Women in the ministry...something wrong with it? What are your thoughts?

Question

There are certain verses some people feel that ban women from holding positions in the church, but that is not true.

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law" (1 Corinthians 14:34).

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Timothy 2:11-12).

Now here is the interpretation of these verses:
In these verses, Paul is not addressing women who were in the ministry, but rather those in the congregation who were out of order. There are so many proofs, many from Paul himself. Here is a partial list of women who were all in influential positions of leadership in the early church.

Pheobe (Romans 16:1-2): This woman was a deaconess of the church in Cenchrea, who was beloved of Paul and many other Christians for the help she gave to them. She filled an important position of leadership. It would be a difficult stretch of the imagination to say that this woman fulfilled her duties without ever speaking in the church!

Priscilla (Acts 18:26): Priscilla and her husband Aquila are often mentioned with great respect by Paul. Together they were pastors of a church in Ephesus, and were responsible for teaching the full gospel to Apollos. We are informed that they both taught Apollos, and pastored the church together. In fact, Priscilla is sometimes listed ahead of Aquila when their names come up. This has led some to speculate that of the two, she was the primary teacher and her husband oversaw the ministry. At any rate, we see here a woman in a very prominent position of teaching and pastoring. (Other references to Priscilla and Aquila are Acts 18:2, 18; Romans 16:3, and I Corinthians 16:19).

Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2-3): Here we see reference to two women who were "true yokefellow" and who labored with Paul in the advancement of the gospel.

Junia (Romans 16:7): In this verse we see Paul sending greetings to Andronicus and Junia, his "fellow-prisoners" who are of note among the apostles. Junia is a woman's name. In some modern translations, an "s" has been added (Junias) because the translators were so sure a woman could not be an apostle, that they assumed a copyist has accidentally dropped the "s." However the proper male ending would have been "ius," not "ias." No church commentator earlier than the Middle Ages questioned that Junia was both a woman and an apostle.

Though there were other women throughout the Bible in positions of leadership, such as prophetesses, evangelists, judges, leaders, etc., the above references should be enough to establish that women were indeed a vital and normal part of church leadership. Paul expected women to speak in the church, or else why would he have given the following directive? It would have been useless to give directions for women who were speaking in the church, if they were never allowed to do so.

I have 2 aunts who are pastors of a church, so there goes that myth out of the window. If God calls you (man or woman) to lead people to the Word of God, then who are we not to obey His calling?

Answer 1

Your so right that women are called to preach and teach and fully work in the gifts of the spirit. I have been called to work in all of those capacities. I have had people, men and women, tell me that a women's place to be under men, but that is wrong teaching! Paul WAS talking about women that were yelling from the balconies down to there husbands. He also was telling husbands to break Greek (man's) law and teach their women at home. Women weren't supposed to be taught at all by men!

Traditions, have taught that women are second class in the bible. They were second class in society, then and now, in many cultures. Jesus held all men and women as equals. Yes, He set an order for the home, that is in Ephesians, for God is a God of order.
Galatians says, (gal. 3-22) that there is no Greek no Jew, no slave no freeman, no male, no female, we are all one in Christ Jesus.
praise God, He doesn't make mistakes in giving women appointing and calling. Where there is appointing, there is anointing, and that is from the Lord.

There are so many women in the Old and New Testament, that carried the Good News, and that were prophets, how can we say that one verse or two, must mean that women can't be active in chuch? If women were to be silent in church, they couldn't pray, speak, sing, it would be an absolute.

Jesus sent Mary, to speak to the men(disiples) Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, led the Jews out of Egypt. All throughout the bible are great women of faith!

Be blessed, in Jesus Christ!

Answer 2

This is a can of worms....

I think that a lot of people take it too far. The only thing that women are not permitted to do in the church is be a pastor. God set up order. His is order is as such:

God
Man
Woman

Women cannot be over a man, therefore she cannot be a pastor over a congregation. Can she minister to others? Yes. Can she spread the Gospel? Absolutely. Can she run ministries in the church? Yes. She cannot be the final authority in the church, just as she cannot at home. Hope this helps. You should read 1 & 2 Timothy. It really clears a lot up and has guidelines for deacons and pastors.

Answer 3

No one says that women cannot be in the ministry. Paul is writing regarding a certain body of believers where the women were unruley and acting out of conduct. And if you look at most of the "famous" missionaries you will find that they are women. When Jesus rose from the dead women were the first people to see Him and tell of His resurrection.

I don't believe that a woman should PASTOR a church and be the head of the flock for the following reason. The Bible is very clear that a husband is to be the head of the household and love his wife the way Christ loved the church. The wife is supposed to submit to the husband as the church submits to Christ. Does this mean be a doormat? No. Christ loved the church so much that He was willing to die for it and He loves the church regardless of behavior. A husband is to love his wife regardless of anything to the point that he would die for her.

If there is no man to lead then I think that a woman will be raised up to lead a church. Look at Deborah in the book of Judges.

Answer 4

Gal 3:28 There is no Jew or Greek. There is no slave or free person. There is no male or female. Because you belong to Christ Jesus, you are all one.


...about Junias, The Greek form there is masculine and there is no feminine article which would designate it as indicating a woman. Therefore, the Greek text does not indicate the gender of the person. The origin of the name is definitely not Greek (which doesn't have a J in its alphabet), so you can't say much based on the forms used in the New Testament, but since the name can be interpreted as referring to either a man or a woman, it is wrong to force it to be either.

Answer 5

Jesus taught that men and women were spiritually equal under God, the ministry of Jesus and his disciples couldn't have survived without the help of various women who fed and took care of them as they traveled from place to place ex: Mary Magdalene. Even in the bible Mary Magdalene is held in favor over all of the other women, even his own mother, and Mary Magdalene is the first person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection. Obviously Mary Magdalene was an influential and faithful woman, and I'm sure she was an active part of spreading the Gospel. God doesn't want anyone to keep silent when it comes to preaching about him and helping sinners to be saved. If women were not allowed to teach about the gospel then more than half of the population of the world would not be able to spread God's word, and that is definitely not ordained by God. I am Episcopal and growing up I was an acolyte, and almost all of the acolytes in our church were female. I didn't realize that this was out of the ordinary until a woman who was catholic came to our church and couldn't believe that girls were allowed to serve on the altar. I feel that God calls people to serve according to their spirit, and it has nothing to do with their gender.

Answer 6

You have a very well researched question.

I have to answer it as follows. Jesus who healed on the sabbath, looked at the circumstances before responding. In other words, he walked a mile in their mocassins.

There are times when a woman may be called by God to preach, or even to pastor a church. We have to look at the reason for the woman in that position.

If God calls a woman to the ministry and that is truly from God, who are we to stand in her way?

Take a look at Beth Moore or Joyce Meyers!

Answer 7

I don't think there's anything wrong with women being in the ministry, we are just as capable as men in spreading the gospel. A person's gender, race or whatever shouldn't matter, if God's will is for you to be a part of a ministry then that's that.

Answer 8

Women have successfully worked in the ministry. There are many examples of this in oriental as well as in western countries. Hence, in my opinion womanhood can not be treated as a ground for rejecting an eligible and worthy person in ministry.

Answer 9

There is nothing wrong with it, persay. Just remember, if I were God, I'd be embarrassed to repreent me. We have hit the sexual revolution since the Bible was compiled. We are all equal now, just women stink.

Answer 10

What I find amazing about all of that is that sooo many people will say "God said..." then they quote Paul. Which only proves that they will use anything they can in order to support their ideas.