Repsector of Persons/woman pastor

[Shortandy]

Except that the "respector of persons" passage is not a prooftext for women in a pastoral role.

Well obviously some people try to use it that way John. Why do you think I posted this topic? But I am glad you see that it has nothing to do with the pastoral role.

But what about the passages that do John? What chapter and verse makes it okay for woman to pastor?

 

[Johnv]

Well obviously some people try to use it that way John. Why do you think I posted this topic?

Uh, because you like roller coasters? :wavey:

But what about the passages that do John? What chapter and verse makes it okay for woman to pastor?

Well, without rehashing what has already been rehashed ad nauseum, there are no passages that expressly permit women as a whole in specificity.

One one hand, there are verses which have been mentined that give an implication of exclusing women from the role, but there is also a cultural context for each of those which questions that application (again, all have been mentioned, no need to bring it up again)

There are, though, examples of women in spiritual leadership roles in scripture (deborah, etc), and there are examples in scripture of single males in a spiritual leadership role (Paul) that can be sen to question the "husband of one wife" application.

No one's mind will be changed, since a strict adherent to either can back up their positions with a scriptural application, and both can use "doing right in his own eyes" veses to accuse the other. Ya can't win. The question is whether it's an essential (it is not), and whether it's necessary to disfellowship over it. I don't believe it is, at least not for the Baptist, since the Distinctives of Liberty and Autonomy are in play here. We should therefore do as we believe scripture says, and allow the others to do the same. We don't need to accept the other church's practice, but dont' need to lose sleep over it. There are more serious issues than this (then again, churches have split over much less, so what can ya do?).

 

[annsni]

That's my take on it as well, and a reason I believe a single pastor should not be allowed. They clearly have shown no ability to have a family, let alone rule one.

Practically, I lean much more in this direction. I think it's really tricky when you have a pastor who's "available" as the leader of a congregation. In our circumstance with multiple pastors, I think a single pastor can be OK. We have our junior high/college pastor who's single (right out of college) and while I don't think he's qualified yet to be a senior pastor, being a youth pastor could be OK. But then again, there's still that 'available' thing and he's working with the age group where his wife could very well be in right now. Fortunately he's got a lot of men over him who are watching him closely. LOL