- Apr 25, 2016
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How could you exhort wives to respect their husbands if, by your example, you would not be willing to respect your husband's very reasonable concern? Neglect of one's own marriage is to neglect one's own ministry.
When I offered for ministry, I told my husband that our marriage would always come first. That if my ministry was hurting our marriage, then my ministry would need to change. I think that's a good principle.
That said, it is not reasonable for my husband to expect me to neglect or compromise my pastoral responsibilities. I could not do my job if my husband refused to let me meet alone with a man. At that point, I might need to consider leaving ministry; but what I would not do is continue in the ministry while not fulfilling its requirements properly.
If the OP has a problem with his wife doing the work of a pastor, then maybe they both need to consider her leaving that role; but what I think is not reasonable is him agreeing to her being in that role, and then trying to control or undermine her in it.
Edited to add: although frankly, the idea of one spouse trying to forbid the other from doing a particular job because they don't like that it brings them into contact with the opposite sex comes across as more than a bit controlling and unhealthy.
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