Does the Bible say, “Women can be pastors”? This is a heavily debated subject, and Ekklesia does not require the congregation to fully-agree with the position of the pastors on this one. The short answer to this question is, “Yes.” However, in part, because our history is clouded by a great deal of cultural conditioning and biased-Biblical interpretation, answering “yes” to this question leads to suspicion on the part of many. In order to respond to the controversy, the explanation must be a bit lengthy, because we must deal with many years of ignorance… ignorance that has sent us down a long and winding road of confusion. We believe women can be pastors, because the Bible says it, not because it is “politically correct,” or “cool”, or “popular,” or whatever.

In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” That pretty much sums it up doesn’t it? Women can’t be pastors, right? Wrong… Whether or not you’ve read the whole Bible, you know it’s a very, very long book. This very long story has a lot to say about this issue. In order to understand this passage, we must understand more of the book.

Let us begin in Genesis.

When Adam and Eve rejected God’s leadership, they disconnected themselves from the source of all that is good. When anyone is disconnected from God, bad things happen. There are consequences. In Genesis 3, God lays out some of things that would happen, now that they had disconnected themselves from Him. In Genesis 3:16, God said to Eve, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Keep in mind, this is not the way things were supposed to be.

Now, we’ve seen this scenario played out over and over for centuries, haven’t we? Often, but not always, women place more emphasis on intimacy than they do authority. Often, but not always, women will sacrifice their leadership status, if it means they will be able to improve their relationships. Often, but not always, men value authority over relationship. Often, but not always, men will do things that will elevate their leadership status, even if it means they must hurt the ones they love.

After the fall, men were quick to lust after leadership. Not only did they want to lead, but worse yet, they didn’t even know how to. No one did. Not without God. Violence filled the earth. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that women were better than men, or anything like that. Men and women are totally depraved without God. We are both equally evil. We are nothing without God.

When it came to leadership, look at the ways civilizations wanted to spread their fame and increase their territories, largely by wars propagated and fought by men. Sin caused human beings to totally misunderstand and misuse the concept of leadership. Men would try to get other men to follow them. But even if that didn’t work, at least they could tell the women what to do. Many times they’d use their physical strength and stature to “put women in their place.” These are just a few of the many pathetic results of human rebellion against God.

God had a plan to redeem and restore creation, even before people rejected Him. Eventually, Jesus (100% God, 100% human) would come to us, suffer the consequences of sin (death, separation from God), and defeat them by rising from the dead, destroying the power of sin. Creation is on it’s way to one day living perfectly under the leadership of God, back to the way things were supposed to be in Genesis 1 and 2. That being said, there are many specific commands in the Bible that directly teach us how to live, right here, right now. However, the Bible does not explicitly and directly tell us what to do in every single situation.

Think about the Old Testament. There are over 600 laws, commandments that say “do this… do that…” or “don’t do this… don’t do that…” That’s a lot of rules. You might think that God would have dealt with every form of moral evil under the sun in these 600+ laws. However, not one of those laws says anything against polygamy. After the fall, men started taking many wives. Interestingly enough, God hates polygamy, but He allowed it. Polygamy was immensely destructive to society. And God allowed it?

Among those 600+ laws, God said that kings should not take “many wives” (Deuteronomy 17:17). He allowed them to take multiple wives, but just not “many.” God doesn’t even define what “many” is. It’s like when God says, “Don’t get drunk.” Well how many drinks does it take to make someone drunk? One state says the acceptable driving BAC is this, one state says that. But they didn’t have BAC tests back then… What is drunk? God expects the hearts of men and women to seek His desires, and then they will know the answer. Can you hear what the Spirit is saying?

Some people may wonder, “Why doesn’t God just straight out say ‘No’ to polygamy like He does with so many other bad things?” Well, maybe we can ask God that when we get to heaven. For now, it is important to understand that this is how God chose to deal with this very destructive pattern, a pattern that resulted from the fall.

Let’s look at another example: divorce. God hates divorce, big time. However, in that list of 600+ laws, God permitted divorce. When Jesus walked the earth, He told people how much He couldn’t stand divorce. Some people asked him, then why did God allow it in the Law, through Moses? “Jesus replied, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:8-9).

Get this, God hates divorce, but He didn’t deal with the situation directly for thousands of years, because our hearts were too hard. Our hearts and minds were too jaded to understand this concept, so God dealt with it “indirectly.” People read the Bible, got divorced, engaged in polygamy… because they didn’t hear the Spirit of the text.

Back to our original statement, “Women can be pastors”. Understanding how God dealt with polygamy and divorce sheds light on the strategy that God has used to make it clear that women can be pastors.

As the centuries progressed, God communicated that women can operate in the spiritual gifts in the same way that men can. God didn’t just “come out and say it,” like we wish He would have. He expects us to overcome our prejudices and allow our hearts to grasp what the Spirit is saying.

In Judges 4, we read about a woman named Deborah, a prophet. God made Deborah the Judge over the entire nation of Israel. Don’t go thinin’ “Judge Judy” or “Judge Joe Brown.” There was only one Judge of Israel, and this position does not compare to the modern day judge. This is a position that was even more powerful and influential than today’s American president. God choose her. God gave her the gifts to lead. God led Israel through her. This was totally against the grain of culture. If the Bible were written by humans, and not God, it would never have said that God chose Deborah to be the Judge of Israel. This was unacceptable.

Also in the Book of Judges, we read about a woman named Jael, and how God used her to kill a king who’s kingdom threatened the existence of Israel.

In the Gospels, we discover the very first people to preach the resurrection of Jesus. You might guess it was Peter and John, right? Wrong. It was a group of women. God revealed the resurrection to women first. You may not think this is a big deal. Get this… In the first century, in the eyes of their society, this kind of testimony would have been worthless on the tongues of women. If the Bible were merely authored by humans, it would never have said that women were the first ones to understand and spread the message of the resurrection. This would have been incredibly distasteful, and made the movement look like some kind of cosmic joke! However, this is how God chose to use the “weak” to shame the “wise.”

In Acts 18, we read about Priscilla, a leader in the church. Priscilla had a husband named Aquila. However, many times in the New Testament, Priscilla’s name is written first, before her husband’s. In the first century language of Koine Greek, this is making a huge statement. In a male dominant society, it was not “proper” to mention the wife before the husband, but this is how God wanted it written. We also learn that Priscilla and her husband both taught the Word of God to a highly educated man, Apollos. Priscilla instructed Apollos. She taught him the Bible. She taught him to be a very influential church leader. Wait a second… didn’t 1 Timothy say that women can’t teach men…? Oh my, oh my… Does the Bible contradict itself…? Absolutely not!

In Acts chapter 21, we read about Philip’s four unmarried daughters. They were all prophets. That means these women prophets spoke God’s words. They said things like, “The LORD says this…” Then they delivered a message directly from God. How much more authoritative can speaking get? Doesn’t 1 Timothy say that women should be quiet? Oh no, another contradiction…? Not a chance!

In Romans 16, we read about a woman named Junia. Quite sadly, for a few centuries in the early beginnings of the church, some men could not accept Junia’s name being in the Bible, so they changed it to “Junias,” a man’s name. Why? Because the Greek text seems to communicate that Junia was an apostle. Apostles were pastors, on steroids! Apostles started and pastored many churches. Based on the way it is written in the most respected Greek manuscripts we have, we would be wise to accept that she was an apostle. Men in the first centuries sure believed she was an Apostle, which is why they changed the text. Eventually, people caught wind that God’s Word was being adulterated in Romans 16, and they put a stop to it.

So what’s with the few texts in the New Testament that seem to say women can’t preach, teach, and/or lead men (1 Corinthians 14:34-38; 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7; Titus 1:5-9)? It’s important to remember that these verses come from letters written by Paul, and they are addressing specific situations that he is dealing with. In some cities, women were mature enough to lead, prophesy, and preach. In other cities, the women just weren’t ready for it.

In some churches, women were abusing their newly discovered liberty in Christ, and they were misusing the power of leadership. They wanted to get back at men for the centuries of injustice. They were trying to exercise authority over men. Remember the curse from the fall? The man will have “authority over” the woman? That being said, in some situations, Paul said “no” to women leadership, because their hearts were too hard.

Here’s a modern example. I was in Africa for nine months. I spent a lot of my time living in a mud hut, in a remote, Muslim village. One of my projects in the village was to help the people build a school for their children. Well, in order to build the school, we had to take out a bunch of massive palm trees. By the way, we had to do it with machetes and shovels? Not my idea of fun!

It would’ve been much easier for me to buy a few chainsaws and give them to the people to use. In fact, some of the people actually asked me to buy them. However, the community didn’t know how to use chainsaws. They didn’t grow up using powered equipment. If I would’ve dropped these things off, and then come back the next week, there might have been a few dozen body parts laying on the ground. Why? Are chainsaws bad? Of course not! But the people weren’t ready for them. So, it was better for me to say, “No to chainsaws.” In the right situation, if people were ready for them, I would say “yes.”

It was right for Paul to say, “No to women being pastors”, when the specific church he wrote to wasn’t ready for it. However, Paul affirmed women leadership in other situations, when the time was right. There are no contradictions whatsoever. We must understand the way Paul was communicating. Many people make this sound so complex, but it is actually quite simple, really…

Let’s look at one more example of how this works.

How about slavery? We know God hates slavery. Nevertheless, He reluctantly permitted it, because God worked with us on our levels. What about Paul? Well, he hated slavery too. However, do you remember all those passages where Paul talks about slaves “obeying their masters?” He even tells them to remain slaves, even though they had become disciples of Jesus. He said, “Don’t run away.” Why doesn’t Paul just outright overthrow slavery? Why doesn’t he just tell it like it is? Because, promoting the saving truth of the Gospel was the first priority, and he didn’t want to overshadow it. If a person understands who Jesus is… what He has accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection, then it should eventually be obvious that slavery is evil.

Let’s not forget, Paul did challenge slavery in the book of Philemon. A slave named Onesimus ran away from his master, Philemon, then he became a disciple of Jesus. Running away from your master was punishable by death, or at least some really severe torture. Paul told Philemon to let it go, and take Onesmius back as a brother in Christ, not a slave. Wow! This is huge! Paul didn’t say, “Hey Philemon, slavery is wrong! Let’s start up an abolitionist movement right now!” No, it should be obvious to anyone who follows Jesus that slavery is wrong. Period. If our hearts are in tune with the Spirit, it is obvious!

Well, it sure took a long time for American Christians to figure that one out… For hundreds of years, American Christians quoted the Bible. They said things like, “See, it says right here! You’re a slave. I’m your master. God says obey your slave masters! That’s just the way it is, and you better believe it, because the Bible says so!”

But when we go back to Genesis 1 and 2, we learn that God never intended anything like this…

Back to our original statement, “Women can be pastors”. Of course they can, if they’re called by God. By the way, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).

God leads churches through the Holy Spirit, through leaders, through pastors. Being a pastor requires gifts, gifts that come from God, not men (1 Corinthians 12). God gives them to whoever He chooses. May we follow His leadership.