Floyd & Sally McClung

What the Bible says about women in leadership

By Floyd McClung

Introduction: Leadership is both male and female. It is clear from His word that God intends both men and women to not only minister to people in the power of His spirit, but to hold positions of leadership in the church as well. Here are reasons why both men and women are called to Christian leadership over the entire church:

• God created both men and women in His image. If women are not involved in leadership, half of God’s nature and character would not be represented in the functions and ministries of leadership. An all male leadership team is imbalanced simply because certain aspects of God’s nature are not at work in the functions that are performed and the decisions that are made.

• If women are not to be involved in ministry and leadership in the church, half of the human race is automatically eliminated from serving the church is governing roles. This seems inconsistent with the character of God and the pattern we see throughout the Scriptures of God calling and using women to serve his people.

• The Bible incorporates hymns and statements made by women (Exodus 15:21, Judges 5, Luke 1:42-45, etc.). The Bible says about itself “all scripture is God breathed” ( 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Since the Bible is inspired by God and is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” it is evident that God has chosen to use women to teach His word and expound his word to both men and women. Teaching is a function of leadership in the church.

The word used in the passage from 2 Timothy 3L16-17 is the Greek word for an adult person, anthropos. IT does not use the word for a man, aner.

• The Bible uses examples of many women who led and taught men: Deborah, Miriam, Hannah, Mary, Anna, four daughters of Philip who prophesied, Chloe, Phoebe, Lydia, Abigail, Esther, Ruth, Junia and others.

There are many outstanding female leaders and teachers God has used in recent years to lead and teach men and women: Henrietta Mears, Corrie ten Boom, Elizabeth Elliot, Ethel Barret, Catherine Marshall, Jean Darnell, Billy Graham’s daughter, Beth Moore, Catherine Booth, Joy Dawson, Freda Lindsay, and many others.

If God did not intend women to lead and teach, why does he give them these gifts? Is it only to teach women? Then why does he trust them with the responsibility to teach impressionable male children? Paul told Timothy that he was raised and discipled by two Godly women, his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.

• Over half the world’s missionaries are female, many of them single. Women plant churches, teach, and evangelize.

• In the passages about spiritual gifts ( Romans 12, Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4) there is nothing said about these gifts being limited to men.

Some examples in the New Testament of women exercising spiritual gifts:

• Planting and overseeing churches - Lydia at Philipi, Prisca in Rome, Junias the apostle, the chosen lady in 2 John

• Teaching men - Prisca teaching Apollos

• Prophesying to men - Philip’s daughters

• Overseeing the financial affairs of men - Phoebe and Chloe

New Testament passages that demonstrate God’s intention to use women in leadership in the church:

• Romans 9:25 - The ultimate expression of grace to the Jew was God calling not only wayward Israel back to himself, but calling Gentiles to Christ. In quoting the prophecy from Hosea in Romans 9, Paul uses male and female terms. He makes it clear that the gospel is for both Jew and Gentile, male and female. There is no distinction in the new Israel. God redeems all things and erases all barriers.

• Romans 16:1-2 - Phoebe is commended by Paul to the Roman church. This is an official recommendation and endorsement of her ministry. She holds an official functions referred to as a ““minister.” The word for minister (sometimes translated deacon) that Paul uses is masculine, and is the same one he uses to speak about himself and Apollos (1 Corinthians 3:5), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), and Timothy (1 Timothy 4:6). He uses the same word to refer to Christ as the minister to the circumcised (Romans 15:8).

Paul sees those who minister as servants of the church, having broad responsibilities including teaching the gospel and nourishing people on solid doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6, Ephesians 3:7, 2 Corinthians 3:6).

Several important points emerge from Roman 16:

√ Phoebe is a minister in the church at Cenchreae

√ She is to be honored and aided by the Romans

√ She has a ministry recognized by its fruit: “she has been helper of many”

√ Her ministry has such value and breadth that it extends beyond her own congregation

√ She has ministered to Paul, a man ( she is likely carrying Paul’s letter to Rome on Paul’s behalf)

• Romans 16:3-5 - Paul bids farewell to the Romans and mentions the key role Prisca and her husband Aquila have fulfilled. He names the woman Prisca first. He also calls her a fellow worker. They lead a home church in Rome, one of the 5 or 6 congregations mentioned in Paul’s salutation to the Romans.

• Romans 16:6 - Paul mentions Mary as one who has worked hard among the Romans. He uses a word that is used elsewhere to describe ministerial labor in the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he uses this same term to summarize apostolic labors.

The term “among you” is translated “over you” in Galatians 4:11 in some translations. It is likely that Mary had some overseeing responsibility in her ministry.

• Romans 16:7 - It is uncertain if Junias is a masculine contraction of Junianus or the feminine of Junia. The phrase “men of note” is not found in the Greek, and is left out in the NIV. It should translate “they are of note.” It could be referring to a husband-wife team.
• Romans 16: 12 - Tryphaena and Tryphosa are probably sisters. They are designated workers in the Lord.

• I Corinthians 1:10-11 - Paul, now in Ephesus, receives a report on the Corinthians from Chloe’s people. Chloe is a female member of either the Corinthian or Ephesian church. It is interesting to note that Paul has no hesitation in recognizing her as the leader of the delegation that brought the report.

• 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 - Paul levels the ground in this passage between the sexes. Women are given unusual status and authority over the way a husband and wife relate to each other sexually. This expression of sexual equality presupposes and defends the equality of men and women at their most intimate encounter.

Paul calls for mutuality in decision making regarding this most important aspect of a husband and wife’s relationship. If mutuality is a basis for decision making regarding sex, it is in other areas as well.

• 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 - Paul affirms that women should pray and prophesy in the church, but clarifies proper decorum. We must make a distinction between the principle of equality in ministry, and how that ministry is carried out in practice. The principle is truth for all times, the practice is worked out according to the culture and the situation at hand. The principle is that women are free to participate in worship services, the practice is that they should cover their heads while doing so.

Apparently some women in the Corinthian church were flouting certain cultural conventions, and in the process causing the gospel to be confused with paganism. Short hair and uncovered heads suggested the styles of the city’s prostitutes. Prophesying with hair hanging loose was reminiscent of pagan prophetesses giving voice to their oracles in a disheveled frenzy, a not uncommon practice in the pagan temples of Corinth.

The word “head” is from kephale, which can be translated source, fountain. Kephale is translated as the source of life in Colossians 2:19 and Ephesians 4:15.

1 Corinthians 11: 3 is one passage where [ephale could easily mean source or derivation. Further, in the same passage Paul argues that men and women are dependent upon one another (verse 11-12).

• 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 - Since Paul has just taught how women should prophesy, it is clear this passage is not speaking of their participation in worship. It probably has to do with uneducated women chattering in church, trying to figure out what is happening.

• Galatians 3:28 - Paul announces that both men and women are one in Christ. Christ has redeemed every aspect of sin, including separation between the sexes. The old distinctions, the old divisions are broken down; social barriers are torn down by the cross. It was sin that brought the curse on men and women, and it is the cross that takes the consequences of that sin away. Male dominance is a result of sin, and it is the cross that breaks that dominance. The old way of relating between the sexes is dominance, seduction and deception. In Christ there is a new way, a way of servant hood and purity and honesty. This passage in Galatians 3 restores the roles that God gave to both man and woman to take dominion over the earth and subdue it (see Genesis 1:28).

• Ephesians 5:21 - There is no more radical statement anywhere in the Bible about the relationship between men and women. Paul goes against the culture of the day, calling for mutual submission between the sexes. To the degree there is sin we need authority in marriage. To the degree we are Christ, we don’t need it.

Paul follows this statement by outlining respective responsibilities in the marriage partnership. God has placed within men and women aspects of His character that affects roles. Women give birth, nurture and provide security. Men are to provide and protect. Christ’s love is the standard that defines and determines marriage partner’s roles and how they work out their care for one another.

• 1 Timothy 2:8-15 - It is clear that this prohibition does not mean women cannot pray, prophesy, or teach since elsewhere Paul makes it quite clear he allows and encourages women to do those very things.

The circumstances existing in the church in Ephesus seems to indicate that heretical women were disrupting the church by promoting disgraceful teaching and practices (1Timothy 3:11, 4:7, 2 Timothy 3:6-8). The word authority that Paul uses in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 is a rarely used word. It’s root connotes improper sexual advances.

The childbirth in this reference indicates Paul’s belief that a mothers first responsibility is to her children. He may also be indicating God’s seal of approval on motherhood as a calling and career for women.

What Paul did not mean in 1 Timothy 2 is also important:

√ Did not mean they were not to train their own children. Prov 1:8, 6:20, 31:26.

√ Did not mean they were not to train younger women. 1 Timothy 2.

√ Did not mean husbands and wives cannot teach together, since Paul praises Prisca for doing exactly that in Romans 16:3.

√ Did not mean women cannot teach in a public setting in view of Proverbs 31 and in Biblical times slaves often taught the children of their masters.

√ Did not mean women cannot teach in a mission context?

√ Did not mean women cannot write, give testimonies, sing, write hymns, since the Scripture elsewhere records women doing all these things with God’s blessing.

The difficult passages in the Bible must be interpreted in the light of all the other truths in the Bible. God’s word is a book of redemption, therefore everything we teach about women’s roles should be done in the light of the emphasis on redemption in the New Testament. We are a redeemed humanity. God has made all things new, including the categories of how we relate to each other. Partnership is God’s ideal, and it is only made possible through God’s redeeming love. Paul teaches in Galatians that there is a new humanity in which the barriers between male and female are removed. The rivalry between the sexes is characteristic of fallen humanity. It is a rivalry in which man has dominated woman and women have seduced and manipulated men. This is done away with in Christ.

We must focus on the principles of the gospel as well as the practices of the early church as they struggled to put these newly discovered principles into practice.

• 2 Timothy 1:3-5 - Paul affirms the role of two women in the life of Timothy, women who trained him in the faith. Paul affirms the role of these women in discipling and releasing one of the early church’s most outstanding leaders.

• 2 Timothy 4:21 - Paul refers to Claudia. It is amazing to me that in such a male dominated society the great apostle went out of his way to include women in his references and greetings.