Women as Pastors or Elders

 Many Christians dogmatically teach that there were no woman pastors in the New Testament. They also claim that the New Testament forbids the ordination of women to the office of pastor.

Such dogmatic teachings require strong biblical evidence. However, it is very difficult to find unambiguous evidence to support this belief.

In Ephesians chapter 4, we find the one and only text which is considered the basis of the Five Fold Ministry.

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
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Eph 4:11–13 NIV

There is no mention here of any qualifications or requirements for a person to be a pastor. Nor is there any hint of what the leadership position of pastor involves or how pastors relate to Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists or Teacher.

The office of pastor in churches since the Reformation is based on the office of priest in the Roman Catholic Church of that time, but this is not in any way derived from Biblical teaching or practice,

Protestant theologians typically teach that a pastor is the presiding elder in a congregation, but this is not based on any biblical text. It is pure speculation. The bible simply does not give us any definition or description of the authority or leadership position of a pastor.

Not one minister, preacher or leader in the NT is referred to as a pastor. Not one.

So how can church leaders dogmatically declare that a woman cannot be a pastor?

Conservative bible teachers commonly equate the office of pastor with a senior eldership position. There is also uncertainty about the meaning and role of elders. There are two Greek words which seem to be interchangeable.

EPISCOPOS, which is translated as overseer or bishop.
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 1 Tim 3:2 NASB95

Does this mean an overseer must be married? Then Paul and Jesus would not qualify.

Does it also mean that an overseer must be a man? An important source of information on this question is the teaching of John Chrysostom, the eminent Patriarch of Constantinople around 400 AD. He was certainly no feminist, but his understanding of the NT Greek text was unsurpassed. His mother tongue was Greek, which had changed little since the time of Paul.

John Chrysostom asserted that 1 Tim 3,2 did not imply an overseer could not be a woman.

In 1 Timothy chapter one, dealing with qualifications for ordained leadership, women are only referred to as wives of overseers of deacons in conservative translations.

Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 1 Tim 3:11 NKJV

Actually, this is not what the NT Greek text says at all. Some modern translations are literally accurate.

In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything. 1 Tim 3:11 NIV

This can either refer to wives of ordained ministers or to women who are themselves ordained ministers of the gospel. There is nothing in the text to exclude women from ordained preaching ministry.

PRESBYTEROS, which is translated as elder.
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 1 Tim 5:17 NIV

The Greek words for older men or older women can also mean male or female ordained leaders, so the Greek NT text cannot be used to exclude women from ordained eldership.

Set Free from Childish Dependance

 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Mk 9:35 NRSV

and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mk 10:44–45 NRSV

The senior pastor in the church is supposed to be there to serve everyone, right? There are faithful pastors who are expected to do everything. They are supposed to be available 24 hours a day. Many give up after a few years due to burnout.

For some Christians, the pastor is the all-knowing saviour and also the slave who is not allowed to have a life for himself and his family.

Our pastor once told us about a phone call in the middle of the night. A Christian in the congregation had called him.

‘Pastor. It's 2 o'clock and I can't sleep. Can you pray for me?’

The pastor replied: ‘Now I can't sleep either.’

The pastor is there to help everyone, but not like a young mother with helpless babies who don't sleep, so the mother doesn't sleep either.

The flip side of this absurd situation is that some mothers demand that their children remain dependent and submissive for years and never become independent adults. The mother always remains the mother who is always there to help, and the children must always submit.

Unfortunately, this is also the case with some pastors. The pastor works like a slave and expects permanent dependence and unconditional obedience from the members.

Most are not so extreme and there are also very good pastors.

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, Eph 4:11 NRSV

Jesus has given us gifted leaders, but not so that we should remain permanently dependent babies, nor so that we should remain like unconditionally obedient servants who are not allowed to do anything without the pastor's permission.

What is the task of ordained preachers and leaders?

Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Eph 4:12 NLT

Jesus also wants to give you spiritual gifts so that you not only help the pastor in the church, but also so that you can be a lighthouse in the world.

Ordained preachers are commissioned by God to release our gifts of grace, not so that we can remain permanently dependent and submissive in the church, but so that we can be missionaries in the world with God's supernatural power.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Mt 28:19 NIV

And who is allowed to baptise? Only ordained preachers? Where is that written?

Once my wife and I brought a family to church. They were asylum seekers from the Middle East. They wanted to be baptised immediately, but our pastor couldn't do it just before Christmas.

The pastor asked me a radical question.

‘Why shouldn't you baptise them yourself?’ That's what we did in the ocean. The pastor came unexpectedly as a spectator and God blessed us wonderfully.

Only Jesus is Perfect

 In the Bible, I see that even great men of God were not flawless. Moses needed the advice of his father-in-law.

The great King David sinned and was exposed by the prophet Nathan.

Some Christians want to put Peter on a throne, but when Peter went wrong, he was rebuked by Paul.

After his conversion, the apostle Paul gave the impression of being faultless. But how did Paul himself evaluate his Christian life?

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;

but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Rom 7:22–25 NIV

Others want to worship St Mary as the Queen of Heaven. Jesus loved his mother. but Jesus had a different view.

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.

Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”

Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Mt 12:46–50 NIV

If a preacher claims to always be right, don't trust him. That is prideful. If you think of your pastor or a prominent evangelist as always infallible, you're misguided.

The true disciples of the Lord learn to recognise the voice of God for themselves. They learn to think for themselves with wisdom.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. Jn 10:27–28 NIV

WHERE DID CHURCH HIERARCHY COME FROM?

In New Testament times, local churches were led by teams of elders, and there was no one man in charge. 

The words PRESBYTER (elder) EPISCOPOS (overseer) and SHEPHERD (Pastor) were used interchangeably. 

The ministry of Pastor is mentioned only once in the entire New Testament.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the SHEPHERDS and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12 (ESV) 

• There is no New Testament text indicating that one preacher dominated the ministry of a local church. 

Ephesians 4:11-12 does not define a pastor as an office holder who governs a congregation or dominates its teaching and preaching ministry.
The Apostles were missionaries, evangelists, teachers and church planters. When the Apostle Paul planted a church, he stayed for a while and then moved on without appointing office holders or official leaders. Later he would return and appoint elders. These pioneer churches were small networks of house churches. 

• No text tells us that Paul put one man in charge. 

When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, he addressed serious problems of sin and disorder but he did not address his letter to a leader or leadership group. 

1 Corinthians 1:1-2 (ESV) Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 

• To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 

Paul addressed his letter to the whole community of believers. 

It was up to the community of believers to work out how to make decisions, who should be delegated to exercise leadership, how to manage their affairs. 

• Paul was very conscious of his spiritual authority but he was clearly against authoritarian hierarchy and micro management. 

Some years later, some preachers had set themselves up as religious rulers over the Corinthian church. The Corinthian believers submitted to the domination of these leaders and Paul was not happy at all.

2 Corinthians 11:19-21 (NIV) You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 

• In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 

• To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! ....

Paul calls dominating preachers FOOLS and he sharply criticises the Corinthians for submitting to them.

Paul’s approach to leadership was very different and he ironically calls his own leadership “WEAK”. 

• But today we see many churches ruled by a rigid patriarchal hierarchy. Many leaders are like the FOOLS and BULLIES described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 11.

Where and when did the church abandon the free brotherhood and sisterhood of Paul’s time? 

Between 100 AD and 250 AD, bishops became the absolute rulers of the churches. They claimed to inherit the absolute authority of the first Apostles but unlike Paul, they practised extreme authoritarian micro management. 

• Only a bishop or an ordained priest was allowed to celebrate the Lord’s supper or baptism. 

Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage from around 248 to 258 AD.

• “He taught that a bishop had no superior but God. He was accountable to God alone. Anyone who separated himself from the bishop, separated himself from God.” (Pagan Christianity. Viola and Barna p.114)

But Jesus said to the first Apostles.

• "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 

• And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 

• Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. Matthew 23:8-10 (NIV) 

In Paul’s farewell address to the church leaders in Ephesus, he gave this warning:

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30 (NIV) 

Are all senior pastors wolves or dictators? Far from it. Many are wonderful men or women of God and some lay down their lives as the first apostles did.

Nevertheless, a good pastor must remember he may be a leader but he is above all a fellow disciple, a brother or sister in the Church.

HOW TO ACCESS GOD'S WISDOM

Jn 9:1-2 (NKJV)  Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The disciples expected Jesus to explain why the man was blind but Jesus did not directly answer the question or give the explanation they expected.

Jn 9:3 (NKJV)  Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

God teaches us many things but if we expect Him to explain everything, we will be disappointed. 

• It is good to want to understand more but God’s thoughts are often very different from ours.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV)   "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

In spite of this we often expect our pastors to understand and explain everything. How foolish, when we consider that even God does not explain everything on the spot.

Pastors are often tempted to appear that they know everything. I love this story from a well known preacher.

A pastor answers a difficult question. Then the Heavenly Father turns to Jesus and says: “It was very interesting what that pastor just said. I never thought of that. Jesus, did you tell him that?”

In many churches, pastors claim to teach divine truth but in reality the people are being fed with human ideas.

That is very dangerous if a Bible believing pastor has excellent Bible knowledge and gives the impression that he understands everything, so he must always be right.

In Pentecostal churches, many preachers may have good Bible knowledge and also prophetic gifts. The people may be tempted to expect him to always have a word directly from God. 

God often gives a word of revelation but not always. 

• If the prophetic preacher makes a mistake and the people do not know how to seek God for discernment and confirmation, they can be misled. 

• Even a true word of prophecy can be unhelpful if people to not learn how to hear from God themselves and seek wisdom from God to apply his revealed truth.

We need to hear from prophetic people, but we also need to hear from God ourselves.

Jesus understood these dangers very well. 

Many Jewish Rabbis were looked up to as infallible sources of divine truth but Jesus warned against this.

Matthew 23:8-10 (NKJV)  But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 

• Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

• And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.

This still applies to us now. It make no difference whether the preacher is called “Rabbi” or “Pastor.”

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was WITH the Jewish people. He spoke to the people through the written Word and also through prophets, priests and kings, who had more direct access to God.

But when Jesus died, rose from the dead and then poured out His Holy Spirit on all believers, everything changed.

James 1:5 (NIV)  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Now every believer has direct access to the wisdom of God to guide him in his life. Wisdom comes through faith in God Himself. 

We should not despise preachers and leaders and there are times when it is good to seek wise counsel from others, not necessarily from pastors. 

But the most important source of wisdom is God Himself.

Isaiah 55:6-7 (NKJV) Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

• Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.

The two key essentials for growing in wisdom are faith in God and a willingness to obey Him.