Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 4/24/2007

Question
Can to tell me why some churches allow women to be ministers and some don't and can you explain to me what
1st Timothy 5-9 means ?

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your questions.

As far as baptists are concerned, you would get several different answers.  First of all, Baptists uphold the Bible as the standard for everything.  But, the way in which we interprete it varies greatly.  
For example, for a great majority of fundamental Baptists, they believe that no woman should teach any man or boy over the age of 12.  That would really narrow down what they could do in the church.  This is true both for the past and the present.
For conservative Baptist Churches, like the Southern Baptist Convention, women were traditionally not allowed to teach men or to serve an any office in the church.  In the last 50 years, this has changed.  Now in most SBC churches, women can teach and hold any office but deacon.  Some even allow women to serve as deacons.  SBC churches in the past did not allow any women to be ordained into ministry of any kind.  Most SBC churches will ordain women into any ministry position but Pastor.  Even some of them will ordain women as pastors.  Although they are few and far between.  SBC seminaries only allowed men to study and earn degrees.  That too changed in the 1950's.
American Baptist Churches have been the most liberal in their treatment of women.  At the beginning of the century, they held the same views as other baptists.  But they were the first to allow women to serve in any office of the church including deacon.  ABC churches also ordain women into any Ministry position.  In fact, there are a lot of women pastors in our region in PA.  
African American Baptist churches traditionally do not allow women to serve in office of deacon or to be ordained.  
The thing to remember is that EVERY Baptist church is atonomous.  That means each church has the right to have its own rules.  No convention can dictate to any Baptist church what it can or can not do.  So in some churches you would find women pastors and in others you would find women serving in no way.

Now my view on women in ministry is that women can serve in any capacity that God calls them.  Let’s consider the facts:

1. Paul had women on his ministry team. The Bible clearly records the names of the women who served as deacons, pastors, prophets and apostles in the New Testament church. They include Priscilla, Phoebe, Euodia, Syntyche, Nympha, Traephena, Traephosa, Philip’s four daughters and Junia (see Rom. 16:7)—a female apostle who spent time in prison with Paul. (Her Roman name was always listed in early biblical manuscripts as feminine until the 13 th century, when some translators decided a woman couldn’t possibly be a church planter.)

2. Paul supported these female ministers fully. Fundamentalists claim that Paul pushed women to the back of the church and muzzled them, but that is far from the truth. He traveled with Priscilla and her husband, Aquilla, and the Bible says Priscilla taught the man Apollos and launched him into ministry (in other words, her ministry was not just to other women; see Acts 18:24-26). Paul said of Phoebe the deacon, “I commend to you our sister,” instructing early Christians to back her (Rom. 16:1-2, NASB). He praised Traephena and Traephosa as “workers in the Lord,” obviously because they labored diligently to expand Christ’s kingdom (Rom. 16:12).

And when Euodia and Syntyche experienced friction in their relationship, Paul did not order them to get out of the ministry. Instead, he told his colleagues in Philippi to “help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel” (Phil. 4:3).

3. Paul’s restrictions on women were not universal. Bible scholars have varied interpretations of 1 Timothy 2:12, which demands “silence” of women. Many agree that Paul was dealing with a specific situation in Ephesus in which a woman or a group of women were teaching heresy. If Paul had believed in a blanket prohibition of women in ministry, he never would have supported Priscilla, Phoebe or any woman in a leadership position. He would, however, have expected illiterate and untrained women to adopt a submissive attitude while learning God’s Word.

** Paul shared Jesus’ view of gender equality. Paul allowed women to preach and prophesy in church meetings (1 Cor. 11:5) because he believed the gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed to people regardless of race, class or gender. He made this clear when he told the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Gal. 3:28).

Now, I do believe that a man should be the head of his household.  A man is responsible to love his wife as much as Christ loves the church.  To me, a man has a greater responsibility under God than a woman has to submit to her husband.


1 Timothy 5:9  Paul is writing to Timothy to instruct the church.  The church was responsible to help take care of widows and orphans. In verses 9-10 Paul is defining a real widow as one who has no relatives to take care of her, Paul now restricts the matter further by saying that no widow under sixty years of age should be "put on the list." It seems evident that an official list of widows was kept by each church and that only these received material support.
Furthermore, she must have "been faithful to her husband" (lit., "the wife of one man"). This is the same sort of expression as is found in the qualifications for overseers (3:2) and deacons (3:12). As we noted there, this does not mean "only once married," especially since Paul goes on in v.14 to instruct younger widows to remarry.
To qualify for enrollment, a widow must also be well known for her good deeds, several of which are spelled out as essential if she were going to be supported by the church. The first is "bringing up children" (GK G5452). This would most naturally refer to her own children but could also include the care of orphans. The second is "showing hospitality" (lit., "welcoming strangers"; GK G3827). Next is "washing the feet of the saints"; this was an important courtesy whenever guests entered a house. The last two duties are "helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds."