- 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. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Thanks for
watching Honest Answers. Don't forget to subscribe to find out the answer to
next Wednesday's question. (upbeat music)
