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Question:
Can women serve as Pastors, Elders or general leaders in the Church?

Answer:

Oh boy, this question always gets me tar-and-feathered because I have many female clergy on my Devotional subscriber list. But the Bible can speak for itself:

1 Timothy 2:11-15 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control. (NKJV)

These verses speak specifically of the Church authority structure. Does this somehow make a women weaker or less than a man? Absolutely not.

It does two things: assigns the woman a role that she is best fitted for given God’s plan, and symbolizes the way God has chosen to show a tangible picture of the Church/Christ and Husband/Wife relationships.

This is not an issue of value, intelligence, skill or competition. It is an issue of accepting God’s will and submitting to His wisdom. When we argue that this is not “right” we are in essence declaring that we are smarter than God and that His old ideas aren’t useful anymore.

Women are encouraged to teach other women (Titus 2:3-5) and there is no prohibition against them teaching youth.

Women and men who accept their God-ordained roles are healthy and fulfilled; far from feminist accusations of “male dominance” that we hear today.

Compare the contentment of those who embrace God’s plan to the strife, confusion and hatred that is generated by those who wish to deny this God-given order. Instead of fighting, ignoring or re-inventing what God says, we do well to accept God’s plan and the blessing it brings.