Female Preachers & Church Leaders

Upon moving to Florida, we (Lenny & Caly) were surprised by the level of intensity around the topic of women’s ordination and/or women’s empowerment to be leaders and preachers in churches.

While we desire to be sensitive to everyone’s conviction, we believe that it is both missiologically essential and biblically encouraged to empower women to be ordained ministers and leaders.

We have come to realize that, for many people, this is a sensitive topic because, in the end, everyone’s desire is to be faithful to the Bible. We commend and honor everyone who wants to uphold the Word of God without compromising the Gospel. We share the same desire. Sometimes, however, it seems that for some people the question of women preachers/leaders is a primary Gospel issue. We don’t agree with this assessment for the reasons listed below.

Entire books have been written about this subject. In the interest of being concise, here is a list of our most compelling reasons for why we hold a so-called “egalitarian” position that allows women to preach, lead, and celebrate Communion at The Table Church:

1) Jesus

• The very first person to see the risen Christ in the Gospel of John was Mary Magdalene, who was commissioned by Jesus himself to go to the disciples (the apostles!) and tell them the good news of his resurrection and coming ascension (John 20:17-18). In other words, a woman became the first apostle to the apostles. Well-known theologian N.T. Wright (an egalitarian) says that all preaching flows from this proclamation. So, if Jesus had a woman preach the first resurrection sermon, who are we to hinder them?

• Another example is Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to him (Luke 10:39). This posture of learning from an esteemed rabbi was always with the intention of becoming a rabbi (or teacher) oneself, and was only open to men in Jesus’ culture. Jesus, however, not only tolerated Mary’s sitting under him but applauded her choice.

• People sometimes argue that Jesus’s apostles were 12 men. Therefore, women aren’t supposed to hold apostolic authority.
  Jesus called 12 male disciples because he was prophetically restoring the 12 Tribes of Israel through his arrival and the announcement of the Kingdom of God on earth (Isaiah 49:6). This had nothing to do with making a statement regarding men being more suitable than women for the task of apostleship or spiritual leadership. In fact, we know that many women followed Jesus as his disciples, too.

2) New Testament Examples

• The NT is full of examples of women being ordained as deacons (Romans 16:1, for example) and there is very strong reason to believe that Junia (not Junius!!) was an apostle (Rom. 16:13).

• Other women in the NT seemed to have had very influential teaching ministries as well. One great example is Priscilla (wife of Aquilla) who, in Acts 18:26, taught Apollos more accurately about Jesus.

3) Old Testament Examples

• While there were no female priests in the OT, there are examples of female prophets, judges and leaders (p.e. Deborah) who God used to influence, exhort, rebuke, direct, and lead Israel.

4) Hermeneutics & Exegesis

• 1 Timothy 2:11-15, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:33b-35, and Ephesians 5:22-25  are some of the main passages people use to argue against women’s ordination or empowerment to be teachers in churches.
  However, when interpreting Bible passages, we always ought to ask whether something is applicable to all people at all times in all places. There are various reasons and arguments as to why the restrictions placed on women in these passages should not be accepted as general restrictions. For example, there was a strong Diana cult in Ephesus (Timothy pastored in Ephesus) with female priestesses who performed all kinds of immoral acts. Did Paul give Timothy some of these limiting instructions to help protect the newly formed church that consisted of Jewish and Gentile believers from some of these immoral influences?

• Particularly the passage in 1 Tim. 2:11-15 needs to be interpreted carefully. The word Paul uses in the Greek for forbidding women to “exercise authority” over men is authentein, a word that only appears here in the entire NT and that is more likely to mean “usurp authority” or “domineer”.
  We must not use Scriptures like this to build entire doctrines, especially if they lead to restricting the majority of believers in the Body of Christ (women). 

• Eph. 5:22-25 also needs to be read in its wider context. Verse 21 actually starts out by saying that submission to each other applies to everyone, both wives to husbands and husbands to wives, in the way they lovingly serve each other.

We sometimes wonder why these passages are interpreted and applied without paying attention to cultural (and other) factors. After all, why don’t we apply a straight reading and application approach to passages like these:

• Titus 1:12-13
  One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true.
  The Bible says Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, and lazy gluttons. It’s in the Scriptures!
  → Hence, no Cretans should ever become pastors or church leaders.

• 1 Corinthians 11:5-6
  But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
  → Why aren’t women covering their heads in our churches??

• 2 Timothy 4:13
  When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
  → Who has actually ever obeyed this Scripture? Who wants to go on a mission trip to Troas to find Paul’s cloak, scrolls and parchments? 🙂

5) New Covenant Context

• Scripture always needs to be interpreted in the wider context of Scripture (Biblical Theology), and, particularly, in the context of the New Covenant.

• In the NT, we are in union with Christ and, spiritually speaking, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). In the Kingdom of God, there is a “level ground”. If we take the New Covenant principle of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Pet. 2:9) seriously, then we must no longer prefer one gender over the other when it comes to exercising priestly duties!

• In the New Covenant, true headship belongs to Christ alone (Eph. 1:22). Men and women together are under Christ’s Headship.

• The New Covenant is a covenant of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6), and as we learn from Pentecost and the prophecy in Joel 2, God explicitly poured out his Spirit on all flesh, sons and daughters, male and female servants, so that they prophesy. God wants women to speak and prophesy. In light of this, difficult passages like the ones we have seen above in 1 Corinthians need to be exegeted very carefully. 

• The New Covenant has broken the curse of inequality between man and woman that came as a consequence of the fall (Gen. 3:16). We are now restored to a pre-fall egalitarianism. Nothing in Genesis 1-2 (before the fall) indicates that men and women were unequal in any way. In fact, they both together reflected the image of God (Gen. 1:27).

6) Practical Inconsistencies

• While women are generally allowed to teach boys, why wouldn’t they be allowed to teach men? At what point does a boy become a man? And if they teach boys, aren’t they exercising “headship” over them?

Much more could be said and more nuanced discussions could be had. At this point, suffice it to say that we firmly believe that, in light of the entirety of Scripture and the full counsel of the wisdom of God, restrictions on women are often arbitrary and a hindrance to the expansion of God’s Kingdom on earth. 

Do you have feedback or questions about this important topic? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We welcome open and honest dialogue.

P.S.: The Table Church is part of a group of Anglican churches that are geographically linked called the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, which is part of all of the Anglican churches in North America. This group, or province, allows individual dioceses to determine the level of leadership held by women under the direction of their bishop. Our diocesan bishop, Bishop Alex Farmer, supports women’s ordination and endorses our position here at The Table.