Don,
You said:

2 “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson does not explain the difference between foolish and wise consistency. Who are we to say that it is foolish? Since Emerson encouraged people to rely on their own judgment instead of the opinion of God’s word, I don’t think that his transcendentalism would be appropriate as a discussion on this blog.

In this case, the church that restricts all 3 is even more hobbled to advance the Kingdom.

Perhaps a church that restricts all 3 would have more of an opportunity to see that there is faulty reasoning when one sees the passage as a restriction of classes of people instead of the restriction of ungodly characters. Those who only remove women from the list seem to remain blinded.

When Judas disqualified himself, he was replaced, as there needed to be 12 for the mapping to succeed.

More important than mapping, I would think would be the specific prophesy in the OT that states that this one would be replaced with another. I think that God’s sovereignty outweighs anything else.

in 1 Tim 1:15, where it is BOTH a saying and a ref. to Jesus.

This verse does not work with making “word” to be a reference to Jesus because of the inspired words.

1 Timothy 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Here the “word” being trustworthy is connected to “deserving full acceptance” and “that”… The conjunction word “that” is:

used after verbs of thinking, judging, believing to introduce the content of the thought processes
Friberg, Timothy ; Friberg, Barbara ; Miller, Neva F.: Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, 2000 (Baker’s Greek New Testament Library 4), S. 287

Therefore the word that is trustworthy and deserving full acceptance is the “saying”. It isn’t “who” is worthy all of acceptance which would have identifyied a person.

In 1 Timothy 3:1 it is once again a saying that is trustworthy and to be accepted and this is followed by the particle “if”. Paul is saying that no one should contradict the trustworthy saying that anyone (male, female, Jew, Gentile) who desires to have the responsibility of overseer would each one be desiring a good thing. This is the key verse that is attached to the fact that it is a trustworthy saying that cannot be contradicted which forces us to see the following verses as a reference to character and not about a restriction on classes of people.

1 Tim 4:9 is also not a saying, again just referring to Jesus.

This is also incorrect. 1 Timothy 4:9 is one case where Paul places the fact that it is a trustworthy saying, AFTER the trustworthy saying. Here is the context.:

1 Timothy 4:7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
1 Timothy 4:8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:9 It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance.
1 Timothy 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

Here we can see that the trustworthy statement is that “godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

We can understand that Paul has just referenced this trustworthy statement because in verse 10 he says “For it is for this we labor and strive”. What is “this”? It is for godliness that we labor and strive. Why? Paul tells us “because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” Once again we see that this verse doesn’t say “for him we labor and strive”. The verse specifically says it is for godliness that we strive because we fix our hope on God.

So all of the examples without exception in 1 Timothy are for the “word” to be about a particular statement that is without contradiction as the statement is “trustworthy”. Again this places 1 Timothy 3:1 into the category of unqualified acceptance that “all” may aspire to the responsibility of lovingly overseeing the needs of the flock. There is nothing in the inspired words, the inspired grammar or the complete context that would make these passages not to be about a very important and trustworthy statement. Once again the consistency is amazing. Paul started a concept and carried it through the book of 1 Timothy in a consistent way.