WHAT WE BELIEVE

THE HOLY BIBLE:  We believe the Bible is God’s Word. It’s very simple; it was written by men for all people under the unction and leading of the Holy Spirit. We believe it is infallible and inerrant. We believe that when it’s read consistently, the Word of God comes alive and changes lives.  (Deuteronomy 4:2; Psalms 119:105; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 4:4, 7:24-27; Luke 24:25-27, John 8:31-32, 10:35; Romans 15:4; II Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12)

GOD the FATHER: We believe in God the Father. We believe He created and designed all life. We believe He is a perfect father who is compassionate about loving His children even in their brokenness.  He seeks the eternal salvation and life of all mankind whom He made in His own image, but who had fallen into sin and lived in the bondage of Satan. We believe God is always good, present, and unchanging. He is all powerful, all knowing, unquestionably worthy of our trust, and above all, God is Holy. (Numbers 23:19; Leviticus 19:2; Malachi 3:6; John 3:16; Acts 17:28; Romans 3:3-4, 8:15-17)

JESUS the SON: Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. On earth, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. He is the only man ever to have lived a sinLESS life. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, died on the cross for mankind and thus, atoned for our sins through the shedding of His blood. He rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will return again in power and glory (John 1:1,14, 20:28; 1Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 9:6; Philippians 2:5-6; 1 Timothy 2:5).

THE HOLY SPIRIT:  We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is empowered to live holy and minister supernaturally.  The Holy Spirit’s presence assures us of our relationship with Christ and guides believers into all truth exalting Christ. The Holy Spirit also convicts people of their sin, God’s righteousness, and the coming judgment. He comforts us, and helps us to be more like Christ. We believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–8 and 2:4) is poured out on on believers (His body) today that they might have power to be witnesses to all and empowered to use all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12.

FIVE FOLD MINISTRY: We believe it is biblical for the Church to operate with the five fold ministry gifts. These include the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers. We are thankful that these function together for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ. We are also thankful to the Father for the gifts of reconciliation, service, healing, and the many other ministry gifts. (Eph 4:8-13; Rom 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-12)

SALVATION: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ; His death, burial, and resurrection. Salvation is a FREE GIFT from God, not a result of our good works or of any human efforts. Anyone can be restored to fellowship with God through repenting, believing and receiving Jesus as their Savior and Lord. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 2:16, 3:8; Titus 3:5; Romans 10:9-10; Acts 16:31; Hebrews 9:22).

THE CHURCH: We believe that the church is not the building but the people inside the building. It is where people should feel the most loved, safe, and valued.  That God is changing the face of Christianity from religious traditions to relationship with the heart of God through the word and His Spirit. The Church exists to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ and further advance His kingdom by undoing the works of the enemy, preaching and living the good news of God’s love, discipling the nations, baptizing and teaching them to love and obey God. (Matthew 16:18-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; 5:11-14; 13:1-3; 14:23; 16:5; 20:28; 1 Corinthians 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:10-12; 5:22-32; Colossians 1:18; 3:15; 1 Timothy 4:14; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 21:2-3)

LOVE: We believe that the greatest commandments for everyday Christian living are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength and to love others as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31)

BAPTISM: Water baptism is a public sign of a person’s choice to make Jesus first in their life. It shows the world what God has done in a person’s life and is a testimony to ALL that a person now belongs to Jesus.  This is done in the name of the Father, the Son Jesus, & the Holy Spirit. (Col. 2:12​; Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 2:38-41; 10:47-48)

MARRIAGE: We believe, based on the teaching of the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments, that marriage is an institution ordained by God from the foundation of the world and intended as a lifelong union of one man and one woman. This is supported by the account of creation in Genesis 1-2. Genesis 1:26-28 provides that God created human beings in his own image, both male and female. (Ephesians 5:22-32, 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Rom. 1:18-32)

TRANSGENDERISM: As a gathering of believers, we believe God created humanity in His image, as male and female (Genesis 1:27), and that biological sex assigned at birth is part of His divine design. Scripture teaches that gender is not a matter of personal choice but a reflection of God’s intentional creation. In Deuteronomy 22:5, we are instructed that “A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment”, emphasizing the importance of adhering to God’s established order for gender. Further, Romans 1:26-27 condemns the rejection of natural sexual relations, highlighting the sinfulness of actions that defy God’s created order. Jesus himself affirmed the binary nature of gender when He said, “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. (Mark 10:6). Consequently, we believe that attempts to alter one’s gender through transition surgery or the rejection of one’s biological sex are contrary to God’s will and constitute a form of disobedience to His design for humanity. As such, we call all believers to live in accordance with the truth of God’s Word, which upholds the dignity of both male and female as created in His image.

MANKIND: People (Adam AND Eve) were created in the image of God to know and enjoy Him, yet we willfully rejected the Lordship and glory of God for which we were intended. Because of this, sickness, death and judgment entered the world and now creation experiences the effects and consequences of sin.

ETERNITY & FINAL JUDGMENT: Heaven and Hell are real places and where we choose to end up for eternity is determined by our faith and acceptance of Jesus Christ as savior.  Additionally, we believe every human being will stand before God and give an account for the stewardship of their lives and that will determine our status in Heaven or Hell.  (Matthew 5:3, 12, 20, 6:20, 19:21, 25:34, 25:41; Mark 9:43-48, John 17:24; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:27, 11:16; 1 Peter 1:4, Revelation 14:9-11, 20:12-15, 21:8).

At The Barn Church, we hold a simple conviction: every person who walks through our doors carries something from God that this community needs. That conviction sits at the center of what we call a culture of honor. To honor someone is to recognize what God has placed in them, to call it forward, and to create space for it to operate. A culture of honor does not pick and choose who gets to bring their full self to the table. It refuses to disqualify people based on what they look like, where they come from, or what gender they are.

This statement addresses the specific question of women in church leadership and teaching. We do not take this question lightly. The Scripture is our foundation and our final authority. Our obligation is to handle it accurately and to let it lead us, even when the conclusion challenges assumptions we have inherited from tradition or culture.

What follows is our position, grounded in Scripture and shaped by the ministry culture God has called us to build here.

The Foundation: Honor Begins in Creation

A culture of honor does not originate with us. It originates with God. From the very first chapter of Scripture, God establishes the worth and dignity of both male and female.

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

Genesis 1:27

Both the man and the woman bear the image of God. Neither is a lesser reflection of that image. God then commissions both of them, together, to be fruitful and to rule the earth. The mandate to subdue the earth and extend God's kingdom is not given to the man alone with the woman as his assistant. It is given to both.

The Hebrew word used to describe the woman as a helper in Genesis 2 is ezer. This word is used throughout the Old Testament to describe God himself when he comes to the rescue of his people. Ezer carries no implication of subordination. It describes someone whose strength and presence are essential to the mission.

Male dominance over women is not God's design. It entered the world as a consequence of the fall recorded in Genesis 3. The mission of Jesus includes the reversal of every consequence of that fall. A church that operates under the full redemption of Christ should reflect that reversal in how it treats and releases women into their God-given calling.

The Five-Fold Ministry and Gender

The Barn operates under a five-fold ministry leadership model drawn from Ephesians 4:11-13. God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the church for the equipping of the saints and the building up of the body. This is the model we believe Scripture describes for a healthy, functioning church.

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."

Ephesians 4:11-12

Nowhere in this passage, or in any other New Testament teaching on these gifts, is there a gender qualifier. The Holy Spirit distributes these gifts as he pleases, not according to gender. A woman who carries the gift of an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher carries it because God gave it to her. To restrict her from operating in that gift is to restrict the Holy Spirit's design for the body.

At The Barn, we operate with shared leadership and distributed authority. No single person holds all the authority. The church is led by those who carry the appropriate gifts, character, and maturity, regardless of whether they are male or female. This is not a cultural accommodation. It is a reflection of how we believe God designed the church to function.

Women Leading in the New Testament Church

The New Testament is not silent on women in leadership. It is, in fact, filled with examples of women who taught, led, and held recognized positions of authority in the early church.

Priscilla, alongside her husband Aquila, taught Apollos, described as a powerful leader and teacher in the early church. Phoebe is identified as a deacon of the church at Cenchrea, a position that carried real responsibility and authority. Junia is called outstanding among the apostles by Paul himself in Romans 16:7. Philip the evangelist had four daughters who prophesied, and prophecy in the New Testament includes teaching, encouragement, evaluation, and declaration of truth.

Jesus himself set the standard. He was countercultural in how he treated women. He welcomed them as disciples, engaged them in public theological conversation, and chose women as the first witnesses and messengers of the resurrection. The one he sent first to declare the most important news in human history was a woman.

"Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them.'"

John 20:17

The pattern of Jesus, and the pattern of the early church, is one of women fully engaged in the ministry of the gospel.

Handling the Difficult Passages

We acknowledge that certain passages in the New Testament have been used to restrict women from leading or teaching. We take those passages seriously. We do not dismiss them. We work to understand what they actually say, in context, to the original audience they were written for.

The most frequently cited passage is 1 Timothy 2:9-14, where Paul instructs women not to teach or hold authority over men. A careful reading of this passage requires understanding its context. Paul is writing to Timothy in Ephesus, a city where many women were new to the faith, had little access to theological training, and were proving vulnerable to false teachers who were exploiting that lack of preparation. Paul's concern is not gender. His concern is preparation and readiness. He makes a similar point in 1 Timothy 3:6 when he warns against placing new believers into leadership, again because of unpreparedness, not gender.

The illustration Paul draws from Genesis 3 reinforces this reading. Eve was not present when God gave Adam the instruction about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was unprepared. She took the lead in a moment when she did not have the information she needed to lead well. The result was catastrophic. Paul's point is not that women are inherently unfit to lead. His point is that unpreparedness in leadership is dangerous for everyone.

1 Corinthians 11 introduces the concept of headship between men and women. In English, 'head' almost always implies authority and rank. In the Greek context of this passage, New Testament scholars, including Gordon Fee, have argued that the word for head carries the meaning of source, not authority. The passage describes the mutual dependence of men and women on each other, not a hierarchy of command. Paul himself makes this explicit a few verses later.

"Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God."

1 Corinthians 11:11-12

Mutual dependence, not male dominance, is the framework Paul is building toward.

Our Position

The Barn Church holds that women are free to serve in any leadership or teaching role in the church based on their gifts, character, maturity, and calling. We do not restrict women from the office of elder, pastor, teacher, prophet, apostle, evangelist, or any other position of leadership based on their gender.

We reach this conclusion by doing what a culture of honor demands: we honor what God has placed in a person. We do not override the Holy Spirit's distribution of gifts with a policy rooted in cultural tradition. We trust that if God gives a woman the gift of leadership, teaching, or apostolic authority, he did so because he intends for her to use it here, in this ecclesia, for the building up of this body and the expansion of his kingdom.

We also reach this conclusion by taking the biblical text seriously in its full context. When passages are read accurately, in their original setting, with attention to the specific problems being addressed, the New Testament does not establish a universal prohibition against women leading or teaching. It establishes the principle that those who lead and teach must be prepared, mature, and gifted. That standard applies equally to men and women.

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Galatians 3:28

What This Looks Like at The Barn

A culture of honor is not passive. It takes active steps to recognize, call out, and create room for what God has placed in people. At The Barn, that means we do the following.

We identify women who carry leadership gifts and we invest in their development. We do not steer them toward auxiliary or support roles simply because of their gender. We assess them the same way we assess every leader: by their character, their gifting, their maturity, and their fruitfulness.

We create genuine pathways for women to teach, lead teams, hold eldership responsibility, and speak from the platform with full authority. We do not create token positions or symbolic roles. We create real seats at the real table.

We name and reject the cultural tendency to undervalue women's contributions in ministry. We hold our own assumptions accountable to Scripture, not the other way around.

We believe our ministry is stronger, broader, and more effective when both men and women bring their full gifts to the work. Our congregation is half women. Our community is half women. The mission of The Barn requires that the full body be activated, equipped, and deployed. To do anything less is to leave the field undermanned by our own choice.

Closing Statement

The kingdom of God is advanced when the body of Christ functions as God designed. That design includes both men and women, leading and teaching together, each honoring what God has placed in the other.

At The Barn, we want every woman who walks through our doors to know that she is not a partial member of this community. She is not here to fill a supporting role until a man shows up to lead. She carries the image of God. She carries gifts from the Holy Spirit. She is called. And she is welcome to bring everything God has placed in her to the mission of this church.

That is the culture of honor in practice. That is the Barn Church.