Some thoughts on women in ministry

So a friend posted a link today on Facebook, telling how pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek church in Barrington, Illinois has raised up a replacement for himself when he retires in 2018. He has a teaching pastor to do the preaching and teaching, and an executive pastor, who presumably, will handle admin duties and may preach and teach too, I’m not sure. Well, there seems to be all sorts of protest over his allowing a woman to take his place as a pastor. First of all, I would point out that we don’t know the details. What if this woman is strictly doing admin duties? Is that a problem? But on the other hand, what if she preaches and teaches. What about that? Doesn’t the Bible say women can’t be pastors? I’m pretty amazed at all the responses this friend is getting. People are saying Paul was in error, we should listen to Jesus and not Paul, people are saying well, that teaching that women can’t speak in church is just man’s interpretation, etc., etc. I think Christians need more education! I’d like to share a section of a teaching I did on 1 Corinthians 14, because it deals with this subject. Please continue reading to see my teaching notes, cut and pasted into this blog. 

1 Cor. 14:34-35 34 Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. 35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

H. This is a very difficult and controversial topic!
1. Why does Paul say women should keep silent and be submissive?! In 1 Tim. 2:11-15, the same author, the apostle Paul, says something very similar, that women must learn in silence, should not teach or have any authority over a man, etc. This is not popular or well understood in our day by any means!

2. There are two general ways of understanding this. One way is to just take it at face value, and say women can’t be in any type of ministry at all, ever, period. Other churches seem to just ignore this completely, and allow women to do whatever they want. We must not interpret the Word of God based on our preconceived notions, or what we prefer. We must try to get to the bottom of what God wants!

3. If we take the interpretation that says women can’t have any kind of ministry at all, we find two problems.

1) almost no church anywhere is totally without hypocrisy in this, because even John
MacArthur lets women teach children’s classes or teach in missions settings, and

2) there are scriptures that seem to contradict this as well. Let’s take a look at some of these…

4. The first people to see Christ after His resurrection and report on it, thus, “teaching” about it were women. Jesus did that deliberately, didn’t He?

5. A woman named Priscilla (though admittedly with her husband Aquila), taught Apollos the way of God more perfectly. (Acts 18:26) Later, Priscilla is listed first, as the more prominent leader of their house church. (Ro. 16:3-5)

6. Paul said that Timothy was taught the scriptures by his grandmother and mother Lois and Eunice. (2Tim. 1:5) Was it wrong for those women to teach a young man? C’mon! who would say such a thing?!

7. In Ro. 16:1, Paul commends to the Romans a sister named Phoebe, who he calls a servant (diaconisa) of the church at Cenchrea. In 1 Tim. 3:8-13, the same apostle Paul says a deacon must be “the husband of one wife.” So how could this woman be a deaconess? What does it mean when a person is “the servant” of a church? Sure sounds like a pastor doesn’t it? Many scholars believe Phoebe brought the Roman scroll to Rome, and Paul told them to really receive her well and give her anything she had need of. A pretty impressive woman!

8. In Rev. 2:20, Jesus speaks of a woman named Jezebel, who taught at the church of Thyatira and called herself a prophetess. Now she was a false prophetess, and what she taught was false. But my question is, if women were never permitted to teach at all, and everyone knew that, how did she get the opportunity to teach anything at all?! Isn’t it obvious that women frequently did teach?

9. Just 2 chapters before our text in 1 Cor. above, in 1 Cor. 11:5, the very same apostle Paul who says women must keep silent in church talks about women praying or prophesying! Why would he do such a thing if he really meant that women were absolutely never to even speak in church?

10. Why does Paul say that in Christ, there is neither male nor female? (Gal. 3:28) Why is there no mention of gender when Paul outlines the spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12, Ro. 12, and Eph. 4? Does God just not give any kind of speaking gifts to any women at all, so it’s not necessary to say, “of course, women can’t prophesy or preach or share teachings or words of knowledge or wisdom or other revelations”?

11. And if you think that’s so, then why do we read of a prophetess, Deborah, in Jud. 4:4, and why was Miriam called a prophetess in Ex. 15:20, and Huldah in 2 Ki. 22:14 and 2 Chron. 34:22? What about Ana in Lu. 2:36? Isn’t prophesying speaking forth for God? Do we really believe there would be less freedom for women to minister in some way in the NT than the OT?

12. Why did Peter quote Joel in Acts 2:17 & 18, to say God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, on maidservants as well as menservants, and that sons and daughters would prophesy in the last days?

I. So then, with all these scriptural “anomalies,” how are we to properly understand 1 Cor. 14:34-35?

1. One thing that is often said is that this means women are not to teach their husbands, but not that women cannot teach anyone or speak at all in church. In both Hebrew and Greek, the same word is translated both woman and wife. That is true historically, and it does seem to make more sense of these apparent contradictions.

2. Other scholars point out that in that ancient culture, women weren’t permitted to receive education, but in the church, these ancient taboos were torn down. So women were suddenly elevated and able to learn.

3. But it was the custom then, as it still is in some Latin American or Middle Eastern cultures today, to separate the women and men in the meeting place. So the women, not having had any experience in education, would tend to yell across the aisles to ask their husbands questions. For this reason, some scholars say Paul just wanted women to be quiet so they wouldn’t interrupt the service and cause chaos.

4. We do not want to ignore or make light of any part of the Word of God. Nor do we want to just dismiss verses that don’t say what we want to hear. That would be extremely wrong and dangerous!

5. I have not brought all these other passages up to diminish what Paul is saying here about women keeping silent. What I always want to do is to take into consideration all of what God says in the Bible, and if I find seeming contradictions, that usually means God wants me to understand there is a balance that must be maintained between opposing truths, so we must strive for that balance.

6. It’s obvious from the many passages I’ve cited that God has always used women in ministry. It’s also obvious that Paul tells women in two places to be silent, and to not exercise authority over a man, probably her husband. We should be cautious about women pastors or women who are not humble and in divine order. But we must also be cautious about restricting women from any sort of ministry!