Female pastor - (a serious discussion)

Yes, as Calvin explained in his Institutes, IV.10.29-30:

"the hours set apart for public prayer, sermon, and solemn services; during sermon, quiet and silence, fixed places, singing of hymns, days set apart for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the prohibition of Paul against women teaching in the Church, and such like....things of this nature are not necessary to salvation, and, for the edification of the Church, should be accommodated to the varying circumstances of each age and nation, it will be proper, as the interest of the Church may require, to change and abrogate the old, as well as to introduce new forms. I confess, indeed, that we are not to innovate rashly or incessantly, or for trivial causes. Charity is the best judge of what tends to hurt or to edify: if we allow her to be guide, all things will be safe....these are not fixed and perpetual obligations to which we are astricted....in those matters the custom and institutions of the country...declare what is to be done or avoided."

 

[Gal 3:26-28 NKJV] 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

 

Getting back to the o/p - the morays of NT days continue to live on to this day but only in those societies which continue to live in the 1st century.

Almost all societies have distinct guidelines by degree for women.

As for the church:

In American churches women are allowed to hold powerful positions but are generally given a title other than "pastor"
e.g. "Sunday School Superintendent" or "Head of the Missions Committee", with the exception of the charismatic brethren who seem much more liberal with the title of pastor.

Its unusual for a title of "pastor" of anything to be allowed in a Baptist church in America.

 

Personally, I think many of the errors today stem from women Sunday-school teachers. And they are not a good role model for young boys in that setting. Definitely no women pastors either.

 

from Charles Spurgeon's Sunday evening sermon of August 18, 1889:

"I learned my theology, from which I have never swerved, from an old woman who was cook in the house where I was an usher....about the deep things of God....I learned more from her instruction than from anybody I have ever met with since."

 

Spurgeon called Mrs. Lavinia Bartlett his best deacon. Her ministry as described in The Sword and the Trowel :

"Mrs. Bartlett is a remarkable woman. Converted with her whole heart to God before arriving at her teens, she early manifested an irrepressible desire to seek the soul-good of others. While engaged at twelve years of age as a Sabbath-school teacher, her infantile exertions were marvellously seconded by God. She was a spiritual mother even then; and many souls were brought by her to the Saviour. . . . .stimulated by her success in the school, [she] sought to enlarge her sphere of usefulness by journeying from village to village within easy distance of her parents' residence, where she might seek the salvation of neverdying souls. It was tough work to exhort burly farmers and their still more boisterous sons to seek an emancipation from the tyranny of Satan; but is anything too difficult for even a timid damsel, filled with the sufficiency of Jesus Christ?"

"Mr. Thomas Olney, the venerable treasurer of the Church, invited Mrs. Bartlett to conduct the Bible class....it has increased its numbers, until the average attendance has now become seven hundred, which sometimes swells to an additional hundred or so."

"On a recent visit to the class, it seemed to me that there was an undefined something in the prayer alone which robbed one of that calmness of mind so requisite in joining in a public supplication, but filled the soul at the same time with a holy exhilaration and devout expectation which fully compensated for loss of calm. It was a simple, tender, earnest, powerful and prevailing address to a real present Father. If woman can thus approach the Lord in supplication, how much do we not lose, my male friends, by not occasionally hearing her voice?"

"[Her teaching] was doctrinal—founded on the eternal verities of the great I AM. It was chiefly exhortative—recalling God's performances in bygone times of Christian experience, specifying the many sacred privileges of the present, painting bright pictures of coming joys and communions to be realised by faith in the far-stretched future. Better still—it was savoury, full of Jesus. Peculiarly tender and eloquent was her appeal to the unconverted. Convince a sinner of your real anxiety for his eternal welfare, and you have opened a channel in his heart for further communications. Few could resist admiring the exuberant and passionate utterances of this Bible-teacher."

 

I can't think of one woman teacher I ever heard that didn't teach serious error.

 

This verse does not dissolve the recognition of gender nor station restrictions.

My wife did not become gender neutral as a believer.

Even in eternity rewards and status are not neutral.

Too often this verse is passed along in some offering of support concerning roles, status, ... it remains a misuse.

 

http://christianthinktank.com/fem09.html

 

I believe the Bible is clear on this. Pastors are to be male only. I believe it's fine for woman to teach other women or children.

 

So it's OK to deceive women and children?

 

Kay McArthur

 

Of course, this is taken out of context. With this logic you could approve of LGBT.

 

See Paul on women teachers...........

 

Good to know we no longer have to worry about homosexuality. Glad you cleared that up for everyone.

 

sexist much

 

The fact she teaches men by defector puts her in serious error.

 

Those who are Elders and Pastors in a formal sense would have to be male....

 

What does this verse say to you? To me it says that a Christian is a Christian regardless of their color, age, sex, national origin, etc.

 

What do you think is the context which makes this not a universal truth?