Ray,
bmerr here. Concerning the question, "Can/May a woman be a pastor?", it may be helpful to understand that "pastor", "bishop", "elder", and "overseer" are all names for the same office, each one having somewhat to do with the different aspects of the office.
With this in mind, we can turn to 1 Tim 3:1-7 to see what qualifications one must have to serve as a pastor.
1 This is a true saying, If a
man desire the office of a bishop,
he desireth a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the
husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
4 One that ruleth well
his own house, having
his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (For if a
man know not how to rule
his own house, how shall
he take care of the church of God?)
6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride
he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
7 Moreover
he must have a good report of them which are without; lest
he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
You may have noticed that this begins with "any man". I took a minute and looked "man" up in Strong's (5100) and it basically means "any man". One could argue that this is inconclusive. Very well.
Then I looked up "husband" (Strong's - 435), and it was a bit more specific as to gender. The definition reads,
"a prim. word [comp. 444]; a
man (prop. as an individual male):-fellow, husband, male, sir."
Now, Massachusetts may make court rulings to the contary, but it is absolutely impossible for a woman to be the husband of one wife, as near as I can tell, anyway.
Whatever one's opinion might be, the Bible says that a woman is not authorized to serve as a pastor, bishop, overseer, elder. The verses following those above rule out women serving as deacons, as well.
Concerning this post,
BTW, I do not believe that a woman should pastor a church, but she can preach.
The verses preceding those above disqualify a woman from preaching or teaching men. 1 Tim 2:12-14 read,
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
The reason behind Paul's not suffering a woman to teach or have authority over men lies in God's created order. It's just not how God set things up.
This does not mean that women are inferior to men. It does not mean that Paul hated women, and was trying to keep them down. (Remember that Paul wrote these words by inspiration.) It simply means that God has ordained different roles for men and women in life, and in the church.
Before I go on, I thought it might be interesting to number the NT references to the office in question, in order to determine the best term to use for it. I have limited the count to those pertaining to the office in the NT church.
- bishop - 3
- bishops - 1
- elder - 5
- elders - 15
- overseers - 1
- pastors - 1
Form here on, I will use the term elder.
A third point I'd like to make is that the office of elder (which is the most commonly used term for the office) was always held by a plurality of men in each congregation in the NT. The popular "one pastor" system employed by most denominational bodies is unscriptural.
One of the identifying marks of the Lord's church is a plurality of elders (when two or more qualified men of a congregation desire the office). This is in accordance with the pattern found in the NT.
Hope this helps.
In Christ,
bmerr