This week: Women in Ministry Edited by: Jeff-o'-lantern 🎃  
More Newsletters By This Editor 
 
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
— C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff-o'-lantern 🎃 and I'm one of the regular editors of the official Spiritual Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site in that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me directly or submit feedback in the comment box at the bottom of this newsletter. |
Women in Ministry
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Originally published as a blog post in "Blogocentric Formulations" , responding to a prompt from the "Take up Your Cross Blog Forum" about what the Bible says about female pastors, I wrote the following essay in response.
The Bible doesn't say anything explicitly about women pastors.
Now, before I get a bunch of people throwing scriptural citations at me, I will concede that the passage that is most often cited as an argument against women in church leadership is 1 Timothy 2:11-15, which says:
11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
And there have been a lot of churches over the years who have pointed to that as some kind of definitive proof that women cannot serve in church leadership, or worse, are inferior to men in some way. It's a very complementarian interpretation of this passage (i.e., where everyone is spiritually equal, but each gender has very specific roles that complement one another), while the more egalitarian interpretation of the passage would imply that there is a contextual element of this letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, where he may have specifically been writing to the church body in Ephesus (which contained an influential cult of Artemis), and was not intended to be broadly intended to apply to all women for all eternity.
Personally, whenever I come across a piece of scripture that seems incongruent with my understanding of Jesus, I look to other pieces of scripture to see if I can cobble together a better understanding of the issue as a whole. And when I do that, several other excerpts come to mind, such as:
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
— Galatians 3:26-29
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
— John 20:17-18
There is a clear message in the Bible that empowers women to preach the Gospel, and yet you'll find people incessantly arguing over the details and semantics, and trying to reconcile the fact that several women played important roles in spreading the Gospel against Paul's numerous other passages where he seems to imply gender roles similar to 2 Timothy 12 in his other epistles.
As I was doing a little research for this topic, I even found a Reddit thread where complementarian users were arguing that preaching the Gospel is not the same thing as preaching behind a pulpit, while egalitarians retorted that formal pulpits didn't exist back then, so whether you're a man or woman, preaching the Gospel in someone's home was essentially church leadership. And there's always someone out there who will counter the "Our God is one of order and he specifically has different roles for men and women" argument with the assertion that Paul was writing his epistles in the first century A.D. and that society at the time wasn't as "enlightened" as the modern world is about gender roles, sexuality, etc.
It's the kind of debate someone could spend a lifetime ruminating on. My general feeling on the matter, not that I'm trying to substitute my own opinions in place of God's intentions, is that God has given all of us — both men and women — incredible gifts. And I don't see a clear gender divide in the God-given abilities He's imbued in us. It's not like leadership qualities are only found in men. And if you've been around organized religion for any amount of time, you'll know that just because you're a man doesn't mean you're a good (or even competent) religious leader.
Meanwhile, there are some absolutely phenomenal female leaders in the world, and women who are truly gifted in a spiritual capacity. The idea that God wants them to "keep quiet" in church and let the men lead is essentially denying the church the ability to live up to its full potential. Telling gifted women to stick to their secular leadership roles and running the women's Bible study group while mediocre men do the real "leading" seems unusually narrow-minded and limiting for the church of an omniscient and omnipotent being who created men and women in his image.
So what does the Bible say about women pastors? I suppose you could point to specific passages to support whatever position you want to take on the subject. There's more than enough scripture and context to interpret in either direction. If you're more on the complementarian side of the equation and you think women have no place in ministry (or at least ministry leadership), there are plenty of churches out there that will refuse to let a woman serve in those roles, and I sincerely wish you all the best. I also fervently pray that you are intentional about creating spaces where women in your congregations can bring their full God-given gifts to bear.
But I'm more on the egalitarian side of things, and after years of attending church services where women are allowed to preach and lead alongside the men, I can tell you from personal experience that the congregations I've been a part of are all the better for it.
Until next time,
Jeff-o'-lantern 🎃
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
|
This month's official Writing.com writing contest is:
You are also invited to check out these items from members of the community:
|
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
To stop receiving this newsletter, click here for your newsletter subscription list. Simply uncheck the box next to any newsletter(s) you wish to cancel and then click to "Submit Changes". You can edit your subscriptions at any time.
|
Spiritual: October 01, 2025 Issue [#13382]
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
