Should Women be Pastors or Preachers?

A very short (and I think helpful) set of answers.

This is one of the chief debates among Evangelicals today. Can a woman have the title of “pastor”? Should a woman exercise the authority of a pastor? Is the pastoral office separate from the title? Can a woman preach if she is (in some sense) under the authority of a pastor?

I’d like to offer some simple and brief answers to questions like these.

The Office and Responsibilities of Pastors

The Bible is clear that only qualified men may fill the role or office of pastor (1 Timothy 2:8-12, 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9). And the ministry of the word and prayer are the chief responsibilities of pastors (Acts 6:1-4; Ephesians 4:11-14; 2 Timothy 4:1-2).

Non-Pastors Preaching?

There is no explicit biblical prohibition against someone preaching who is not a pastor. For example, a godly man with a good understanding of Scripture and a desire to teach may be given an opportunity to preach (or several opportunities) without formally becoming a pastor.

However, it would seem only appropriate to have someone preach who is not obviously disqualified.

For example, a man who is known to be unnecessarily argumentative or a man who is known as lazy and passive with his family would be obviously disqualified. Therefore, such men ought not to preach.

So too, a woman may have exemplary character and an excellent ability to teach, but she does not meet the biblical qualification of manhood. Thus, she is obviously disqualified, and she ought not to preach.

At my church, on the second Sunday of each month, we gather a second time in the evening. We pray, we sing, and we sit under the preaching of someone other than the main preacher. Often, the preacher on these Sunday nights is a church member and not a pastor of our church.

However, we only invite men who seem very likely qualified (according to the character qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9). These men have not been vetted or affirmed as pastors, and most of them will not likely become pastors in the future, but they are not obviously disqualified from the pastoral office.

An Affirmation of Females as Females

I believe that women and girls are indispensable to the mission of the church. Females are not only important to the local church, but they are also necessary. And it should be highlighted that females’ indispensable participation in the mission of the local church must be a feminine participation, not a masculine one.

Women and girls today are fed such an atrocious lie, that the best women are those who can do what men do, go where men go, and act like men act. This is devilish propaganda that crushes women and girls under the weight of expectations they were never meant to bear, and it disparages their God-given and natural desires to be female.

The antidote to abusive, negligent, or tyrannical men in leadership is not women in leadership. The biblical prescription is virtuous, diligent, and capable men in leadership. This is true in the home and in the church.