Women's Role in the Church

As many of you know I have been spending some time examining the requirements for Elder, Deacon and Pastor. During this study I have been wrestling with the issue of women in the church. After much study and reading I believe that I have come to some conclusions on this issue especially with regards to what we read in 1 Timothy 3.

First, by no means do I believe my position to be the definitive one yet it is the one that seems the most plausible and likely to me. There have been many people much smarter and educated than I am who have come to a variety of conclusions and it would arrogant of me to think that I have somehow finally found the real answer. At the same time these are my convictions and conclusions and I must be willing to faithfully live them out while also living with a willingness to hear Scriptural arguments that differ from my understandings.

Second, I believe that for us to properly understand the role of women in the church we must first understand that there is a distinct difference between elders and deacons. They have separate roles and separate qualifications. Simply put elders have the duties that are "centered around teaching, directing and protecting the church from error." Whereas deacons have duties that are centered around caring for the physical needs of their church family. These two roles are equal in value and necessity but they are distinct in much the same way that husbands and wives have distinct roles yet both are equally valuable. This understanding helps us when we begin to look at church authority and women. In particular it opens the door for women to not be exercising authority over a man (some still see this as an issue, I however do not) yet still serve as a deacon.

Third, (based on the above definition of deacon) women can serve as deacons. In fact, I believe churches would do well to have a greater balance of women and men in their deacon councils. As church seek to meet the physical needs of people we would do well to have the input and perspective of women. Being generally wired differently than men it would only serve to reason that having a different view on the world would only enhance our ability to minister to people. I believe that we see a number of different women serving in this type of capacity in the Scriptures and we see it from the earliest stages of the church. In particular in the book of Romans we see names such as Priscilla, Phoebe, and Persis listed as workers for the Lord. I believe Paul would have seen these women as fulfilling the role of deacons whether they had the title or not is for the most part unknown.

Fourth, the issue of having authority over men found in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 has a number of different methods of interpretation. Most of these have substantial exegetical backing and therefore seem plausible. One of the most compelling is to view the passage in light of Paul's teaching of husbands and wives found in Colossians and Ephesians. This connection is at the very least implied by Paul's use of the relationship between Adam and Eve (verses 13-14) who were of course husband and wife. Using this logic it is possible to interpret this passage not as some sort of edict for all women but rather a furthering discourse on how wives and husbands should relate to one another in the context of church and worship. You may not agree with this conclusion but I think you can see how there are a variety of interpretations and therefore this is one of those passages which will continue to be a source of disagreement until the end of the age.

Fifth,at this point I do not believe women should be senior pastors and this based on the idea that I do not believe women are to be church elders and that the senior pastor should essentially be the lead elder. I could be wrong on this issue as it by far my least researched idea so stay tuned for further developments on this one. I have recently read a number of different articles that present some arguments for both sides of this debate.

Finally, I have a certain set of beliefs on these issues but these beliefs should not prohibit me from working with other born-again believers to further the Kingdom of God. I believe we are called to be unified in the Spirit which does not mean we all share the same beliefs (outside of some core beliefs such as there is only way to Heaven and that is through Christ) but it does mean that we should share in one purpose which is to proclaim the good news to every tribe tongue and nation.

In the end, do not take my word for it. Take some time and research these issues on your own and see what conclusions you come to.

The Qualifications for Deacons, Elders, and Pastors-1 Timothy 3-Part 4

It has been some time since I have been able to dedicate the energy and time necessary to really dig into the word on the subject of church leadership qualifications. For those of you who were reading the series I do apologize for this. I am hopeful that today will be the beginning of a renewed effort to bring more of this series out.

I am starting to see that the pastor of the local church is really to be seen as the lead elder. There are some who would argue that no elder is to be above another. I would disagree with this concept in that in the Old Testament we see head priests and other leaders. We see people whom God placed in charge of others and I think in many ways the same is true within the church. That being said I want us to consider what it means to be old enough to be an elder.

The question is based on the fact that the Greek word Presbuteros basically means an older person. Yet we do get a specific age to use to define who is older and who is not. Is 30 old enough? Is 20? Is 40? Is more about age in the faith? Could it vary greatly from church to church based on its local area and congregational composition? Does this age requirement apply to pastors? Should it?

I think we are going to be hard pressed to find an exact answer to the age question. I tend to think of it more in terms of experience. From my perspective an 80 year old man who has been a believer for 1-2 years is not as well suited for this level of church leadership as 25 year old who has been a growing believer since say age 10.

I also do think that the age issue is relevant to the preaching pastor. We tend to think that the pastor of the church is the ultimately leader in the church. I am not so sure this has to be the case. I think in some ways it can be true but it does not have to be. I think it is clear from the leadership of Paul that one can be a preacher and not be an elder. Paul was a full time preacher and church leader. He was not however an elder at any single church. Peter on the other hand does refer to himself as a fellow elder (1 Peter 5:1) and he was also a full time preacher. In a modern sense what this means is that one could have a lead elder and a preaching pastor and they could be two different people. It also means that they could be one and the same. In either case, I believe that the ultimate responsibility (human) for shepherding the flock lays within the realm of the elders (1 Peter 5:1-2). In the case where the preacher is not an elder (for whatever reason) then the elders are responsible for doctrinal oversight.

Some of you are reading this are wondering where that leaves Deacons in all of this. I hope to dive more in that question with a later post but lets just say that I see Deacons as your ministry leaders. They are the ones who lead the way when it comes to providing service and ministry both within the church and outside the church. Their role is rather distinct from that of an elder and as such I think they should be two separate bodies within a church.

So what do you think? Should there be two distinct groups of elders and deacons? What about the age issue? What the pastor not being an elder? Does the pastor need to be an elder? What does your experience and reading/study of Scripture tell you about all of this?

The Qualifications for Deacons, Elders, and Pastors-1 Timothy 3-Part 4

Some Simple Question: Is it ok for a Christian to drink alcohol? Is it ok for a Christian leader to drink alcohol? Even if it is ok for me to drink is it ok for you to drink?

These are just a few of the questions many Christians have been discussing and arguing over for years. One of the reasons for so much discussion is that there are sound biblical arguments for all sides of the various debates. I bring this up in this series because Paul himself addresses the issue.

In verse 3 Paul uses the word Paroinos which basically means to be drunk or given to wine. In fact the NASB translate the phrase as "not be addicted to wine." Yet, Paul does seem to stop short of saying that an overseer can not drink any alcohol ever. It appears as though his emphasis is on drunkenness and alcoholism.

In verse 2 Paul uses the word Nephaleos which has some debated meaning to it. It either refers to "abstaining from wine, either entirely or at least from its immoderate use" or it refers to avoiding not being in control of what you are doing or saying. Either of these definitions could fit well into this passage. I personally tend to lean towards the reference to being in control of what you are doing and saying. I lean this direction because of two reasons. One, if Paul was talking specifically about alcohol use why would he so closely repeat such a requirement in verse 3. Two, the context of the other words around it seem to be more about self control than specific actions such as drinking. Given my reasoning I can easily see how someone would disagree with me. I am ok with this. :)

In the end, I must continue in my belief that it is ok for me to have alcohol. There is nothing in these verses that show me (beyond any reasonable doubt) that this particular stance is unbiblical. I fully respect and understand how others would disagree with me. I would never not fellowship, serve or minister with someone who viewed these verses differently. A person's views on Christians drinking alcohol is simply not a core issue and as such should have little impact on our ability to work together.

I hope all of this made sense because it did as I was typing it. :)

The Qualifications for Deacons, Elders, and Pastors-1 Timothy 3-Part 3

The first qualification Paul gives us for an overseer in this passage is that they are to be above reproach. As best I can figure this statement means that a person is to above or free from anyone being able to blame them for wrong doing. The word Anepileptos carries a connotation of not being able to be arrested. The question then becomes how far back into a person's life to we look? How much of person's past is to be considered in this discussion?

The first part of the answer deals with when they came to know Christ. I believe that a person's choices before Christ are not relevant in determining their ability to serve now. When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord the old has gone and the new has come. The second part of the answer comes when we examine the level of discipleship. A local church must take the time to prayerfully examine how ignorant a person may have been when they did certain things. They must also look into what a person was doing to move out of situations and habits. For example, is a person disqualified from church leadership because they slipped back into drugs after coming to Christ? I do not think there is a hard and fast rule on this. The local church must be willing to follow God's leading on this. We must always remember that God is in the business of restoration and forgiveness and as His church we must also be doing the same.

I think this same principle applies to the statement on being the husband of one wife. Does divorce automatically disqualify someone from church leadership? I do not think that it does. Once again we must consider the specific circumstances for each candidate for overseer. We must examine why they are divorced. Is there former spouse dead? If so then this changes the dynamic in God's eyes in that the man would be free to marry again and so it would only serve to reason that he would meet this qualification again. We must ask if the man had biblical justification for divorce. Was it done before his salvation? Has he attempted reconciliation?

The bottom line with these two qualifiers is that I believe it would be false to make some hard and fast rules about specific applications of these verses. We do see this kind of narrowing of God's rules in Scripture but it was with the Pharisees and they were condemned by Jesus for doing so. When we begin to make hard a fast rules that go beyond the words in Scripture then we begin to move down the path of legalism.

The Qualifications for Deacons, Elders, and Pastors-1 Timothy 3

Here are the specific verses I have started looking at and are some initial observations on this verses.

1. There is clear difference between overseer and deacons. The way I read this passage is that the overseer is more an authoritative/investigative body. Whereas a deacon is more servant. In many ways this would make sense in that within a church you would have a group of leaders who serve as the administrative leaders and another group who would serve as more of the doer type of leaders.

2. Why does Paul switch from the feminine to the masculine forms of the Greek word we translate overseer? He could have used the masculine in both cases right so why didn't he? If you have some insight on this I would sure appreciate it.

The Qualifications for Deacons, Elders, and Pastors

Currently, there is some significant debate over the roles of women in the church. For some time I have held a certain set of views. Lately I have been presented with some challenging questions. As a result I have embarked on a journey to review as many passages as I can find that deal with the qualifications for someone to be a Deacon, Elder or Pastor. My hope is to use this blog to share with you some of thoughts I have along the way. It is my hope that you will share some of your thoughts, feelings and insights as we go along. To get us started I wanted to post the list of verses I will be examining first.

• 1 Timothy 3:1-12
  
• Titus 1:5-9
• 1 Peter 2:25
• Ephesians 4:11
• 1 Timothy 4:11 6:2
• Acts 6:1-6
• Mark 10:42-45
• Phil. 3:12-15;
• Jeremiah 45:5
• Romans 16

My hope is to really explore the original greek meanings and context. It is my hope and belief that I was work through these verses that I will come out on the other end of this with a more thorough and biblically solid understanding of Biblical church leadership.