Authoritative Preaching, Learn to Discern, Patriarchal-Complementarian Movement, Street Evangelism, Tony Miano, Women and the Church

Learn to Discern: Can Women Read Scripture Aloud to Men?

Julie Anne

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Open Air Preacher Street Evangelist Tony Miano Gives Rules and Guidelines for Women Open Air Preaching and Reading Scripture to Men

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We’ve discussed open air preacher, Tony Miano before.  He used to work at Living Waters with Ray Comfort.  In the video below, he claims that he taught approximately 200 women how to do open air preaching.  He said he had to later repent of this because God had shown him that it is wrong for women to preach.  Remember, Tony Miano is the author of a fairly new book, Should She Preach, so this is his pet topic.

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I want to primarily discuss the transcribed quotes which were taken from the video, above.   (Special thanks to Diane who transcribed this for us.)

Note:  Miano’s run-on sentences and poor sentence structures made this difficult to transcribe.

17  min mark:  Miano is asked how women may be involved in evangelizing the lost.  

“Women engaging in one-to-one conversations – so long as those are appropriate conversations – I feel that while it is not a sin per se for a woman to engage a man in a conversation, there are a number of reasons why I think a woman should avoid that. Certainly any hint of impropriety, remaining above reproach, and you can so quickly, I think, in those conversations, cross the line from sharing the gospel one to one to sharing the gospel in a small group, exercising authority over men. But, no, God has called every Christian to go and make disciples.”

18:22 min mark:

“The idea of women open air preaching again and why it is wrong is it goes against God’s design.

Uh, men are called by God in creation to lead women. God has given men and women equal dignity spiritually, but has given us distinctly different roles.

And whenever a woman stands up on a box to proclaim the gospel in the open air, or even read scripture aloud, she is taking on the role of a man. She is taking on an authoritative role over whoever is listening to her.

The mere reading of scripture is to exercise authority because scripture is the authority.

And a woman cannot help but to sacrifice femininity when she stands on a box and exercises authority over a group of people.

But that does not mean that women do not have a critically important role in evangelism in the context of the local church –  whether it’s distributing tracts, engaging people in conversation, praying for those who are open air preaching, being a person of accountability especially in places like abortion clinics.

While the men should be out there doing the preaching, we need women out there to be counseling these women. It the Lord breaks them through the proclamation of the law and the gospel, it ought not be me putting my hand on a woman’s shoulder who is broken, and comforting and consoling her, it should be a woman.

And so there’s a critical need for women out on the streets being involved in evangelism, but under the authority of the men of the church, having the same level of spiritual dignity as any man out there, but fulfilling a critically important role that is not the role of a man.”

20:54 mark:

“I think one of the greatest threats to American evangelicalism is a growing level of egalitarianism. I think men generally speaking, broad brush, I think men in American evangelicalism are weak. I think they’re effeminate.

I think women are taking on roles that they may not otherwise ever even think of taking, uh, because the men aren’t standing up.

Uh, men in American evangelicalism act like male lions in a pride of lions. They mate, they sleep for twenty hours a day, and then they eat the fruit of the harvest from all the women making the kills. Um, and that’s not –  that’s not biblical. I think that’s a huge threat, uh, to American evangelicalism.”

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So, what do you think?  Let’s hash this out.

 

219 thoughts on “Learn to Discern: Can Women Read Scripture Aloud to Men?”

  1. Personally I don’t think open air preaching is effective and I won’t do it. It just annoys me when it is directed at me. Once I was accosted by a man who asked me if I was saved. I said yes, I am, and he said no, I wasn’t. I was wearing a nice suit with a knee length skirt at the time and he didn’t know me from Eve so I cannot imagine why he was so sure. Had I not been a Christian I don’t think he would have interested me in it.

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  2. Andrew:
    History and the Bible both suggest that there was very little preaching as we understand the term today during the NT period. Rather, there was a lot of small group meeting in someones home/place of business (usually the same place) and sharing among the group and a friend or two their experience, the message of salvation, etc. More like a small group meeting with some modest evangelism thrown in. Pastoring can occur without a pulpit or any formal organization, which is exactly what was occurring in the first century church.

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  3. Marsha, so if you are saying open air preaching is no good why is everyone complaining that Tony Miano is saying that women shouldn’t do it. Why get all up in arms about not being able to do something you don’t think is good anyway?

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  4. Pastoring can occur without a pulpit or any formal organization, which is exactly what was occurring in the first century church.
    _______________________________________________________________
    I agree and I have witnessed and been part of that kind of fellowship as well. I think this is actually very healthy compared to pastor centric churches.

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  5. Milano doesn’t believe women should preach anywhere or even be allowed to do a Bible reading in church.

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  6. Marsha, Who cares what Milano says. I personally agree that women shouldn’t preach but I’m not going to attempt to define what preaching is though or at least not on this blog. On the other hand forbidding Bible reading in church is a new one for me. In the church I attend, kids and many of them girls do a lot of the Bible reading so I think Milano is completely off on that.

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  8. I don’t give a hoot what Miano says. Nobody is going to tell me I can’t share the Gospel with willing listeners.

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  12. Pingback: JD Hall of Pulpit and Pen Launches Voice in the Wilderness Radio | Spiritual Sounding Board

  13. As a woman I am so happy to have found this :-). This year I decided to ask God in prayer this question ‘What does it mean to be a woman of The Lord’? He led me to exactly the same conclusion as Tony. I was also led to cover my head when I pray or prophesieth so now wear a head covering. Ladies I would encourage you to also ask God this question and read the relevant scriptures on these topics, rather than relying on what you see or hear in today’s culture.

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  15. Dee at Wartburg Watch’s former church in Texas with awesome pastor Pete Briscoe who encouraged her to teach adult Sunday School there. She did and did an amazing job. Bent Tree is a conservative church but believes that women should serve, including teaching and leading as the Lord has equipped them.
    One of their pastors is Joanne Hummel, whom Dee said is a great pastor and can knock it out of the park. Good researcher and pastor. Equipped by God.

    This is Bent Tree’s opening elder positions to women, something Pete Briscoe had prayed for 24-years to happen.

    Having done a tour-of-duty of a NeoCalvinist, 9Marks, authoritarian, John MacArthur-ite church that promoted Complementarianism/Patriarchy and men-only in leadership roles, it began to grate on my last raw nerve. They live under the Old Covenant, not the new one we have in Christ! I began to think about my Presbyterian grandmother’s church and her friends, women doctors who were medical missionaries in countries around the globe. They practiced medicine and taught the Gospel, including to men. And they changed lived.

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  16. Women in the Church by carroll osburn is a very good book to read on this subject. Very clear and well researched. If someone doesn’t tell people/men the good news they may go to hell and whose fault will that be, If men aren’t going to do it why muzzle willing women. It can be done with decorum and class. I’ve seen some of Mariano’s videos and I think he is too brash and insulting, like he’s trying to imitate older preachers instead of the way The Lord did, persuading. I don’t think The Lord yelled or insulted. Even when He chastised the pharisees, etc He still did it in love, not ego

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  17. Milano expresses his convictions but not dogmatic absolutes from scripture. Maybe to Milano it is wrong, however many disagree with him. Many will say there are no examples of females preaching in the NT. This is simply untrue. If we define street preaching as declaring the truth about Jesus to people…you must look at the woman at the well. Jesus chose a woman. That woman went and declared to the MEN of the city to come and see the Messiah and she declared what He told her and showed her. The whole city goes out to Jesus and the MEN tell her, first we believed because of your word, but now we believe because of what we have heard from Jesus. Did Jesus correct her and say, no its not appopriate for you to raise your voice and declare the good news about me to men? Jesus CHOSE to use her for this very purpose! And many people believed. The NT clearly states that women were prophetesses. Prophets were those who spoke for God, and were given authority to do so (although told to be silent in Congregational church meetings were men were to lead). Also in OT God chose females at certain times to speak and to judge (Deborah was appointed by God as judge over Israel). We have clear instuction for women INSIDE The church congregation, but OUTSIDE there is no rule or instruction saying a woman cannot preach to the lost, whether that’s to 1, 2, or 500 people. And we have the good example of the woman at the well. I think its sad that men and women discourage women who go out and declare the truth. Some open air preachers go about things wrong, but we have examples of open air preachers like George Whitfield who was part of the great awakening. We must be careful not to discourage those doing God’s work becuase as a church we are meant to encourage one another towards love and good works.

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