Women Pastors

1 Tim 3:2-7
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence
5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);
6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
(NKJ)

How can a woman be the husband of one wife?

 

1 Timothy 3:1
This is a faithful saying: If a (man) desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.

Paul makes it very clear in verse 1.

mike

 

Additional comments in a duplicate thread can be found at this link:

http://www.baptistboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=000675

 

I don't believe a woman should scripturally be considered for a pastor of a Baptist church, but I've never heard that line of reasoning before - the church is a woman and the pastor should be a man. Are you sure that was exactly what he meant?

 

GEM, here is some more backing for your pastor's position:

Ephesians 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

HOWEVER, he is not 100% correct: The pastor is not the "husband" of the church. Only Christ is. Any man who tries to usurp Christ's role is equivalent to a man who is trying to take another man's wife.

If this is the same pastor that you wrote about in the "anointing" thread, well, there's some other issues to discuss....

The Bible is pretty explicit that women are not to pastor, but this does not mean that they can't preach; preaching and pastoring are two different things. All pastors preach; but not all preachers are pastors.

By the way: What rank are ya, Army guy?

 

This might not be exactly "on topic" so to speak, but I've always wondered about something.

For a short while about 3 to 4 years ago, I was involved with a Foursquare (pentacostal) church [very long story]. The pastors were a husband and wife team. I found that she did a better job of preaching/teaching than he did.

I know the bible's position on women preachers, but from what I could tell, her preaching/teaching was making a difference in people's lives, and from all appearances, God was working through her.

If women pastors are "forbidden," why was God working through her. And please, don't give me the "Satan wants to counterfeit God's works" line, because I saw too many lives changed for the better than to think Satan had a hand in it.

Just my thoughts.

God Bless!!!

Adam

 

Definatley check the achives on this subject, It is one of the most divisive subjects here.

I think that there is a case for women Pastors under certain guidelines, however it depends on how you interpret the word "Pastor" which is a shepherd, and how you interpret Preacher, which can be a number of things.

 

Dear Don,
You said:
"The Bible is pretty explicit that women are not to pastor, but this does not mean that they can't preach; preaching and pastoring are two different things. All pastors preach; but not all preachers are pastors."

Paul said, "I suffer not a woman to teach". (ITim.2:9, I think)

and...

"Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permited to them to speak, but to be in obedience, as also saith the law"
(ICor.14:39.. I think)

People make all sorts of fancy exceptions for these rather blunt statements of scripture, but we must ask... how can a woman "preach" as you say, without "speaking" or "teaching"?

And what person ever thought this in the history of the church, until more recent times asrtride the back of feminism?

g4g

 

Yes, women can be pastors. There is no biblical ban on women being pastors today.

 

Grateful, how do you define "preaching"?

Kay Arthur style? Then I wholeheartedly agree with you, because Kay, while being a pretty decent public speaker, sets herself up in a position of teaching or having authority over the man.

But my wife witnessing, and telling the gospel to our neighbor--that's how I define preaching (i.e., sharing the gospel and the plan of salvation), and there's no way you or anyone else is going to be able to justify saying that no woman should ever share the gospel, no matter the situation.

I believe the situation you may be confusing is that of "the church is the only place to preach."

 

What about this.....could a woman pastor a church just for women? Would that be scriptural?

Cindy

 

Why am I not surprised?

 

Can I help it if I view the phrase as culturally sprecific, and not applying to today? The Bible is specific to pastoring as one of the spiritual gifts, and it also tells us not to put a lid on our spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit does not discriminate is the giving of spiritual gifts based on gender, especially given that the Bible is filled with several examples of women in the leadership role.

IMO, forbidding the pastorate to women is an excercise in legalism.

 

Johnv, I would be willing to bet that you are talking about Old Testament women. In the New Testament, Paul tells us that women are supposed to remain silent in the church, not to teach(preach). The only exception to this is said that the older women are supposed to teach the younger women.

Why do you take this one thing to be culturally specific, but not the rest of the Bible? I can find nowhere in the Bible where it says, right now it is this way, but in the future, once women's lib comes along, don't follow what I have told you anymore.

God doesn't live by time. What He says is set in stone for all eternity. God does not change, so why are we trying to change His word? If you want to change this part, you might as well tell God that it was okay in the olden days, but we're much more intelligent and we don't need His "suggestions" anymore.

And we wonder why our country is in such bad shape.

 

Amen Bro. James.

Or it could be an exercise in obeying God's Words.