Answering a Popular New Argument with All of Scripture
A video by the late Dr Alan Cairns first pushed me to write on this. In March 2025 I set down a short answer: can a woman be a pastor in the New Testament church? Biblically, no. That is still my stand. This piece is the longer follow-up, because a new kind of argument is doing the rounds, and it sounds careful, humble, and Bible-loving and people are falling for it.
I love the Word of God. I have no other authority I want to stand on. If the Lord has spoken, that settles it for me. I do not want to be unkind. I do not want to quench what the Spirit is doing in a sister’s life. But I also do not want to be more spiritual than the Scriptures. The safest place in the world is still to teach the Word of God simply, and then to do what it says.
A popular argument is going around about women preaching and leading in the church. For years many of us said no. The people making the new case often say culture did not move them. They say Jesus is Lord. Then they say that after looking at the Greek and the women who served with Paul, they are no longer sure the Bible forbids it. So they allow women to preach and lead, because they do not want to muzzle someone the Lord may have called.
I understand that heart, nobody wants to stand before Jesus, especially church leaders and find out they quashed a gift. But folks, the other side of that is just as serious. I do not want to stand before Jesus and find out I handed His church flock to an office He never assigned. Uncertainty is not a new book of the Bible, where the Word is plain, we obey. Where a verse is hard, we do not use the hard part to cancel the clear part.
This is not a question of whether a woman is as valuable as a man. Of course she is. God made them male and female, both in His image. This is not a question of whether God uses women. He does, beautifully. I have watched women lead other women to Christ, raise godly children, open their homes, and pray down heaven. The question is simply this: has God given the office of pastor, elder and overseer, and the regular teaching of the gathered church, to qualified men? I believe He has. I have believed that from the Word, not from a mood.
What Question Are We Actually Asking?
Now let us be careful here, because this is where the discussion gets fuzzy. People mix three questions into one.
- May a woman speak spiritual truth?
- May a woman serve, prophesy, pray, evangelise, and labour in the gospel?
- May a woman hold the office of pastor, elder or overseer, or regularly preach and teach with authority over the mixed congregation?
The Bible says yes to the first two. It says no to the third. If you lump them together, then anyone who holds the third line sounds as if he is telling half the church to sit down and be quiet forever. That is not what we are saying. Paul loved the sisters. Romans 16 is full of their names. The same Paul wrote 1 Timothy 2 and 3. We do not get to choose our favourite chapter.
Pastor, elder, overseer and shepherd are not three different jobs in the New Testament. They are different words for the same office. Peter says the elders are to shepherd the flock and serve as overseers (1 Peter 5:1–2). Paul says an overseer must be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2). Paul says Christ gave pastors and teachers to the church (Ephesians 4:11). The man who feeds the flock and guards the doctrine is an officer in the house of God. You can change the title on the bulletin. You cannot change the function. If a woman is the regular voice opening the Word over the whole congregation, she is doing the elder’s work, whether you call her pastor or not.
The New Testament Pattern, Not a Mood
Let us just look at the Scriptures. That is always the best place to start. We will use the NKJV. If you like to look up the Greek, Blue Letter Bible will take you right there. I am not trying to impress anybody with Greek. I just want us to see that the English is not hiding something the Greek would overturn.
Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
BLUE LETTER BIBLE CHECK — 1 Timothy 2:11–12
γυνή (gynē, G1135) — woman / wife. Context decides. Here Paul is talking about order in the church.
ἡσυχία (hēsychia, G2271) — quietness, a settled, peaceable spirit as she learns.
ὑποταγή (hypotagē) — submission. God’s beautiful order, not a cruel muzzle.
διδάσκειν (didaskein, from didaskō, G1321) — to teach. Paul’s regular word for doctrinal teaching.
οὐκ ἐπιτρέπω (ouk epitrepō, G2010) — I do not permit. Present tense. A standing word, not a shrug.
αὐθεντεῖν (authentein, from authenteō, G831) — to exercise authority over. Only here in the New Testament. Rare does not mean we can ignore it.
ἀνδρός (andros, from anēr, G435) — a man. Paul is talking about teaching-authority over a man.
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach… one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?).
BLUE LETTER BIBLE CHECK — 1 Timothy 3 office words
ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos, G1985) — overseer. Same office as the elder.
μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα (mias gynaikos andra) — a one-woman man, “husband of one wife.”
διδακτικός (didaktikos, G1317) — able to teach. That is the work of the office.
πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros, G4245) — elder. In Titus, elder and overseer are the same men.
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination… holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
BLUE LETTER BIBLE CHECK — 1 Corinthians 14:34–35
σιγάτωσαν (sigatōsan, from sigaō, G4601) — let them keep silent. Same verb as v.28 and v.30, but here Paul adds “not permitted to speak” and “as the law also says.”
λαλεῖν (lalein, from laleō, G2980) — to speak. He is not only saying “take your turn.”
ὑποτάσσεσθαι (hypotassesthai, G5293) — to be submissive.
ὁ νόμος (ho nomos, G3551) — the law. This is Bible order, not Corinthian fashion.
αἰσχρὸν (aischron, G150) — shameful, in the sense of the speaking he is forbidding in church.
But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God… But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.
Now you see the whole picture. Paul is not against a woman praying or prophesying. He gives her instruction for how to do it. Then in the same letter he regulates speech in the gathering. We take both. That is how you stay balanced. The moment we start choosing the verses we like, we have left simple teaching and started editing the Lord.
Gifts Are Not the Same as Office
This is the place the new teaching always slips. People see a gifted woman — and there are many — and they say, “How can you tell her she cannot preach?” But gift and office are not the same thing.
The Holy Spirit divides gifts as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:7–11). Sons and daughters prophesy (Acts 2:17–18). A woman can have a real gift of teaching. A man can have a real gift of teaching and still be disqualified from the office because of his life. Being able to do a thing is not the same as being called to the office that does that thing over the church.
Office is something the Lord set in the church as the apostles appointed elders. Paul even wrote down what kind of man that elder is to be. He is to hold fast the faithful word. He is to exhort and to convict those who contradict. He is to take care of the church of God like a man takes care of his house. That is not a talent show. That is a trust.
I have known sisters who knew the Word better than some of the men in churches I grew up in. I would say my wife Debbie knows more Scripture than I do. That does not make them, or my wife, the pastor. The Lord is the One who designs the house. We do not get to rebuild it because someone is gifted.
Point One: Women Spoke — Therefore Women May Pastor?
The first claim in the new argument is, “Women spoke in the New Testament.” That is right. 1 Corinthians 11:5 assumes a woman praying or prophesying. Acts 2 says daughters will prophesy. Philip had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). I have no argument with any of that.
But prophecy is not the same as the elder’s teaching office. In 1 Corinthians 14:3 prophecy edifies, exhorts and comforts. Then the church is to judge what is said (v.29). The elder’s work in Titus 1:9 is to hold the faithful word and, by sound doctrine, exhort and convict those who contradict. That is a recognised, ongoing charge over the flock.
If “your daughters shall prophesy” meant “your daughters shall be the pastors,” Paul would not have needed to write 1 Timothy 2. But he did write it! The same Holy Spirit who fell at Pentecost breathed out the Pastoral Epistles. I do not want to set Acts against Timothy. I want to let both speak. Joel’s promise is about the Spirit being poured on all flesh. It is not a new qualification list for elders.
If we make every gift into every office, we lose the order God put in the church. Then everybody is an elder, and nobody is an elder, and the wolves have a field day.
Point Two: What Does “Keep Silent” Actually Mean?
This is a fair point in the new argument. The Greek word sigaō is used in verse 28 of the man who speaks in tongues with no interpreter: let him keep silent. In verse 30, if another prophet receives something, let the first keep silent. It does not mean those men can never open their mouths again. It means, in that moment, stop.
So when we come to verse 34, “Let your women keep silent in the churches,” we should not pretend the word itself means a woman may never sing or say amen. I have never taught that. Women prayed. Women prophesied. We have women who share a testimony and it blesses the body.
But look at what Paul puts with the word this time. “They are not permitted to speak.” “They are to be submissive, as the law also says.” “If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home.” “It is shameful for women to speak in church.” Then, “Did the word of God come originally from you?” And then the line that should settle a lot of arguing: “the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (v.37).
Same verb. Different reason. In verses 28 and 30 the reason is order in the gifts. In verse 34 the reason is submission according to the law, and Paul calls it the Lord’s command. I do not want to take a commandment of the Lord and say, “Well, they were just taking turns.”
So how do chapter 11 and chapter 14 live together? Very simply. A woman may pray and prophesy under the order of headship. She is not to take the place of interrupting with outbursts, judging, or teaching in a way that sets aside that order in the church meeting. The silence is not “no female voice in the building.” It is still a real restriction on a real kind of speech in the church.
Point Three: Verse 35 Does Not Diminish the Command to Married Questioners
Yes, gynē can mean wife as verse 35 talks about asking their own husbands at home, so married women are in that sentence. That is true. It does not mean the only problem in Corinth was wives calling out questions, and therefore a single woman may take the pulpit.
If the only issue was lack of education, Paul could have said, “Start a class.” He said ask your husband at home, be submissive as the law says, and it is shameful to speak in church. He said it “in the churches,” and “as in all the churches of the saints.” That does not sound like one noisy room in Corinth.
Could there have been instances of disorderly questioning? Certainly. The entire chapter focuses on order. However, the context does not cancel the principle he mentions, which is law and submission. Genesis is not a local Corinthian practice.
Here is where the new humility concerns me as I discern. Some teachers say, “I cannot prove exactly what was happening in Corinth, so we should not be dogmatic.” Then that fog is and used to set aside a command Paul calls what is a commandment of the Lord. That is not humility. That is letting our guesses about Corinth outweigh the words Paul actually wrote. Let us be honest with the text we have.
Point Four: 1 Timothy 2 Is Not a Fog Bank
This is the passage you have to deal with if you want women in the pastorate. Even those who argue for it admit the text is difficult. I appreciate that. But a difficult verse is still the Word of God and being difficult does not mean optional.
Paul does not need the word “preach”
He says he does not permit a woman to teach — didaskō. In these letters that word is loaded. “Charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). An overseer must be able to teach (3:2). “Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (4:13). “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). Titus is to hold the faithful word and use sound doctrine to exhort and convict (Titus 1:9). Paul is not stopping a mother from telling her boy about Jesus. He is stopping the authoritative teaching of doctrine over the men of the church.
Authenteō is rare. Rare is not a loophole.
You will find authenteō only here in the New Testament. Blue Letter Bible will show you that. Some say it means exercise authority. Some say assume authority. Some say domineer. The old King James said “usurp authority.” Now listen: none of those readings give you a woman senior pastor. If it is rightful authority, she is not to have it over a man here. If it is seized authority, she is not to seize it. Paul joins it to teaching: I do not permit her to teach or to authentein a man, but to be in quietness.
He could have used exousia, his usual word for authority. He used this word. That may tell us something about the tone. It does not delete the sentence. Even if you put a question mark over that one verb, you still have, “I do not permit a woman to teach… a man.”
Ephesus had false teachers. That is why we have the letter. That is not why we bin chapter 2.
Of course there was false teaching in Ephesus. That is 1 Timothy 1:3. That is why Timothy was told to stay. The occasion of a letter is not the expiry date of the commands in the letter. If we say, “There were problems in Ephesus, so chapter 2 is local only,” then chapter 3 becomes local only, and we have just lost the qualifications for elders. I do not know many pastors who want to lose chapter 3. They only want to soften chapter 2.
Paul does not ground the restriction in Artemis, or in uneducated women, or in first-century habits. He grounds it in Adam and Eve. That should tell us something.
“Let a woman learn” is not a pulpit key.
I love verse 11. “Let a woman learn.” In that world, that was a gracious word. The gospel puts a Bible in her hands, she is a disciple, and she is to grow. She learns in quietness and all submission. Then verse 12 tells us what that learning is not for. It is not a step up into the role of teaching the men. Learn, yes. Take the overseer’s teaching chair, no.
Point Five: The Creation Argument Is the Strongest Part, Not the Weakest
This is the part the new argument finds hardest. That honesty is fair, because Paul leaves the local church and goes right back to the beginning.
For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
That little word “for” is doing a lot of work. It is the reason. Why this order in the church? Because of how God made them, and because of how sin entered.
Adam being formed first is not an accident. 1 Corinthians 11:8–9 says the same thing: man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. That is not a put-down. Genesis 1 already says both are in the image of God. Genesis 2 then shows us order. Adam is formed first. He is given the word. He is given the work of naming. Eve is the helper comparable to him — a glorious partner, not a slave, and not a co-head. When they fall, the Lord still comes looking for Adam (Genesis 3:9). Paul reads Genesis the way it is written.
Is Paul saying women are easier to fool? I do not think that is the point. Men get deceived all the time. Churches get deceived. Adam’s failure is huge. Romans 5 puts the headship of the fall on Adam. Paul is not writing a study on female intelligence. He is saying this is how God ordered the first home, this is how the fall happened, and this still instructs how the church is to be ordered.
If you pull creation out of 1 Timothy 2, you have to say Paul only used Adam and Eve as a handy story for a local problem. That is not how it reads. Adam is still formed first. That has not changed in two thousand years. Culture has changed. Genesis has not.
What about “she will be saved in childbearing”?
Verse 15 is a tough one. “Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” I have heard good men differ on it. Some see the dignity of the woman’s calling in the home. Some see the promised Seed in Genesis 3:15. Some see salvation worked out in the life God actually gave her, rather than in taking the man’s office.
What I will not do is use a hard verse to throw out the clear ones, we do not toss John 3:16 because John 6 is hard. The “nevertheless” does not cancel verses 11 to 14. A woman is saved by Jesus, the same as a man. She is not saved by becoming a pastor. She walks out that salvation in the callings God named, not in the ones the age finds more impressive.
Point Six: “Husband of One Wife” Is Not a Gender-Neutral Slogan
The Greek is mias gynaikos andra — a one-woman man. I have taught for years that the heart of that phrase is faithfulness. The elder is not looking for hookups, He is not running around, He belongs to one wife. A single man is not automatically shut out. A man without children is not automatically shut out. We read the list as character where those relationships exist.
But that does not turn the phrase into “a one-spouse person.” Paul described a man. He talks about a man ruling his house, and then he says, if he cannot do that, how will he take care of the church of God? The home and the church are being set side by side. That fits Ephesians 5. That fits 1 Corinthians 11. That fits 1 Timothy 2. It is all one piece.
You can go through the New Testament looking for a woman elder. You will not find her named in that office. Jesus chose twelve men as apostles. Jesus was not afraid of the culture. He taught Mary. He spoke with the woman at the well. He sent Mary Magdalene with the news of the resurrection. And still He chose twelve men for that particular office. I do not want to be wiser than the Lord.
Must an elder be married? Scripture says No! Must he have children? Scriptures says No. Must he be a man? From the lists in scripture, the pattern, the creation order, and 1 Timothy 2, Yes. Marriage and children are life circumstances but Male leadership in that office is the ordination frame God built.
Point Seven: Honour the Women Paul Honoured — Do Not Ordain Them by Stealth
Romans 16 is a wonderful chapter. If anybody tells you Paul hid the women in the kitchen, just read it. If anybody tells you Romans 16 gives you women pastors, just read it again, slowly.
Phoebe
I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.
Diakonos (G1249) is servant, minister, sometimes deacon. Prostatis (G4368) is a helper, a patron. Phoebe was a trusted sister. She may well have carried the letter. Honour her. She is not called an overseer. She is not called an elder. The deacons in Acts 6 were chosen so the apostles could stay with prayer and the Word. Serving is a holy thing. It is not the same as ruling and teaching the flock.
Priscilla
So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
I love Priscilla. She is often named first. She knew the Word. She and her husband took Apollos aside, not up to the pulpit, aside, and together they laid out the way of God more accurately. That tells me a woman may speak truth to a man in a proper setting. It does not give us Pastor Priscilla of the church in Ephesus. Friends, private help with her husband is not public government of the church. Let us not twist the verse until it says something it never said.
Junia
Romans 16:7 speaks of Andronicus and Junia, “who are of note among the apostles.” Good Bible teachers still discuss what that means. Were they outstanding among the apostles, or were they well known to the apostles? Junia is almost certainly a woman. Even if you take the stronger sense of the phrase, that still does not make her the pastor of a local church. The word apostle can mean a sent one, a messenger. We should not build a church office on one debated phrase in a greeting. That would not be the careful reading of Scripture we say we want.
Lydia, Euodia, Syntyche, Philip’s daughters
Now, Lydia opened her home (Acts 16). What a woman, hosting the church is not the same as being the elder. Euodia and Syntyche laboured in the gospel with Paul (Philippians 4:3). That is the calling of the saints. Philip’s daughters prophesied. Gift, not office. The New Testament is full of women who were in the work. It is not full of women who were the pastors. That silence means something. If the Lord wanted us to see women overseers as normal, He had every chance to show us one and to write her into the list. He did not.
Point Eight: Pentecost Does Not Ordain Elders
I love Acts 2, the Spirit is poured out on all flesh, where your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Servants, men and women, the same Spirit, the Same gospel. A woman is not a second-class Christian and if any church that treats the sisters as decoration has not been listening to the Lord.
The Great Commission is for the church, not for a boys’ club. Women make disciples. Women tell the story of Jesus. The Lord sent Mary Magdalene to the brethren with the news that He was alive (John 20:17–18). That is beautiful. That is not the Lord ordaining her as the senior pastor of Jerusalem.
Now liberal folk are saying, “We should never set boundaries Scripture itself doesn’t set.” Amen. Now the question is whether Scripture set this one. I believe it did. 1 Timothy 2 and 3 are not a fence we built out of fear. They are a fence the apostle built out of Genesis and out of the Lord’s command.
The “I Am Not One Hundred Percent Certain” Move
This is the part that sounds the most loving, and it is the part that worries me the most.
Some pastors say they are not one hundred percent sure women may hold every pastoral office. They also say they are not one hundred percent sure the Bible forbids them to preach and lead. So they allow it, because they would rather risk empowering a gifted woman than risk burying her gift.
Now turn that around gently. What if you stand before Jesus and find out you put people in an office that He said, in His Word, He does not permit? What if “I do not permit” was clear enough, and we treated it as a maybe because we were afraid of being unkind or hurting feelings?
I have never had one hundred percent of all mysteries solved. I still do not understand everything in Ezekiel. That does not give me permission to set Ezekiel aside. We walk in the light we have. The light we have here is a command, a creation reason, and a male list of qualifications. That is enough to obey.
Results alone do not validate a ministry biblically. God can save people even in the middle of a disorganised service. If God could speak through a donkey, He can certainly use a woman’s voice on a YouTube video, a street corner, in a kitchen, or during a ladies’ study. We must remember that an anointing is not the same as a pastoral office, and a divine blessing on a ministry is not a mandate for a new rulebook.
Yes, the labourers are few. Jesus said that. His answer was, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers. He did not say, change the qualifications because we are short-handed. The harvest is great. The Word has not changed.
What This Is Not
This is not saying women are less intelligent or less spiritual.
This is not saying a woman may never open her mouth in a church building.
This is not saying a woman may never correct a man’s doctrine. Priscilla did, with Aquila, privately.
This is not saying women should sit on their hands while the world goes to hell.
This is not covering for lazy men who will not disciple their wives and then hide behind a verse.
This is just the house of God as the New Testament describes it: qualified men carrying a heavy office, and gifted women filling a wide and glorious ministry the Lord really did give them.
What Women Are Called to Do
If all we do is say no, we have missed the heart of God. The Bible’s yes to the sisters is a big yes.
Sisters who read this site, hear this plainly. You are not a problem to be managed. You are not second-class in Christ. The Word gives you real work.
They pray. They prophesy under order. They evangelise. The woman at the well brought a whole town (John 4). They minister of their substance (Luke 8:1–3). They open their homes, like Lydia. They teach the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (Titus 2:3–5). That is not a leftover job. That is a strategic ministry. If the older women would take Titus 2 seriously, the church would be strong. Some churches have ignored that pulpit and then wondered why the sisters were hungry for another one.
They teach the children. Timothy’s faith dwelt first in Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14–15). They serve. They suffer for Jesus. They are heirs together of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). In Christ there is neither male nor female as to salvation (Galatians 3:28). That is about who belongs to Jesus. It is not Paul tearing up 1 Timothy 2. He wrote both. He meant both.
So use the women. Honour them. Put them to work in everything the Word allows. Just do not invent an office the Word did not give.
Soft Complementarian, Hard Text
Some churches will let a woman bring a word on a Sunday under the elders, or teach a mixed Bible study, while still saying she cannot be the senior pastor. I understand why they do that. I think the safer path is the one we tried to walk: the regular teaching of the whole congregation is an exercise of authority over that congregation. When you do the work and refuse the title, you are usually only one step away from taking the title.
Liberalism Does Not Always Arrive Wearing a Rainbow
When I say liberal, I do not mean a political party. I mean that slow drift where the Bible is still quoted, but something else is in the driver’s seat — scholarship, hurt feelings, the size of the harvest, the fear of wasting a gift, the year we happen to be living in. The brother says he is doing the opposite. He says he will not forbid what Scripture does not clearly forbid.
Watch how this method work, though, we first take the hard text and then we think andtalk about the rare word, about Ephesus, about Phoebe, and about how unsure we are. After that, the uncertainty is allowed to become the permission. That method does not stop with this subject. I have watched it travel. Once “I am not one hundred percent sure” becomes the way we decide what to do, the church almost always moves away from the plain sense of Scripture and toward whatever the age is demanding.
Jesus is Lord. If that is true, then 1 Timothy 2 is not a problem to manage. It is a word to keep, while we open every door the same Lord actually opened for the sisters.
A Pastoral Word to Men and to Women
Men, if you use these verses to crush a woman, you are not being biblical. You are being a bully. If you will not teach your wife, do not quote “ask your husband at home.” If you will not raise up qualified men, do not blame the women for stepping into a hole you dug. Read Romans 16. Read Proverbs 31. Lead like Jesus. He washed feet. He laid down His life (Mark 10:42–45; Ephesians 5:25).
Sisters, if you love the Word and you feel that ache of a gift, that ache is not wasted. There is a huge field in front of you. Teach the women. Teach the children. I had a wonderful Sunday school teacher who was also a teacher at my primary school and ran the SU class. She was one of the main people in my life who pointed me to Jesus.
Importantly, tell people about Jesus. Open your home, as my wife does. Pray. Write. Serve. Some of the sweetest Bible lessons I have ever heard came from women who knew what they were called to, and what they were not, and they were free in it. They were not muzzled. They were planted by the Lord.
To pastors and churches who have changed, and many have changed since the days of the liberalism and wokeness took over Church of Scotland parishes I grew up around: I do not doubt that you love Jesus. I think a tension has been allowed to become a permission slip. The women around Paul do not cancel the words of Paul. The Greek does not wash out the sentence. Creation is not a local custom. The office still looks like a qualified one-woman man who can teach. Until the Lord changes His Word, and He will not, we are not free to change the office.
Where I Still Stand
Can a woman be a pastor in the New Testament church? No.
Can a woman be the regular teaching voice over the mixed congregation? No.
Can she pray, prophesy under order, evangelise, disciple women, teach children in Sunday School etc, serve, correct error privately, and labour in the gospel? Yes. And that is not second best. That is Bible.
Were there prophetesses? Yes. Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, Philip’s daughters. Deborah was used in a dark day in Israel. She is not the pattern for the New Testament elder. We are not under the judges. We have the risen Lord, the apostles’ doctrine, and the lists He gave us.
Was Phoebe a servant? Yes. Did Priscilla know theology? Yes. Was Junia honoured in the work? Yes. Were they pastors? No.
I do not want to forbid what God has commanded the sisters to do. I do not want to command what God has not permitted. That is not a muzzle. That is just staying under the Word and being Bible Strong.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
Check it in the NKJV. Check the Greek in Blue Letter Bible. Do not take my word for it. Take His. Simply teach the Word of God simply, and then let us do it.
Related:
“Can Women Be Pastors?” — 26 March 2025, on this site. https://bornagainchristians.org/2025/03/26/can-women-be-pastors/
Women In Ministry by Mike Winger: https://biblethinker.org/women-in-ministry/
“Can women be Pastors? “by Dr Alan Cairns
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