- Can women be pastors?
Can women be deacons?
Whole denominations divide over this,
and the only answer that we can give to this,
is we have to go back and think carefully
what Scripture says
and embrace all that Scripture says
because what God has made and what He reveals to us
is always for our good.
We have to be very very careful
that we don't follow the mindset of the world
that thinks it knows better
than God who is the Creator and Redeemer
and Lord of His people.
Now when we look specifically
at the issue of women pastors and deacons,
the first thing that we have to do is
is carefully define what a pastor is.
In our day, pastor can just be a term that covers
so many things.
You could have pastors: senior pastors
and you can have pastors
over adults and over children
and over youth and so on.
And of course, when you use the term pastor
in that way, pastor over children,
pastor over women,
well obviously, men and women can fulfill
many of those pastoral roles.
But in order to really get at the question,
we have to first think about biblical offices.
We have to then work from the biblical text
and how the church is described
and the officers that are described biblically.
Then move to what we mean
in the contemporary world by pastor.
So when we do that, I think we can make a very strong case
that there are two main offices
that function in our local churches.
There were apostles, but they have now passed off the scene
and that was a unique time period
and group of men who were called by Christ
and eyewitnesses of the resurrection.
But after the apostles have left,
it's very clear that you see in Scripture
some interchangeable terms.
Elder, pastor and there's where you get pastor.
It doesn't show up that often.
It'll show up as a noun, pastor,
or even a verb, to shepherd, to pastor.
And you will also then have the term overseer
where we get the term bishop.
And then presbyter, we get from elder.
Now if you look at scripture,
I think these three terms,
elder, overseer, pastor
are really interchangeable.
So in Acts 14:23, Paul is establishing churches.
He puts elders in every church.
He does that in Ephesus but when he goes to Ephesus
in Acts 20, he meets with the elders
and he tells them to
pastor or shepherd.
God has made them overseers
and you get the sense
that these terms are used interchangeably.
So we could work through the biblical data
but we'll say that the biblical data teaches
that elder, pastor, overseer is an office.
So it's being used in a way that probably
is not the way we're often using it in contemporary society.
In contemporary society, we've expanded pastor
to just refer to any kind of leadership in the church.
But in the New Testament,
elder, overseer, pastor
would be an office that was a teaching office.
That was a leadership office of spiritual leadership
over the church.
Leaders entrusted with the spiritual welfare
and care of the church.
We also have then the office of deacons.
You don't have much detail in the New Testament on deacons.
Acts 6, you have the verb form of deacon,
of servant being used as people are called
to help, then come alongside the apostles.
Philippians 1, the Apostle Paul addresses
elders and deacons.
1 Timothy 3, we have instructions for deacons.
So on that basis, we would say that deacons,
and when you look at their role,
they're a servant role.
That's in fact what deacon means.
To serve, they are helpers.
They come alongside the elders, pastors, overseers.
So with that mind, with that distinction,
we then can go from the biblical data
to then our contemporary kind of questions.
In Scripture, you look at, say, a 1 Timothy 3
where qualifications for overseer
and then that would be also elder pastor are given.
It's set in the context of 1 Timothy 2
that speaks about roles in the church,
men's roles, women's roles.
What's important there is that in 1 Timothy 2,
prior to his instructions regarding overseers and elders
is that he then says
I do not permit a woman to have authority
over a man.
In that context, it makes best sense
to speak of this leadership role,
this overseer role, which 1 Timothy 3 then picks up on.
And it's very very important to see
that this isn't just a kind of cultural prohibition
because Paul grounds his argument
in what we would say a creation fall redemption argument.
So that in creation order,
which continues today,
he says Adam was made first.
Eve was made next.
And of course, as you go back to Genesis 2,
we then see that males and females
are both created in God's image.
They have both equal value,
yet the very description
of the woman is of complementary nature
so that both Adam and Eve are to function
in a complementary way.
Different roles yet serving alongside one another.
And that shows itself in families
and it shows itself in the church
so that the teaching, not having authority
to teach over a man is not total silence.
We know in other places in Scripture
that women are praying and they're speaking
and doing these things.
It is in the context, I think, of this office,
of pastor, elder, overseer
that then is picked up in 1 Timothy 3.
So when we do look at Scripture,
elder, pastor, so what we call a pastor
in the biblical sense,
an overseer would be reserved for men.
Deacons is difficult to know.
In 1 Timothy 3,
as the Apostle Paul and in verse 8
moves to deacons likewise
and gives qualifications for them,
he also says they're to be husbands of one wife,
which assumes a male.
Yet in verse 11, a word is used there
that can either be translated
deacon's wives or just simply women.
It's very difficult to know
because we don't have a lot of data on this.
Romans 16, for instance, calls Phoebe
the term for deacon is used.
So does that mean servant
or an actual office of deacon, right?
I think when we put all this together,
if we keep the elder, pastor, overseer role,
I think Scripture's pretty clear
that's reserved for men as spiritual leaders
of the church in that one capacity.
Deacons, certainly men serve in that role
but I do think in verse 11, it's quite possible
that it's opening it up for women as well
because the deacon role
is not that same kind of teaching authority,
leadership in the church.
It's more of a helping role.
Phoebe may very well may fit as an example of this.
So for today, not everyone agrees with this
but today I would say that for the question,
to answer the question,
can women be elders, pastors,
overseers in the biblical sense,
I would say, Scripture says no to that.
That's a specific role that's tied
to a male headship that's bound up with
creation and it's for our good.
For deacons, I would say,
women can be deacons
working with the biblical distinction then
between pastors, elders and deacons.
The question then becomes is all right,
what about the expansion of
teaching in small groups
and leading of worship services and so on?
And a lot of the answers to this
would I think be tied back to how
the churches work out that elder,
pastor, overseer role.
So if they are limiting that elder, overseer role
to the overall spiritual leadership of the church,
the preaching teaching ministry
and so on, then they would be overseeing
all of that, putting people in place
that would be reflective of
the biblical teaching.
If they're not viewing
ministers of music and this type of thing
as pastors, overseers,
then there would probably be flexibility
both for men and women.
So I think there is probably a discretion for churches.
I do think they have to try to
make their church structures
and government and offices
as close to Scripture as possible,
which then allows for
an easier application.
The more we call everyone a pastor,
the more that we expand every role
to some kind of leadership role.
Then we run into some of these gray areas,
which are difficult to answer.
We need to also be reminded
that we must not let the world set the agenda.
The world's pretty confused
in terms of male female and everything else,
in terms of human relationships.
God knows how He has made us.
He knows what is best and good and right.
We also have to remember that when we think of
women's service in the church,
it's only one office
that Scripture says that they do not fulfill.
Yet every role, both men and women
are equally baptized in Christ,
receive the gifts of the Spirit,
serve side by side
as husbands and wives would do
even though there would be
a headship in the home.
So we have to keep all of that in mind and make sure
that we are being conformed
to the Scripture and not being
conformed by our world's standards on this issue.
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