Should Women be Allowed to be Pastors?

This week, the Southern Baptist Convention, the world’s largest protestant denomination, were in the news for ousting four of their churches from the fold. The reason: those churches (including Saddleback Church) have ordained women to be pastors.

It was a bold move: Saddleback alone has 22,000 members. Why did the denomination feel it appropriate to draw a line in the sand with so many brothers and sisters in Christ? Because they believe prohibiting women from pastoring is clearly found in the inspired, accurate Word of God. Their common assumption is that those who differ with them on this are simply ignoring the Bible.

This is absolutely not true. There are many great biblical scholars that believe women are not limited in how they can use their gifts. People like: F.F Bruce, Gordon Fee, Craig Keener, Ron Pierce, and Leon Morris, in fact. I can tell you I have personally spent countless hours digging deep into the pertinent passages, using all the tools I was taught in seminary. What I believe about God’s purpose for women is a result of a lot of careful exegetical work.

Then where are we differing, if not in respect for and careful handling of God’s Word? In our interpretation. We love and revere the same book, but differ in what we think those controversial passages teach. While the Bible is the inspired Word of God, interpretation is not. It is subject to the assumptions, cultural expectations, and experiences of the interpreter.

In the case of women pastors, the main objection stems from a certain interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:11-16 (NASB):

A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.  But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.  But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Unfortunately, this particular passage is frequently taken out of context, and said to mean what it does not mean.

There are a few things to consider about this teaching:

1. Paul here tells a woman to receive instruction quietly and to remain quiet. But in 1 Corinthians 11, he has no problem with women prophesying or praying aloud in the body. Is 1 Timothy in conflict with his earlier instruction to Corinth?

2. Is Paul instructing all women to be perpetual students? Because in 2 Timothy 3:7, he warns against women “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” How can these two teachings be reconciled?

3. A controversy revolves around the verb authenteo, translated (in the New American Standard Bible) as usurping authority. The problem is that this verb only occurs once in the entire New Testament. In fact, even in the secular writings of the first century, it is only found two other times. How can we be sure we have accurately understood its meaning?

4. Apart from this verse, there are no instructions in the New Testament that specifically limit women from teaching/preaching. Since a limitation like that would impact half of the world-wide church, why didn’t Paul bring it up in any of his letters to other churches?

5. And what about the context? Paul was writing to Timothy, whom he calls his “son in the faith”. Timothy was serving the Lord in the city of Ephesus per Paul’s request, in order to, in Paul’s words, “instruct certain people not to teach strange doctrines” (1 Tim. 1:3). How does this passage fit in with the rest of this letter? How is it an important part of the whole?

 

In light of how long this post is becoming, I will continue this subject tomorrow in a new post. In the meantime, take a look through the rest of the letter. Why is Paul writing? What clues can you find that might identify his main intention? You may also be interested in getting a copy of my book, On Purpose: Understanding God’s Freedom for Women through Scripture. It is a careful study on each of the passages that are often thought to limit women. It’s time to take another look. Because if we are limiting half the church in freely using their Holy Spirit-given spiritual gifts, we are attempting to walk on one leg, when we were given two.