Women in ministry (2)

Back in 1998, some people at CVC expressed concerns because some women were providing some of the leadership in our public worship services by doing such things as leading worship music, giving testimonies, praying, reading scripture, and making announcements. Some people at the time felt that only men should lead our public services in those ways. The Elders of CVC were asked then what the Bible says about the role of women in public worship services.

This past weekend, we looked at what Titus 1:5-9 had to say about eldership. On Saturday night, we received two questions about the role of women in leadership in the church.

What will follow over the next few days are the results of a Bible study that the Elders of CVC conducted back in 1998. It's called "A Biblical Position Paper on the Ministry of Women in the Public Services of CVC".

For the entire series of posts look here.

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Biblical limitations-for women in ministry

Accepted at face value, two New Testament passages clearly limit the role of women in ministry.

I Timothy 2:9-12 (NASB)
9 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, 10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. 11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15 But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue infaith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Paul, in I Timothy 2:12, states, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man" (NIV). This verse is introduced by a statement that women should learn "quietly" and it is followed by the statement that she must "remain silent." The word "quietly" means being possessed by a calmness of spirit and peaceful disposition. It is set as the opposite to "teaching" and "having authority over a man." Paul does not expect that women will not or can not learn or teach (compare with Titus 2:3-5 and 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14, 15). He states that they cannot teach or have authority over men. Thus, the clear instruction in I Timothy is that women should not have a pastoral position or perform the pastoral function, for that puts them in authority over men.

I Timothy 2:8-15 imposes two restrictions on the ministry of women: they are not to teach Christian doctrine to men and they are not to exercise authority directly over men in the church. These restrictions are permanent, authoritative for the church in all times and places and circumstances. The responsibilities and limits have been established by God since creation (I Timothy 2:13, 14).

The definition of "teaching"

"Teaching" is the careful transmission of the truths concerning Jesus Christ and the authoritative proclamation of God's will to believers in light of those truths. The activity usually designated by teach is plainly restricted to certain individuals who have the gift of teaching (see I Corinthians 12:28-30; Ephesians 4:11).

The teaching prohibited to women here includes what we would call preaching (note II Timothy 4:2: "Preach the word... with careful instruction" [teaching, didache]), and the teaching of Bible and doctrine in the church. Other activities - leading Bible studies, for instance - may be included, depending on how they are done. Still others - witnessing evangelistically, counseling, teaching subjects other than Bible or doctrine, sharing testimonies, facilitating worship, exhorting others, and especially giving prophecy (as expressed in 1 Corinthians II: 5) - are not the kind of teaching Paul describes here.

Paul's position in the pastoral epistles is consistent: he allows women to teach other women (Titus 2:3-4), but prohibits them to teach men.

Dorothy Patterson, in an article in Discipleship Journal, wrote, "The real issue is not what women can or cannot do in the church but how they respond to the Bible. Nothing in scripture suggests that godly women assumed positions of authority over men in the home or in the church. Service to God within the church can never be a purely private. Jesus rebuked the Thyatiran church for letting a self-proclaimed prophetess teach; He commended the Ephesian church for testing those who claimed to be apostles (Revelation 2:2). Thus, when a woman 'feels called' to do work that violates not only God's design in creation but also His written word, that must be judged by the church."

Paul's prohibition of women's having authority over a man would also exclude a woman from becoming an elder in the way this office as described in the pastoral epistles.

Paul's prohibition should not restrict women from voting, with other men and women, in a congregational meeting, for, while the congregation as a whole can be said to be the final authority, this is not the same thing as the exercise of authority ascribed, e.g., to the elders. Nor do we think Paul would intend to prohibit women from most church administrative activities. Therefore, having women serve as leaders and team members in a variety of ministries can be affirmed as long as the prohibition against teaching and exercising authority is observed. (It is appropriate to note here that Paul's concern in I Timothy 2:11-15 is specifically the role of men and women in activities within the Christian community, and we question whether the prohibitions in this text can rightly be applied outside that framework.)

I Corinthians 14:29-35, 40 (NASB)
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. 30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; 33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 34 The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. 35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. 40 But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.

This passage has been used to teach the absolute total silence of women in public services of the church. But when the passage is rightly understood in its context, it is seen to limit only a certain kind of speaking.

Evaluating prophecies

"Prophecy" in the New Testament is an extraordinarily broad category. In common church life, it was recognized to be Spirit-prompted utterance, but with no guarantee of divine authority in every detail, and therefore not only in need of evaluation (I Corinthians 14:29) but necessarily inferior in authority to the deposit of truth represented by the Apostle Paul (I Corinthians 14:37-38). Prophecy cannot escape such evaluation, and it presupposes that there is a deposit of apostolic teaching, a given content, that is non-negotiable and that can serve as the criterion both of further teaching and of prophecy.

God is here requiring that the church in Corinth carefully weigh the prophecies presented to it. Women, of course, may participate in such prophesying; that was established in I Corinthians 11 (as we will see in the next section). The point here, however, is that women may not participate in the oral weighing of such prophecies. That is not permitted in any of the churches. In that connection, they are not allowed to speak - "as the law says."

By this clause, Paul is probably referring to the creation order in Genesis 2:20b-24, for it is to that Scripture that Paul explicitly turns on two other occasions when he discusses female roles (1 Corinthians 11: 8, 9; II Timothy 2:13). Paul understands from this creation order that woman is to be subject to man - or at least that wife is to be subject to husband. In the context of the Corinthians weighing of prophecies, such submission could not be preserved if the wives participated.

Paul calls on the church to sort and sift the good from the bad in prophetic utterances: "Do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good" (I Thessalonians 5:20-21). When Paul says, "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (I Corinthians 14:20), he uses a verb for weigh carefully" (diakrino) that means "to sort or sift some things from others." This implies that in New Testament prophecies, not every word would be understood to be the Word of God. By contrast, in the Old Testament, a prophet who spoke anything untrue was to be put to death (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:20-22). Instead, New Testament prophecies are handled not as authoritative words from God but as spontaneous impressions or insights that may or may not be, either in whole or in part, from God. Thus, the church must judge and evaluate prophecies in order to determine whether they, either in whole or in part, are sound.

Therefore, this passage does not prohibit women from speaking in public services. It does prohibit women from evaluating the authenticity, the appropriateness, and the genuineness of what has been spoken. God wants men to exercise their God-given leadership responsibility in this regard.