A-frickin-MEN.
This boggles my mind reading through this thread.
It's as if the men here are whining "Must. Cling. To. Ancient. Chauvinism!" in order to maintain a sense of self-worth.
Because obviously their self-worth is totally based on their ability to lord it over a woman and declare her inferior in the eyes of God.
Totally ignoring the FACT that God has placed MANY women in positions of authority over men throughout history.
Especially missionaries during the early 20th century.
Most of the greatest missionary breakthroughs of that period were made by WOMEN, in part because the men were at home fueling the industrial revolution and boring the pants off people from the pulpit.
“The matter of women preachers became a problem only when women wanted to be pastors back home, in the sometimes affluent neighborhoods that typically had churches pastured by men.”
-Tony Campolo
And somehow the world didn't explode. Shocking, I know.
We live in an age when God's spirit is more available to more people than ever before, and He is doing greater things in our country and our world than ever before.
...and some of us want to stifle that because Paul gave some very historically- and culturally-specific instructions a few thousand years ago.
I believe God is calling more women to lead because there's finally a high enough percentage of the Body of Christ (of both genders) willing to humble themselves and follow whom God has called to lead, focusing on the Spirit's presence within them moreso than on their gender.
The household argument ("If a woman can't be the head of her household, then she can't be head of the church!") is also losing its ability to retain water.
Once again, we are in a different time than the one in which Paul's instructions were written.
Neither I nor my wife claim "leadership" in our household.
We defer that position to God, and devote more time and energy to helping each other follow Him than lording a nonexistent human position of power over each other.
This arrangement is quickly becoming the majority, at least in this country.
She is much more mature than I am, even being three years younger, and 99% of the time it's just safer for me to defer to her wisdom than strike out on my own.
I was raised in the church, yet because she wasn't she possesses a much more authentic faith than I, having chosen to serve God as an ADULT rather than being indoctrinated (read: forced) to go through the motions from birth.
When our pastor asked us, during our final premarital counseling session, whom we thought was getting the short end of the stick in our marriage, we each pointed to the other.
The concept of the "Christian household" being a theocratic dictatorship is quickly going the way of the Dodo.
Christian couples are coming to God TOGETHER AS EQUALS, not one coming and dragging the other kicking and screaming.