If there are lessons to learn from biblical records, I have often wondered what the implication or lessons of women shepherds recorded in the scriptures are for us. There are records of single women shepherds (of course there was also the limitation that they invariably always waited for a man to help draw the water).

1. Rachael  (Gen. 29:6,9)
2. Zipporah (Exod. 2:16)

Does this speak to the fact that a woman well taught and grounded in the instruction and practice of the word has a role in shepherding? 

Fast forward to the days of Christ and the times of the apostles. From the women listed in Luke 8:2-3, we note:

1. the place of a certain Mary in the presence of the Lord in Luke 10:38-42, who sat at the feet of the Lord and was commended,
2. probably the same Mary broke the alabaster box of expensive oil, anointing the Lord, having caught a revelation of His sacrificial death (John 12:2-7). “Thinking about the alabaster box, one ponders how the item was made of stone. What a beautiful connection to the stone tomb of Christ? Although death was on the horizon for Jesus, His resurrection would be coming. This woman carried in her hand her own stone item, a visual of an amazing trade off of our coming eternal death traded for the rolled away stone and eternal life secured through Jesus. This Mary loved Jesus so much that she gave all she had. She didn’t just pour out a little perfume to anoint Him, she gave it all (Mark 14:3-9). She couldn’t put that perfume back in the bottle. She had broken it! Maybe it was her inheritance or hope chest. She didn’t hold back any for a rainy day or her retirement” —Taken from Bible Study Tools, and
3. any wonder that a certain Mary was at the crucifixion of Christ and his tomb of Jesus full of passion for the Lord and courage that damned the reprisal of the religious and politics of her days! (John 19:25-27; John 20:1)

Would a woman measuring in the forestated attributes be lacking in fulfilling a call? And in the records of Paul the apostle we see the following:

**1. The Businesswoman Lydia (Acts 16)—This woman is in the northwest Turkish town of Thyatira, known for its guilds of craftsmen, especially the guild of the professionals knowledgeable in the production and sale of expensive purple dye. Lydia was a member of that guild. We don’t know how a woman had become one of those professionals, but when we first meet her, she had crossed into northeastern Greece and had established her business base in the Roman city of Philippi. As a seller of rare and expensive purple dye, Lydia must have had enough wealth to buy into that franchise. We learn in Acts 16 that, while born and reared to believe in the gods and goddesses of Thyatira, Lydia did not worship the pantheon of gods venerated in her hometown. Instead, she had become a God-fearer. She had already taken a major step away from her religious upbringing and had investigated Jewish claims of one God and wanted to know more. (Many God-fearers became Jewish proselytes.) We meet her at Philippi’s riverside with a group of women who had come together there to pray. It was there that Paul and Silas met her and talked with her about Jesus, and there she became the first convert to Christianity in Greece.

Convinced of the truth of the Christian gospel and believing that it was for everyone, she bore witness to her entire household and with her, they were all baptized. The apostles stayed on with her for several weeks, instructing her and her household in what she needed as a new follower of Jesus. There in her large house she began the first Christian church on Greek soil, welcoming other new believers into the fellowship of faith. Lydia was successful both in her professional work and in her social or spiritual work nurturing the nascent Greek church. Most likely the knowledge and connections she cultivated as a trader helped her in her church work, and vice versa. In Lydia we see a woman whose skill and interest is not confined to one limited area. Indeed, we see that both her position in commerce and her knowledge of faith made her uniquely qualified to spearhead the church in Greece.
 
2. The Intellectual Damaris (Acts 17:17)—As the apostle Paul continued his ministry in various Greek cities, he ended up one day in the unique city Athens, known for its university and its intellectual climate. In Acts 17 we watch him wandering through the city, astonished by all the idols and shrines to an endless list of gods and goddesses. We read in Acts 17:17 that he began to interact with the Jews and Gentile God-worshippers in the synagogue. He also addressed whoever happened to be in the marketplace each day. Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Out of that he received an invitation to address the Aereopagus, the leading council of Athens. As he spoke of Jesus, some ridiculed him, but others believed. Among the believers was a woman named Damaris. In the culture of that city, women lived sequestered lives. But one group of women was exempt from that. These were the intellectual courtesans, high-class prostitutes attached to rich men in the city. These women were able to hold their own intellectually, carrying on esoteric debates on philosophical subjects. The Bible doesn’t tell us specifically that Damaris was a courtesan, but the fact that she was allowed to be present at Paul’s meeting with the leading men of the city strongly indicates that possibility. Both her freedom to be in public and her ability to follow Paul’s conversation with the leading men enabled her to understand and to embrace the gospel Paul taught. She became one of the new converts to Christianity in the city of Athens. New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham tells us that any time we come across the name of someone in the book of Acts or in the apostles letters, it’s there because that person had become widely known among the Christian churches as teacher and leader. Because we know Damaris’ name, we also know that she was well-known for ministry in the churches. As an intellectual herself, she had the ability to reach the intelligentsia in Athens. If Damaris began her career as a high-class escort and ended it as an evangelist, we might wonder what change this brought to her income, influence, or working conditions. The answers might be lost to history. At the very least we can say that God may lead a woman to change careers, and he certainly entrusts important work to women from a diversity of backgrounds.
 
3. The Businesswoman Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2)—The apostle Paul left Athens and moved on to Corinth. This city was radically different from Athens. Located on the narrow neck of land joining a large southern peninsula to the mainland of Greece, Corinth had two ports: one on the west coast on the Adriatic Sea and one on the east coast on the Saronic Gulf. A Roman city (like Philippi) in Greece, it was a bustling commercial city with a very diverse ethnic population and a plethora of temples to every known god or goddess (including Egyptian deities). Once in Corinth Paul settled down for eighteen months, preaching and starting new Christian churches. It’s there that we meet Phoebe. While in Corinth Paul had written a long letter to the Christians in the city of Rome, and he needed someone to carry the letter to them. It appears that Phoebe travelled for business purposes and offered to take the letter on her next trip to Rome. So we meet her in Paul’s letter where he describes her to the Christians in Rome: ‘I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well’. (Romans 16:1-2). Note the two words Paul used to describe her. In the church she was, first, a deacon, a term Paul uses for only five people in his letters: himself, Tychicus, Epaphras, Timothy, and Phoebe. Whatever he and the other three men were doing as deacons, we can assume that Phoebe was also doing in the churches. But Paul then uses a second word to describe her. Our translation (NRSV) calls her a benefactor, but the Greek word in Paul’s letter was prostatis. According to the lexicographer Thayer, the first meaning of that word was a woman set over others. Obviously Phoebe, the business woman was more than merely a benefactor. She was a leader of the church in Cenchreae. Like the businesswoman Lydia, Phoebe used her wealth and influence to grow the Christian church. She even leveraged a business trip to spread the gospel. But she didn’t just carry a man’s message. Phoebe was a church leader in her own right. Today, women are often denied equal responsibility both in businesses and in churches. However, this was not the precedent set by the earliest Christian churches.
 
4. The Tentmaker Priscilla (Acts 18:2)—In Corinth Paul needed a means to support himself, and fortunately, he had a trade: he made leather tents for the Roman government and private parties who ordered them. Once in Corinth, he collaborated with a couple who also made leather tents: Priscilla and Aquila. (The Roman government required leather tents for housing its military on bases all over the empire. A canvas tent would not do, especially in northern climates. Furthermore, Paul could carry with him the few tools for leatherwork, but would not have been able to carry necessary equipment for working with canvas. Canvas was usually used for boat sails.) While scholars believe that Priscilla was a Gentile (and from the Roman aristocracy), she had married Aquila, a Jew from the Turkish province of Pontus. They lived in Rome and were part of the folks who worked with the apostle Peter in his evangelism there. But the Roman emperor (around 51-52 A.D.) ordered that all Jews be expelled from Rome. Corinth was the nearest major city outside Italy, so as refugees, they had settled there. And there they connected with the apostle Paul. This tentmaking couple became so valuable to the apostle Paul that when he left Corinth to begin missionary work in Ephesus, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him. This couple is mentioned six times in the New Testament, and in all but one case, Priscilla’s name is given first. This wasn’t simply a matter of courtesy in the first century; it indicated her primacy in their work together. Eventually, when the exile of Jews from Rome was lifted, they returned to their home in the capital city and once again became active in starting new churches there. Priscilla is often thought of as a tentmaker, but clearly she was many other things in her lifetime too: a businesswoman, a refugee, a traveling evangelist, and a church planter. While we often hear stories about complex men in the Bible, in Priscilla we see that women too are multitalented, multifaceted, and capable of working in a variety of different environments — **Taken from Theology of Work

With such weight of evidence, should tradition debar you fulfilling the call upon your lives, particularly having imbibed the disciplines outlined earlier in this post? As Samuel spoke to Saul in 1 Samuel 10:6-7 (AMPC), so do. Shalom.


Pastor Afolabi Oladele