Why ordain elders and pastors? What does the Bible teach about priesthood and ministry? Does Paul really prohibit women from speaking in church? What does Ellen White say about ordination? What role did women play in ministry in the New Testament? How is ordination related to the ministry? How does culture influence the way we understand the Bible? Does the Bible forbid the ordination of women? What does the Bible teach about "headship"? How did Ellen White relate to the Women's Rights Movement? Who were some of the nineteenth-century Adventist women in ministry and what did they do?

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Contents

Prologue

PART ONE: MINISTRY IN THE BIBLE

“The Priesthood of All Believers”
by Raoul Dederen

“Women Priests in Israel: A Case for Their Absence”
by Jacques B. Doukhan

“Shapes of Ministry in the New Testament and Early Church”
by Robert M. Johnston

“Laying on of Hands in Ordination: A Biblical Study”
by Keith Mattingly

PART TWO: ORDINATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND ADVENTISM

“Clerical Authority and Ordination in the Early Christian Church”
by Daniel A. Augsburger

“Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863”
by George R. Knight

“Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White”
by J. H. Denis Fortin

“A Theological Understanding of Ordination”
by Russell L. Staples

PART THREE: WOMEN IN MINISTRY AND LEADERSHIP

“Women in Scripture: A Survey and Evaluation”
by Jo Ann Davidson

“‘A Power That Exceeds That of Men’: Ellen G. White on Women in Ministry”
by Jerry Moon

“Nineteenth-Century Women in Adventist Ministry Against the Backdrop of Their Times”
by Michael Bernoi

“SDA Women in Ministry, 1970-1998”
by Randal R. Wisbey

PART FOUR: PERCEIVED IMPEDIMENTS TO WOMEN IN MINISTRY

“Headship, Submission, and Equality in Scripture”
by Richard M. Davidson

“Equality, Headship, and Submission in the Writings of Ellen G. White”
by Peter M. van Bemmelen

“How Does a Woman Prophesy and Keep Silence at the Same Time? (1 Corinthians 11 and 14)”
by W. Larry Richards

“Proper Church Behavior in 1 Timothy 2:8-15”
by Nancy Jean Vyhmeister

“Ellen White and Women’s Rights”
by Alicia A. Worley

PART FIVE: OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

“The Distance and the Difference: Reflections on Issues of Slavery and Women’s Ordination in Adventism”
by Walter B. T. Douglas

“The Ordination of Women in Light of the Character of God”
by Roger L. Dudley

“Culture and Biblical Understanding in a World Church”
by Jon L. Dybdahl

Epilogue