Controversy Over Women Pastors

The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to expel churches with women pastors. This includes the famous Saddleback Church of Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life). At the same time, another denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, has changed their policy to allow women to be pastors.

Churches that allow women as pastors are called “egalitarian,” based on the idea of equal opportunities for both genders. Those that restrict the pastoral role of men are called “complementarian,” based on the idea of men and women holding different roles that complement (or provide something essential or lacking to) each other. 

• See: http://www.baptist2baptist.net/printfriendly.asp?ID=58 
• “We don't know how to say this more strongly: women and men are of equal value! However, because Scripture speaks specifically to the role of pastor, churches are under a moral imperative to be guided by that teaching, rather than the shifting opinions of human cultures.”

Pastors = Elders

The Bible teaches that the offices of pastor and elder are equivalent.

Acts 20:28 (addressed “to the elders of the church at Ephesus (17)) So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock - his church, purchased with his own blood - over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.

Elders are called to “feed and shepherd God’s flock”. The title “pastor” is literally “shepherd.” They are appointed as “leaders”. The word translated “leader” is the same word translated as “overseer” in other passages.

1 Peter 5:1-2 And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you.

Elders are assigned to “care for the flock” - IOW to act as shepherds, that is, pastors

In our culture, not all elders are “vocational” (or paid) pastors paid as pastors. But vocational pastors are clearly a subset of a church’s elders.

This is important as a precursor to the next point, which is at the heart of the controversy.

Only Men Can Be Elders

In the Bible, the eldership role is limited to men.

1 Timothy 3:1-2 This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an overseer, he desires an honorable position. So an overseer must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife…”

(literally in Greek: “a one-woman man”)

Titus 1:6 An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife,...

(again, in Greek: “a one-woman man”)

There are a lot of other qualifications. This isn’t just about gender.

1 Tim: a life above reproach; Exercise self-control; Able to teach; Gentle, not quarrelsome; Manage his family well; Not love money

Titus: Live wisely; Be just; Live a devout disciplined life; Enjoy having guests.

This list should remind complementarian churches to take other qualities seriously besides gender. 

1 Tim referred to overseers; Titus to elders. There is clearly an equivalence. We’ve already seen that these words also include the people who are pastors / shepherds in the church. Putting two and two together, pastors must be male.

Teaching and Authority

At the heart of the debate is the interpretation of I Timothy 2.

1 Tim 2 (NLT) 11 Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. 13 For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve.

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Complementarians have been accused of vesting too much importance in this single, hard-to-interpret verse. Jamin Hübner makes this case. He examines “how the verse is handled in light of the traditional hermeneutical principle of interpreting obscure passages in light of the more clear” and concludes that complementarians are misguided in treating 1 Tim 2:12 “as a clear passage,” suggesting they may do so “out of an effort to legitimize the ban on women pastors.”
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Another reason for controversy is the presence of three major issues that play into exegesis, translation, and application of the verse: (1) the historical setting of Ephesus, (2) the meaning of authenteō (“assume authority over” in the NIV), and (3) the grammatical construction involving the expression “teach or … assume authority.”
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) And in any case, “just as v. 11 was not a demand for all learning to be done in silence, as an unqualified absolute, but was concerned with women’s learning in the midst of the assembled people of God, so also the teaching here has the same setting and perspective in view.” In other settings women’s teaching is commended or mandated, just as their vocal participation is assumed and affirmed (e.g., 1 Cor 11:5).

Complementarianism: Women and Men Are Equals with Different Roles

The Bible teaches that men and women are spiritual equals, but have different roles in the life of Jesus’ church.

Galatians 3:26-28 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

There is no distinction in different people’s relationship with Jesus, or their standing before him. People from every social group can equally be children of God through their faith in Jesus. This is true regardless of one’s ethnic identity (Jew or Gentile), one’s social position (slave / free), or one’s gender (male / female). .

So why are churches giving women the role of pastor?

In the past, this was limited to churches that did not uphold the authority of the Bible. They didn’t care what the Bible had to say. It seemed more egalitarian to give women the same positions as men.

But Saddleback Church, and the C&MA, stand for biblical authority. Christians from that perspective who believe in women as pastors will argue that the equality of men and women in Christ (as seen in Galatians 3) extends to leadership positions. They will also argue that the Bible’s perspective on male leadership is not from God, but reflects the patriarchal culture of the times.

SO: are there vocational roles for women in churches? Yes, but not the role of elder / pastor.

Part of the problem is confusion in our culture about church leadership. Because we think of pastors as the ones we hire to lead, then anyone hired to a role on a church staff is thought of as a pastor. But we’ve seen biblically, not all pastors/elders/overseers are paid for their service. That should be true in today’s churches as well. We have laymen who are elders, and who thus have a pastoral role, and are essentially pastors biblically, even though we don’t call them that unless they do it for salary. We can also have women on staff vocationally, as long as their roles don’t mirror the elder and overseer roles of the New Testament.