Female Pastors & Bible Teachers

WileyCoyote

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Women can be pastors and teachers, IMHAABHO (In My Humble, Assertive, And Brutally Honest Opinion :p).

I think it's amazing that with a few misquoted scriptures, the devil has silenced half the Body of Christ for years and years. JMHAABHO.
 
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Aino

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I think many people make such a big issue about a thing that's not even so huge. I don't generally mind people / churches who'd mind female pastors but I've grown liberal enough to accept female ministry without a doubt. In fact I consider becoming a pastor myself.
 
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I attend a church where a husband and wife are the senior pastors. They both preach, the female pastor is amazing and has an extreme love of and understanding of God whenever she preaches I often see a large number of men responding positively to her sermon.

However the gender roles are still very much in place. She runs the womans group and her husband runs the mans group. I feel if a guy ever came to her with a spiritual question she'd more then likely refer him to her husband.

Personally I'm conflicted on the biblical passages and I wonder what the original greek passages said? I've experienced the awesomeness of a female pastor and wonder why should the men miss out on this as well, sure there may be difficulties if going to a female pastor on "mens" issues, but why miss out on Gods word being spoken through someone just because they're female?
 
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MacFall

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I have a scriptural argument in favor of female pastors, but my view is also informed by personal experience. I have a female pastor. She is not the head pastor of our church, but she is ordained. I can quite honestly and without exaggeration say that I would be dead without having had her council and teaching throughout my youth, probably at my own hand. So I am going to flatly refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell me she should not have had that position. You can go play the part of the accuser of the brethren elsewhere. I won't hear it.
 
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benf

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I have a scriptural argument in favor of female pastors, but my view is also informed by personal experience. I have a female pastor. She is not the head pastor of our church, but she is ordained. I can quite honestly and without exaggeration say that I would be dead without having had her council and teaching throughout my youth, probably at my own hand. So I am going to flatly refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell me she should not have had that position. You can go play the part of the accuser of the brethren elsewhere. I won't hear it.


Your personal experiences trump biblical instruction, got it.
 
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MacFall

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You didn't actually read my post, did you?

But I do have a scripture for you: Matthew 7:16. Good works do not come from evil sowing. By accusing a woman pastor of claiming authority unrighteously, you must judge her works as unrighteous as well. I do not claim to have that right. Do you?
 
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Apollo Celestio

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The core of this argument is this question: Are men spiritually superior to women? If yes, then they should remain second-rate. If not, then we are equal.. Limiting women to server actions and denying their teacher understanding is pretty spiritually foolish in my opinion.

I am beginning to learn that rigid culturally based gender roles are harmful to both men and women alike..
 
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Stravinsk

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Hmm...

From a personal experience statndpoint - I've had only a little experience with female pastors.

I've not yet met one I truly respect in that role. Mind you, I've had plenty of experiences with male pastors and have met a few I don't respect in that role either but some I do respect and defer to on some level.

It could be just my experience, but generally speaking I find female pastors:

A) Are often insecure in that role. They feel strange about taking a leadership role - however, if they *do* take on that role then...

B) Often they are fighting to be respected in that role and use various manipulative tactics and/or overtly *assert* authority which only serves to distance many people further. And if one has to *overtly assert* authority - it is an admission you have none - male and female alike.

The other thing I have noticed about female pastors (again, my experience) is that often their sermons are coloured heavily with emotion rather than sound doctrine and logic. Scripture is used, often, not in balance with other Scripture, but to validate feelings and emotion. Of course, male pastors do this too - though I've seen less of it.

If ever a female uses her gender to accuse one of bias - that is - "you're a chauvinist hiding behind Scripture" - she's already gone a fair distance in losing my respect. True Authority is accepted because it is inate on some level - never expected or demanded.

From a purely Scriptural point of view - I think it is clear that women having authority over men is simply not in God's plan for things. I can and have learned alot from women - but never because I accepted their inate authority. In my veiw, they do not have it.
 
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Brad2009

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If Paul's instructions control, then the approach of Keri's Bible college is fully acceptable and handles Paul's instructions with extreme caution. If outliers within the text control and doctrine can be taken from intricate extrapolations at the expense of explicit instruction, then women can be pastors and teachers of men.

Don't forget, Paul was chosen to be the mouthpiece of Jesus Christ. He was educated by Gamaliel in the Hebrew traditions (lest anyone assert Socratic education), but abandoned his life as a preeminent Pharisee for chains and scorn at the appearing of the Lord. Many speak ill of Paul and even make up lies about him for the sake of political correctness. Judge for yourselves if it is acceptable to slander Paul and use textual outliers to contradict his clear instructions.
 
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Miles

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The core of this argument is this question: Are men spiritually superior to women? If yes, then they should remain second-rate. If not, then we are equal.. Limiting women to server actions and denying their teacher understanding is pretty spiritually foolish in my opinion.

I am beginning to learn that rigid culturally based gender roles are harmful to both men and women alike..

The core of the argument is based on scripture. The Bible clearly states that women should not be pastors. It's disingenuous at worst, or wishful thinking at best, to claim otherwise. That said, I don't personally think women are inferior to men. If they want to preach, and others want to follow, that's their call. Perhaps I'll become a Unitarian. Then I won't have to think about this kind of thing.
 
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MacFall

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The core of the argument is based on scripture. The Bible clearly states that women should not be pastors.

No more than it clearly states that women should not speak or uncover their hair in church. It's called CONTEXT. And the context is CULTURAL.
 
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WileyCoyote

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I have a scriptural argument in favor of female pastors, but my view is also informed by personal experience. I have a female pastor. She is not the head pastor of our church, but she is ordained. I can quite honestly and without exaggeration say that I would be dead without having had her council and teaching throughout my youth, probably at my own hand. So I am going to flatly refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell me she should not have had that position. You can go play the part of the accuser of the brethren elsewhere. I won't hear it.
:thumbsup:
 
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Stravinsk

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No more than it clearly states that women should not speak or uncover their hair in church. It's called CONTEXT. And the context is CULTURAL.

Not according to Paul.

Everyone likes to ignore:

1 Tim 2:11-14

Unless you think that Paul was speaking "culturally" by referencing the very first sin that led to expulsion from the Garden and had consequences for all of mankind?

There's just no room for a "cultural context" in that particular passage.
 
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kevlite2020

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of course there needs to be female leadership. Who is going to teach the other women in churches and colleges how to make a spiritually sound and soul-warming sandwich!

921ddbd8-f83b-4343-835f-cad15575484a-1.jpg




Juuuuuuuuust kidding ladies. In all seriousness, I have no issues with women leading and teaching on spiritual things. As an example, when I led a high school youth group, the person in charge of the whole area was a woman. I was thankful for that because she was great at teaching and getting students involved, as well as a very spiritually mature person. If they put someone like me in charge, who had less experience and didn't have the gifts that she had, students wouldn't have got as much out of it. It's clear to me that women can have understanding and compassion, and if you have those two things, I don't see a problem with them teaching or leading in spiritual areas.
 
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singpeace

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When Paul instructs those at Ephesus and Corinth about conduct, he speaks to the men and the women about specific problems those churches were having. The men were medaling in others' business, gossiping, stirring up anger, and not working an honest days work. The women were asking a lot of questions while in the temple because they had never been allowed to be there before. There were a host of other issues. These rules were for a certain group of people at a time when they were considered the worst among the New Testament church.

Exodus 15:20: Miriam, the sister of Aaron was a prophetess and one of the triad of leaders of Israel during the Exodus from Egypt.

Judges 4 & 5: Deborah, a prophet-judge, headed the army of ancient Israel.

2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22 Huldah, a prophet, verified the authenticity of the "Book of the Law of the Lord given through Moses." She triggered a religious renewal.

Acts 9:36 The author of Luke referred to a female disciple by her Aramaic name Tabitha, who was also known by her Greek name Dorcas. She became sick had died; Peter brought her back to life.

Acts 21:8: Philip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who were prophets.

Philippians 4:2: Paul refers to two women, Euodia and Syntyche, as coworkers who were active evangelicals, spreading the gospel.

Romans 16:1: Paul refers to Phoebe as a minister (diakonos) of the church at Cenchrea. Some translations say deaconess; others try to obscure her position by mistranslating it as "servant" or "helper".

Romans 16:7(NIV) - Greet Andronicus and (1) Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. (2) They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

1 Peter 5
All (male and female) of you are to obey, be under obedience to, put under, subdue, and submit yourselves to “one another”……… and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.
 
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Obzocky

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I have no strong opinions on this, personally if someone feels driven to this life then there's a reason for it. If they can inspire people to listen and learn, to live as they should, offer support and guidance, then their gender is irrelevant. We are sometimes far too good at selecting verses and then saying these ones are cultural and should be looked at for how revolutionary they were at the time, and then turning round and saying other parts must be taken exactly as they are read.
 
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Stravinsk

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Nice references, but we are not talking about prophets or prophetesses or evangelism. We are talking about authority.

Paul does not say "women should be quiet and submissive because they are gossiping too much or are being obnoxious in the assembly"

What he DOES say is that they should be so because a woman was the first sinner, that it was EVE, not Adam, that was decieved.

That may sound horribly chauvenistic to modern ears - but it really just can't be escaped.
 
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K9_Trainer

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What exactly IS spiritual authority?

Does a prophet not hold some sort of God given spiritual authority if he supposedly has direct contact with God and is sharing the messages with other people? Wouldn't a prophetess have the same authority?
 
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