Can women be pastors?

The Church & Christian LifeIn theological review

The short answer

Christians differ on this question, and this page takes no side. All sides agree women are fully equal in worth and salvation, that women prayed, prophesied, taught and served prominently in the New Testament church, and that the disputed question is narrow: whether the office of elder or pastor, as Paul describes it, is open to women. The main readings of the key texts are set out below.

The fuller answer

Every reading starts from shared ground. In Christ, Paul writes, there is neither male nor female, for believers are all one in him, a statement about standing and salvation that no side disputes. The New Testament also names women at real work: Phoebe, commended by Paul as a servant of the church and a patron of many; Priscilla, who with her husband explained the way of God more accurately to Apollos; and other women Paul calls his fellow workers. The disagreement is not about whether women matter or serve. It is about one office and a small number of texts.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.

1 Timothy 2:12 (BSB)

One reading takes Paul's words to Timothy, that he does not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, as a lasting instruction for the church, grounded by Paul himself in the order of creation. On this reading, women may serve, teach in many settings and exercise many gifts, but the elder office is reserved to qualified men, as a matter of obedience rather than ability. Churches holding this view usually stress that it limits an office, not a person's value, gifts or voice in the congregation's life.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 (BSB)

The other reading understands Paul's instruction as addressing a particular situation in Ephesus, where false teaching and disorder were spreading, and notes that Paul elsewhere commends women who teach, prophesy and labour in the gospel. On this reading, the creation argument and the other texts are handled differently, and qualified women may hold any office. Both readings claim Scripture, both have been held by serious believers for generations, and neither should be caricatured. Where you land, land by the texts, and treat those who land elsewhere as brothers and sisters, not enemies.

And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Acts 18:26 (BSB)

Acts adds a scene both sides cite and both sides must handle honestly: Priscilla and her husband Aquila hear Apollos, a gifted and fervent teacher, and take him aside to explain the way of God more accurately, after which Apollos goes on to help the churches greatly. Luke reports the episode without embarrassment or correction. Whatever conclusion a church reaches on the elder office, it must reach it with all of these texts open at once, the commands, the commendations and the scenes, and not by quietly discarding whichever set sits awkwardly with its tradition.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

What is a pastor, an elder, and a deacon?In the New Testament, pastor, elder and overseer describe the same shepherding office: men charged to teach the Word, watch over the flock and lead by example, held to a strict standard of character. Deacons hold a distinct serving office, caring for practical needs and the vulnerable. The titles vary between churches, but the two kinds of work, shepherding and serving, are constant.What is the church?The church is the people of God, not a building, a brand, or an audience. Jesus called it my church, promised to build it himself, and the first picture of it is a community devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. If you belong to Christ, you already belong to his church. The local congregation is where that belonging takes flesh.How do I choose a church?Choose a church the way the New Testament describes one: a congregation where the apostles' teaching is opened and believed, where Christ is preached without additions, and where ordinary believers are known, taught and cared for. Visit, listen over several weeks, and ask plain questions about what is taught, who leads, and how people treat one another. Warmth matters, but truth and faithfulness matter first.Who was Paul?Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles: a Pharisee who persecuted the church, met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and spent the rest of his life planting churches around the Roman world and writing the letters that fill much of the New Testament. No other figure explains how a crucified Jewish Messiah came to be worshipped from Jerusalem to Rome within one generation.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.Bible Character: TimothyPaul's true child in the faith, the young co-worker from Lystra whose sincere faith had lived first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and who received Paul's last surviving letter.Bible Character: PriscillaAquila's wife, a tentmaker who worked beside Paul in Corinth, hosted a church in her house, risked her neck for Paul's life, and with her husband explained the way of God more accurately to Apollos.Bible Character: AquilaThe tentmaker from Pontus who with his wife Priscilla received Paul into their Corinth workshop and home, travelled with him to Ephesus, and kept a church in their house.