Should women be allowed to be elders in the Church?

    In a day and age where feminism runs strong in Western culture, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of debate and conflict within the modern-day Church regarding whether women (among other types of people) should or shouldn’t be allowed to become elders or pastors in the Church. It’s a complicated debate, as while men are usually portrayed as leaders of the Church in the Bible, most people who disagree with the viewpoint that women shouldn’t be allowed to be elders will and have said that if God gives someone specific gifts that qualify that make that person appeal as a good option for a potential elder, then no matter who they are they should be allowed to be an elder. This can appear to be a logical viewpoint, but in fact the idea of a woman being allowed to be an elder stems from many misunderstandings about the Bible and the Church as a whole.

    But before we get into the topic at hand, we need to settle on some ground here. The reason for this is that there are some people who can and will defy what the Bible says. These people say things like “we don’t know which parts of the Bible God agrees with” or “the Bible was written by humans and not God”. So, we need to establish that the Bible is the word of God before we can proceed. As these scripture verses say, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (English Standard Version, 2 Timothy 3:16). As this passage says, everything in the Bible stems from God himself, thus we should treat it as such. Moreover, because the Bible lays a lot of the ground rules and doctrine for a Christian is, if the Bible isn’t entirely true then it can be argued that none of it is true, and then Christianity just doesn’t exist anymore. I cannot stress this enough. The Bible is God’s word and all of it, whether you like it or not, is true. 

    We also need to lay out the fact that this is an important topic. In many debates I have encountered people who (usually after losing a debate) will just say that the topic in question doesn’t really matter that much and therefore we shouldn’t put such a high priority on making sure we get it right. But this viewpoint is very wrong. The decisions that we make in a church can affect souls for a lifetime, no matter how large or small some of those ideas or decisions may seem. We must spend loads of time making sure we are theologically and Biblically sound in everything we do, otherwise it can lead to more trouble than we can imagine. It’s like studying for a big test; you want to make sure you know and understand the material as best you can before you go to take the test. 

    We also need to talk about what an elder is. Churches in modern society will define what an elder is and does in all sorts of weird and wacky ways, and if we don’t have one solid definition, bad things will happen. Luckily for us, 1 Peter 5 gives us what we seek. Peter defines elder as a “...shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”  He tells the church to, “ …be subject to the elders.” (English Standard Version, 1 Peter 5) Now that we’ve laid those things out, we can discuss the topic that you all sat down with your cup of coffee to read about.

    I think most people would agree that there should be a list of requirements to become an elder or preacher in the Church. I mean, obviously you wouldn’t want any random person just becoming one of the most influential people in your church, right? As expected, most churches do have a set of requirements for who can and can’t become an elder in the Church. But what apparently a lot of people don’t know is that the Bible gives not only one set of guidelines, but two sets of guidelines! In 1 Timothy 3, one of the guidelines shown is that the person in question must be the husband of one wife. This not only implies that women can’t be elders, but also implies that homosexuals can’t be elders as well! And if you thought that wasn’t enough, throughout most of the entire passage, the Bible refers to the person in question as a “he”, implying that this person must be a male. And even though it’s worded differently, we can see a similar story in Titus 1. Titus one yet again says that the person in question must be the husband of one wife. I rest my case.

    In our modern society, there’s more debate than ever as to whether certain people or practices should be allowed, applied, and maybe even encouraged in the Church. It’s been my personal experience that 90% of these problems and ideas stem from a simple lack of understanding of the Bible. I’ve seen people who have had absolutely no idea that the Bible speaks out against some of the modern ideas and viewpoints. In summary, you should read your Bible to keep you on the right path. If you don’t have an understanding of the Bible, you could be led into some very wrong and dangerous paths.