The goal of this brief paper is to explain our stance as a church on women in ministry. We frequently get questions about how we approach the roles of women in our services and on our staff at GSC.

This topic is full of opinions and emotions. My hope is to bring clarity for the person who is curious and create intrigue in the person who is certain. Depending on your upbringing the thought of a female pastor might sound heretical and for others the thought of women not being allowed to lead a corporate prayer in church sounds like blatant chauvinism.

In my experience, most people who find themselves at our church just want to know what the Bible says. They are not asking about women in ministry because they are men full of egos trying to suppress women through power structures- nor are they feminist looking to obliterate the patriarchy. They are curious folk, like you and me, who love Jesus, love the Bible, and want to live lives marked by full surrender to the Lord. Ultimately, Good Shepherd believes that scripture, not culture or our emotions, is our infallible and ultimate authority on all matters of life (Psalm 19:7-11, 2 Tim 3:16). At the end of the day, we want to be in lock-step with the Bible in all areas of life- not just church polity.

Let’s start at the very beginning.

Genesis 1:26-28 lays out for us that in the beginning God created two complementary roles. That it was “not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18) and so God made a “helper” who was suitable for him. The term for “helper” given for the women incites in us English speaking Americans an idea of “subservient to” or “beneath the leader.” For us, this reads like: “the woman assists the man.” However, the Hebrew phrase for “helper” is ezer kenegdo. The word ezer is used several times throughout Scripture and it is used mostly to describe God himself- therefore it cannot communicate a subservient role because God is not subject to anyone. Ezer kenegdo is a phrase that communicates both power and strength (Psalm 30:10, 33:20, 70:5, 115:10, 146:5). The picture given to us in Genesis 1 and 2 around the created relationship between man and women is one of complementary roles, two separately gifted people, where the two are co-equal and co-laboring for: the glory of God, the cultivation of the Earth, and their own good.

The cultural mandate given to both Adam and Eve is a joint venture to multiply, cultivate, and have dominion all over the Earth. This operation is then completely broken when sin enters the world. When we read about the consequences of sin in God’s perfect creation in Genesis Chapter 3 we are reading about the fracturing of all creation. The ultimate consequences of sin are death and separation from God but we see in chapter 3 verse 16 that a specific consequence is a fractured relationship between man and the woman.

We begin to see the strife that sin creates between these two co-equals on the first few pages of our Bible: The woman’s “desire shall be contrary [or toward] your husband, but he shall rule over you.” It’s important to note that this male rulership is a result of the fall. Once we understand relational hierarchy being a consequence of the fall we can begin to explore the profound undoing of sins consequences in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. This profound victory does not just take away the sting and pain of sin but also begins to put back together every fractured piece of the garden.

What does this have to do with women in ministry? If we don’t read the Bible as a narrative- we will lift verses out of the story and we will draw poor conclusions with them. God created a perfect world and people are the pinnacle of His creation. Mankind breaks their allegiance to creator God and chooses to cultivate a life without Him and, in dramatic fashion, that very God comes down in the form of a human to bear their punishment and restore back to them their original mission of cultivating creation for His glory. This is the story of Scripture. In order to understand the role of women in ministry, we have to understand this narrative. You could also say it this way: The Bible is absolutely authoritative and so the best method we have to interpret what the Bible is saying specifically is understanding what the Bible is saying globally.

That being said, let’s dive in. Here is how I would answer questions and concerns about women in ministry if you and I were at coffee.

Can women be ordained for ministry or more simply: Can a woman be a licensed pastor? When people deny that women should be pastors here are a couple of the arguments I hear.

Men, not Women, were priests in the Old Testament. This is true. Priests were men and always men in the Old testament. You will not find a verse referencing a woman who is carrying out the duties or responsibilities of the priesthood and you will not find God giving any instruction for the priests with feminine pronouns. However, it would be a mistake to draw an absolute correlation between the priesthood in the Old Testament and modern day pastors. First, as explained in much of Hebrews, the priesthood is merely a shadow of the substance- Jesus- as our great high priest who alone mediates between us and God. There is no need, under the covenant of grace, for a priest to act as a buffer between the people of God and the presence of God. Pastors humbly help shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet 5:1-5) in a way that encourages, corrects, and teaches God’s people as the Holy Spirit empowers and renews us into a more God-centered life. Priests are no longer needed as they were needed in the Old Testament and pastors do not function the way priests functioned. Men no longer mediate us into the presence of God; instead, faith in Jesus qualifies us to be in His presence and the Holy Spirit draws us into and empowers us to be in His presence- you don’t need another human to do this. Second, the Old Testament does not yet see the Spirit of God poured out on all people who follow Jesus. However, it is prophesied in Joel 2. This prophecy is then confirmed and explained by Peter in Acts 2. This is a watershed moment in history as the Church is born and the Spirit of the living God is poured out—- Pentecost. The language in Joel 2 is clear that the Spirit of God is to be poured out on all people. Men, women, children, the elderly, rich, poor, black, white, the people who grew up in a Christian home, and the people who have been surrendered to Christ for 30 seconds—-all have been sealed for salvation, and all are gifted specifically for the purpose of building God’s Kingdom. When reading about spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4), nowhere do we see gender distinguished gifts of the Spirit. We believe that men and women alike are uniquely and specifically gifted by God for the purposes of leadership, prophesying, administration, hospitality etc. Third, the modern day term pastor is not, typically, an office held in the church but is instead a gift recognized in the body for the shepherding of the body. An Elder, however, is an office given to a local body of believers (a church) to help govern and provide oversight for the people- more on this later. In Romans 12, we see that every single person who is part of the royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9) is now brought into the family of God and given a specific gift or role as if a part of a body. The human body analogy, given by Paul, creates for us a picture of a church that is incomplete without everyone’s participation and is interdependent on all people using their gifts to fulfill the ministry in front of them. It would be a grievous mistake, then, for a church today to draw lines around certain gifts that the Bible does not draw. Can you imagine sidelining so many of our gifted members and how limited and ineffective our ministry would be by saying that women can’t lead teams, execute strategy, and preach the gospel? Not only is GSC a place where we want to see women thrive and grow in their gifting but we believe it is the woman’s duty-as is all our duty to exercise and steward her gifting for the glory of God.

But— the 12 apostles were men, not women.

Also true— the 12 apostles were men, not women, and this should not be ignored. As a church, we believe that gender and sex is a genetic, God given, irrevocable piece of our human design. So yes, priests were men and the apostles were men. But it wasn’t just men who traveled and helped Jesus with His ministry. In Luke 8:1-3 we see a host of women traveling with Jesus. When Jesus dies, the message of the resurrection is carried first by who? Two women. Women were key players in the ministry of Christ and yet, the apostles were still in fact 12 men. Why? I believe the first reason is because during Jesus' life, while He is calling people to follow Him, the day of Pentecost has not yet happened. The Church has not yet been born and the Spirit of God has not yet been made available to the people of God through the atoning work on the cross and the victory over death and sin in the resurrection. We cannot undersell the significance of that moment for all the people of God and for the uplifting of women. In Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, we recognize this moment as the beginning of the great undoing of the “Adamic curse.” Now, work is not just toil, but can be in delightful partnership with the Spirit of God to once again cultivate, and bring order to the chaos of this world. Death itself is no longer a final consequence of our sin, but those in Christ get to shout, “where oh death is your victory and where oh death is your sting!” I would even argue that the epidural is a product of grace available in the resurrection (maybe a different paper for a different day). Why would we not see this then as the undoing (or at the very least reducing) the consequence of woman's desire to be over her husband and now we see that women are once again co-equals and co-laborers for the advancing of the kingdom of God for His glory to be seen all throughout the world.

Most Egalitarians, at this point of their argument, will run to Galatians 3 to justify the belief that there is now no difference between male and female. Galatians 3 is a powerful passage but to say that it eliminates the ordering of churches and homes completely, I believe, would be a mistake. First of all, “gender roles” is not the context of that passage. Galatians 3 is first and foremost about salvation available to both Jew and Gentile. Paul is writing about our equal access to God and how because of the cross of Christ there is now no division that can hinder our access to Him. Secondly, that passage’s primary intent is to communicate that there is now no reason to boast because all of us fall dramatically short of God’s standard of perfection and we are all completely and exclusively saved by a means of His grace. Third, to say that this passage eliminates the complementing roles of men and women altogether would not be consistent with the rest of Pauline literature (1 Corinthians. 11:3, Eph. 5:22-33, Col 3:18-19).

So, we are left wondering: How is it that there is so much uplifting of women through Jesus’ victory and so many verses that still support this idea of male leadership. I believe this tension fits perfectly into the “already, not yet” tension that we sit in at this moment of History. I do not have the time and you all do not have the attention span to unpack this concept fully. Those of you who do have the attention span- read “The Gospel of the Kingdom” by George Eldon Ladd. In short, many things have been purchased for us by Christ on the cross and we already are seeing them play out in our lives but we have not yet received them fully. For example, I already know that I am a child of God, adopted into His family, a recipient of His grace and gifted as a son who belongs to Him in perfect love; but because I still live in a world plagued by sin I do not yet operate in this identity perfectly.

I believe that there are still some complementary roles for men and women to play in this “already, not yet” tension. I believe the Bible teaches husbands should lead in their homes. Not in some domineering way but in a way that helps cultivate: life, security, fun, holiness, and reverence for Jesus. I believe that men should take the initiative for the spiritual temperature of their house. I believe that men should care for and be involved in their family and should not abdicate their influence over their wives and children. At the same time, I believe that women share in this role and should not depend on their husbands for everything but rather should take personal responsibility for their relationship with the Lord and for the care and leadership of their home. The Proverbs 31 woman is one who doesn't just sit back and watch the men do their thing, but instead is one who is prudent, brilliant, and industrious as all of us should be. We steward what God gives to us and we don’t depend on anyone other than the Holy Spirit for that stewardship. Men and women partner in this way for the sake of their household and for the glory of the Lord.

Now you might be saying, “Wait- I thought this was a paper on women in ministry- not women in the household.” Very true, but one of our favorite ways we see the Church at GSC is as family (Eph. 2:19). I think every church should have a dad. Put whatever masculine character qualities you want on a leader who would make a great dad but I believe God has given men to be great spiritual fathers in our local churches. I also think that as a family- every church should have a mom. A woman who can bring all the beautiful and powerful feminine character qualities into the church. I think the healthiest churches have the two working together with all of these character qualities thriving and serving one another. At the end of the day, a church needs a dad and he is “the first among equals”. I think this is a mystery in some sense. We can’t just say that men are better leaders or that men are better teachers because we have all witnessed instances where that wasn’t true. Paul, when writing on elders, speaks of elders specifically as men (Tit 1:6-9, 1 Tim 3:1-16) and so we recognize that the office of elder is for men. My best guess for an answer to the mystery is the “already, not yet tension” outlined by Ladd. But don’t think it was only men who held leadership roles in churches. In Romans 16 we read about Phoebe who is “serving” in the church which is the same word Paul uses to describe his own role as “serving” the church. We also see Priscilla and her husband Aquila who are “fellow workers” in the ministry, that is the same phrase used to describe teaching the gospel- as demonstrated by Priscilla teaching Apollos in Acts 18:26. Romans 16:7 has Junia who is “outstanding among the apostles.” In Philippians 4:2-3 has Eudora and Syntyche, two women, who are teaching and sharing the Gospel. Paul even goes so far as to endorse women prophesying in the public gathering in 1 Corinthians 11:5. Women are extremely present in the New Testament church and yet there are still some male specific roles in loving oversight/eldership of a church family. This seems to be pretty plainly outlined by Paul, I don’t fully understand it, but it’s there.

All that being said- aren’t there verses that explicitly prohibit a female from having authority and speaking in a church? Well, yes and no.

The two verses (yes there are only two) that inform much of our cultural bent towards only letting men preach and not allowing women to be pastors are 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15.

1 Corinthians 14 is the easier of the two to explain so we will start there. The church in Corinth is dysfunctional to say the least. It is rife with over emphasized spirituality that is divorced of actual holiness and reverence. As part of this, one of the big problems the church is struggling with is order in the worship service. Chapters 11-14 are full of instructions for the church and it is here where we read in verse 14 “let the women keep silent in the churches… and it is a disgrace for a woman to speak in church.” Hey, easy Paul. It’s important to note that something specific, not universal, must be happening in the church in Corinth because the command given by Paul is not for the women to not preach, not pray, and not prophesy. After all- he has already given instruction on how to prophesy (women included) in chapter 11. Historians and theologians best guess at what's happening in Corinth is that the women are sitting on one side of the service and men are sitting on the other and the women are either chatting the whole time or are actually yelling across the church for clarity on points because women were mostly illiterate and uneducated at this point in history. Paul doesn’t give the command to keep from preaching (I would argue that preaching is essentially prophesying according to Rev 19:10) he in fact says they can’t speak at all. Not even at the donut table or while picking up kids from the children's ministry. It is poor exegesis to use this verse to interpret Paul as saying women can’t preach. Paul is writing to a specific situation at a specific time and if you disagree with me then forget women preaching- the church you are looking for is one where women can’t speak as soon as they get in the building.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 says: “A woman should learn in all quietness and full submission.” Paul continues this very direct command by saying, “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over (dominate) a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” Once again, if these principles are universally applied to all churches ever then women must zip the lip as soon as the countdown timer hits “zero.” Paul makes this text even more confusing by rooting his argument in the fact that women are saved in childbearing. This stands in direct conflict with Romans 5:12-19 which shows us we are saved by grace- apart from works!. Whenever verses get confusing- we must remember the Bible is one story! God is saving the world and restoring humans back to our original design of cultivation and stewardship of creation for His glory! Contextually the book of 1 Timothy is a letter written to encourage a young pastor, Timothy, to lead this church in Ephesus. Understanding what is happening in Ephesus will help us understand Paul. The Temple of Artemis also known as the Temple of Diana was the epicenter of Ephesus where young Timothy finds himself pastoring. Artemis was a Greek god who had a cult following and her idolatrous worship was full of sexuality, fertility, and an obsession of power. Clearly, one of the main problems Paul is trying to confront as he writes Timothy is false teaching that is creeping its way into the church (1 Tim 1:3-20, 4:1-7, 6:6-10; 20-21, 2 Tim 2:16-26; 3:5-13; 4:3-4) some of this false teaching is running alongside some widows of means who are propagating the false teaching (1 Tim 5:13) and this is likely drawing lots of the females away from Timothy’s leadership. There is also a heavy emphasis from Paul for Timothy to remain pure. I believe that Paul’s words are intended to create commands for a specific situation: a young, single, pastor in a city where power hungry women and sexual perversion fill the streets. Women are clearly obsessed with leadership and domineering men in Timothy’s world and the argument that these texts still apply today don’t hold water. The commands to not speak are not to be read universally and the command for no women to be in leadership is not present in any church I’m familiar with. Even in the most conservative churches, women lead volunteer teams, lead prayer gatherings, teach in Sunday school and all of this would be excluded by Paul if we applied this passage to the church universal. There are things that are happening in the Bible culturally that we can glean principles from but their commands do not hold today. Here we specifically see that women vying for power for the sake of power should be removed from leadership and God wants servant leaders leading his church (Heb 13:17).

Ultimately, at Good Shepherd you will see men and women co-laboring for the kingdom of God. Hopefully, all of our leadership, men and women alike, will be marked by character, humility, and ambition. I would describe our biblical position on women in ministry as a “little c” complementarian where there are biblically outlined roles for men in the office of Elder and the home, but women are called and equipped in the church to be pastors, preachers, prophets, teachers, leaders, administrators, executives and the like. This is not our church responding to what we see happening in culture, this is not what our emotions feel to be right. It is our deep biblical conviction that we stand on after countless hours of research and prayer.

For more learning I would check out:

Jen Wilkin: Female Bravery and the Mission of God.

Brady Boyd “Let Her Lead”

Nathan Finochio, TheosU course: Women in Ministry

Special thanks to Aaron Stern who is a friend and has his own brilliant paper on the subject which helped form language in this paper.