Brenda V.

Hello Cheryl and all of you in this forum. I am a relatively new believer and for months now I have had the issue of women preachers on my heart and in my mind so much so that at times I’m awake in the middle of the night pondering it. I’m so grateful for being led to this site because I’ve found a lot of valuable and sound information after a period of weeding through “the truth”.

I began my search for answers by going to my local pastor for insight and explanations about what the Word says regarding women preachers and was immediately led to Timothy 2:12. “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” I went home and mulled it over and read and re-read the entire chapter and to me it was not the clear cut explanation the pastor told me it was.

Cheryl wrote, “It is impossible for such a command to be clear, that is not written to the entire church, not written in the context in an easily understandable fashion and has no second witness to confirm that it is indeed a universal witness, yet we still want to see the command as “clearly” about all godly women for all of church history, instead of a local command for a local problem?”

To me, the context of this scripture was not taken into consideration by my pastor and it bothered me because when I read it I saw the context immediately. I decided to dig a little deeper because I’m really unsettled about this subject (why I have no idea, because before I became a believer I never gave this a second thought) so I set out to get a “second opinion.” This time I asked what I deemed to be a knowledgeable sister in my church what her take was on the issue of women preachers. She quoted Timothy 2:11-12 “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” I brought up the question of context. She immediately answered that what I was doing was interpreting the scripture in a way that would conform to what I wanted to believe and that it “clearly” stated in black and white what the truth was. All I could think of to say was that it made no sense to me to think that the God I had come to know and love would condemn a woman for teaching His Word. She said He would for not being obedient. I just didn’t get it.

I went to another pastor in my church and asked this question about women preachers yet again and he said that he believed women could most certainly teach in women’s ministry and children’s ministry, but if they believed they were called to teach as a pastor of an entire church, then they have incorrectly perceived that calling. I walked away shaking my head and thinking, “So women preachers are all walking around thinking they were called to ministry but they heard wrong?” He made it seem like women were just a bunch of “silly geese” mistakenly thinking they were called by God to teach the Word and then he read Timothy 2:13-14 “For Adam was formed first not Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” I left confused and dismayed. I’m no longer affiliated with this particular church, but the questions about women pastors still remain.

I greatly appreciate all of the information being shared here and I want you to know that I’m learning a lot and thinking even more now. It’s a very good thing!