Cornerstone Festival — an outdoor Christian rock festival held in Bushnell, Ill. — and were introduced to Christians for Biblical Equality. Over the past four years I’ve benefited greatly from their work. Any loose threads in my search were stitched together by their writings. Their efforts toward equality continuously inspire me.

My journey toward egalitarianism has been extremely painful and rewarding. My efforts towards equality have only begun. I am grateful for the correction God has brought into my life and with the same attitude of gratefulness I declare to others the freeing message of equality. I pray those who read this testimony will be encouraged in Christ.