The Truth Is Women Can’t Be Pastors

Do you believe that women can serve in the office or function of pastor/elder/overseer? Do you think women should be allowed to lead Christ’s church? Are there other parts of Scriptures that you choose to deny? According to God’s Word, the truth is women can’t be pastors. Living truth requires surrendering to all of God’s Word, even the parts that make you uncomfortable. 

I love that God is merciful and patient with me. So often I have questioned His ways. Through prayer, the Holy Spirit and the study of Scripture, He always gives me a greater understanding of who He is. There was a time when I did not understand why women couldn’t be pastors. However, even then I questioned why so many “churches” that clearly didn’t follow Christ were led by women. 

This topic is one that makes the unbelieving world as well as professing Christians uncomfortable. How dare any church tell a woman that they can’t do anything that a man can do. Just because male headship is rejected by the unbelieving world around us, it is no reason to change what God has said in His Word. I believe women pastorship is our modern day tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a rejection of God’s authority and design. 

Go Back To Genesis

As a child, I remember studying Genesis in Sunday School. As an adult, I have come to realize it is the foundation of the rest of Scripture. There is so much to learn in those fifty chapters, and so much of the rest of the Bible points back to them. Read Genesis 3 and notice how the crafty serpent (Satan) approached Eve and not Adam. Satan knew God had created Adam to be the head of his wife. His goal was to ignore and upend their relationship by tempting Eve, the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7). 

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 1 Timothy 2:11-14

Let’s look at how this exchange is playing out today. Satan says, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not be a pastor?” Woman’s response, “God refers to pastors as he and the husband of one wife, which indicates that pastors are men (1 Timothy 3:1-5). He also said that women are not to teach or exercise authority over man.” Satan responds, “If He’s truly a loving God then why would He not allow you to do what He allows man to do?” Then women see that pastorship looks good and it is a delight to their eyes. Next, they give into the temptation and convince the men around them to follow suit. 

Satan’s goal is and has always been that we give into the desires of our flesh and reject the Word of God. One of the greatest ways he seeks to do this is by tempting us to question or reject God’s design, especially His design for men and women. We see this in the curse of sin placed on women. God says to Eve in Genesis 3:16, Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. God created a perfect relationship where man and woman actually completed each other. Then sin perverted it to make it a curse rather than a blessing. 

Equal But Not The Same

There are several “churches” in the world today that are not teaching Biblical truth. These “churches” proudly fly pride flags and sing songs bashing ICE rather than songs that worship God. These “churches” aren’t pointing anyone to Christ. The majority of them are led by women, and sometimes an all female staff. In addition, the majority of their congregation is made up of women. They are creating spaces that say, we don’t need men, and we can do anything a man can do. That sounds like the unbelieving world and not like God’s Word.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

God created both men and women in His image. However, he did not design men and women to be the same. Science proves that. Because of our differences, men and women are given different roles. Women who seek to be pastors do not desire equality, they desire sameness. This is reflective of the unbelieving world who thinks men can be women and women can be men. In addition, statistics show that children struggle when they grow up in a home without a father or father figure. They are less physically healthy, less financially stable, less likely to graduate from high school, and more likely to be convicted of a crime. There is a need for male leadership in the home and in the church. There are consequences for rejecting it. 

If we have learned anything from the denominations that have chosen to allow women to be pastors, it is that this is not where it ends. Churches that deny God’s design for male headship over the church will eventually deny God’s design for marriage, gender, the sanctity of life and finally the deity of Christ. The church is supposed to serve as an example for the unbelieving world. Not change with or reflect the culture of the unbelieving world. However, that is exactly what is happening in churches led by women.   

What CAN Women Do In The Church?

When Eve was tempted by Satan, for a minute (that’s all it takes) she forgot all the ways that God had blessed her. She lived in paradise with a husband who loved and cared for her. She was in fellowship with the God who created her and provided everything she needed. However, for a minute, all she cared about was what she thought God was withholding from her. She wanted it and was going to get it even if it cost her everything. 

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:3-5

Women today are appalled to hear that loving their husband well, raising children, caring for their home and discipling younger women to do the same is God’s call on their lives. It’s not enough, we want more. If you feel that way, you need to repent. Like men, women are called to share the Gospel and build the local church. However, we are not called to lead the local church. Women need to be taught the beauty of male headship and the beauty of God’s design for male and female. Christians, stop encouraging women to reject God’s design, the unbelieving world already has that covered. 

Living Truth

James 3:1 warns that not all who want to teach should be teachers. It is easy to admire the authority and status that comes with being the pastor of a church, but oftentimes we don’t consider the cost. Women who claim that God has called them to pastor are not listening to God because He would never call you to do something He has specifically told you not to do. 

We live in a world that is quick to give the title of pastor to women who teach in the church, go to seminary and even to pastors’ wives. However, according to Scripture, these things do not make her a pastor. To treat the title so flippantly is to reject the authority of God and our need for male headship in the church. That’s why it is important for denominations like the SBC to specify and enforce that churches adhere to Scripture when appointing someone to the role of pastor.   

I encourage you as a follower of Christ, to know the truth found in God’s Word about God’s design for men and women. Listen to Him as you form your opinions on the matter and stop listening to the unbelieving world around you. I would love to hear from you. Send me an email on my Contact Page. Also, be sure to check out my Resources Page.