After much contemplation, I have decided (with my wife's input) to remain at Santa Ana. The gentleman who has a problem with Women in Ministry also remains there, however, he is very humbled.
On Easter Sunday I confronted both he and his wife concerning his actions concerning the woman who preached on the Sunday I was gone. He was mortified. He had no idea I knew why or even that he was gone on that Sunday. When I told him his wife had communicated his reasons, he looked at her and searched for an answer why she would tell. Her reply? "They asked. I wasn't going to lie for you!" He was stunned. At that point his apologies began. When I told how insulted both my wife and the guest speaker was, the color left his face. Following our conversation, wherein he apologized to me and could not even find the verses he believed gave him Biblical evidence for his position, he made a bee-line to Joanie and apologized to her. That week he contacted the woman who spoke and wrote her a letter of apology.
I am still working to get him to understand things from a different direction than his Calvary Chapel theological leanings, but it is a process. He has assured me that the attitude is his and does not reflect the attitude of either the church or his family members.
I have a book about Women in Ministry and a tape put out by the Church of God to give him. We will see if he remains open to understanding the Word or whether he remains stuck in an old paradigm. Time will tell.
For those curious about this issue, here are a few Internet resources you might find interesting or helpful. The first link is from the Church of God. The other two are just ones I ran across on the web:
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