“In one unforgettable lecture, Elisabeth Elliot, one of my professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, taught me to distinguish between gifts and the roles in which those gifts might be used. She announced to her class of both men and women that she had better gifts for being a pastor than most of the men in the class, possibly the entire seminary. She knew the Bible in multiple languages, had vast experience in expositing it, had the maturity bought through suffering to speak with compassion to others, and on and on. ‘However,’ she said, ‘God has not called me, as a woman, to exercise those gifts in a pastoral role. I am called to use them, but why should they only be valuable if used in one particular role, the ordained ministry?’”
-Kathy Keller, Jesus, Justice, and Gender Roles
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