Baptists agree on much, but not on women in ministry

Whatever else Baptist Christians agree or disagree about, there are two issues that most affirm.

The first is the concept of local church autonomy. Whatever broader bodies of Southern Baptists or other Baptists decide or decree, the final administrative authority for all matters of faith and practice is the local church.

Individuals are free to attend, affiliate with, and affirm the local church that suits them, based on that church’s interpretation of Scripture and doctrine under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The second is the indispensable role of women in that church. Few, if any, Baptists would have the temerity to suggest that any church could function effectively without women doing a host of tasks and lending their wisdom, energy, and God-given gifts and talents to every aspect of church life.

An old saying among many Baptists, whatever their opinions, is that “This place would fall apart without the women!”

Beyond those two points of assent, Baptists, including Southern Baptists, have also generally agreed about the authority of Scripture and the Lordship of Christ, though specific beliefs about both have sometimes varied.

But numerous Baptists have also disagreed, sometimes stridently, about many other matters of faith and practice.

One of those areas again concerns the role of women. Should women, who almost all agree are indispensable to the work and witness of the church, serve as pastors and preachers (not to mention deacons)?

Those Southern Baptists who oppose women clergy, and typically also oppose women deacons, usually cite several Scriptures.

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12, Paul admonishes his younger protege, who is struggling to lead the church at Ephesus: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

Many interpreters have taken Paul’s words as a full prohibition against women serving as pastors or even as deacons. Some, though, have rightly noted that Ephesus seems to have been a particularly contentious setting, a longtime bastion of pagan worship centering around the Greek goddess of the hunt, wild things, and childbirth, Artemis.

Some women in this culture seem by any standard to have been overly assertive, and their outbursts in the fledgling Christian church, especially in the context of worship, needed correction.

Some scholars also note that the Greek verb “authenteo,” a form of which Paul used here, translated “to have authority,” historically referred to the assertion of strong autocratic authority, such as that of certain governments, often imposed by force.

Similarly, many opposed to women in ministry often cite 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak but must be in submission ...; it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church.”

Here again, some interpreters rightly point out that in the pagan, multireligious culture of Corinth, some women were not unaccustomed to interrupting various types of worship rituals with all kinds of utterances, questions, and even counter arguments.

Paul here was calling for reverence in Christian worship rather than offering a blanket prohibition against women in ministry.

Other passages often are cited, such as Titus 1:6 and 1 Timothy 3:12, which call for elders and deacons to be monogamous and self-disciplined as husbands and fathers, implying that these church roles, along with that of pastor, are restricted to men.

But some other Baptists accurately observe that if all the Bible is authoritative, then other passages suggesting a broader role for women must not be neglected.

Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18) encounters the Risen Lord at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday and proclaims the Resurrection to the disciples.

Matthew 28 and Luke 24 indicate that a whole group of women found Jesus’ tomb empty and subsequently announced that Jesus had risen from the dead.

On the Day of Pentecost, Simon Peter, recalling the words of the prophet Joel, preaches that “your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Acts 2:17).

In his letter to the Romans, Paul affirms that he has entrusted the delivery of that letter to Phoebe, a “deacon” (Greek “diakonos”) in the church at Cenchrea (the eastern port of Corinth).

Some scholars have observed that, when someone delivered such an important letter to others, it was expected that upon delivery he or she would very probably read it aloud and even offer interpretation.

Also in Romans, Paul mentions a woman named Junia and identifies her, along with her husband Andronicus, as “outstanding among the apostles” (Romans 16:7).

Additionally, Chloe, apparently a leader of the church at Corinth, is mentioned as head of a household, members of which travel to Ephesus to update Paul on the struggles of the Corinthian church, prompting Paul to write 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:11).

The four “virgin daughters” of the deacon Philip are identified as having the gift of prophecy (Acts 21:8-9). Priscilla, along with husband Aquila, is noted for assisting Paul with the establishment of the church at Corinth and schooling Apollos at Ephesus in the full Gospel (Acts 18).

It seems clear at least to some Baptists that God called and used whomever He chose in various settings in the early church to proclaim the Gospel and to further His Kingdom in and through Jesus Christ in all kinds of ways (and there are other Scriptures that I could share).

Therefore, I affirm that a blanket prohibition against women in ministry is not supported in the Bible, and that God still calls and empowers whomever He will, including women, to do the vitally important work of proclamation of the Gospel, even as pastors and preachers.

And I affirm the right of individual believers and the local church to interpret these matters for themselves.