Winger rejects the 'covering' argument that a senior male pastor can authorize female elders/pastors under his headship. A husband is the head of his wife — an elder is NOT the head of other elders. 1 Timothy 2 says 'I don't allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man,' period — not 'without a male head.'

Q&A: advice for a member of a church with a male lead elder pastoring alongside ordained female elders who often teach on Sundays.

Winger says a wife co-teaching an adult Sunday school Bible study IS an elder-type role and would be wrong under his complementarian view. However, co-teaching a topical class (like parenting) is NOT eldership and he'd be fine with it. He warns against creating Pharisaic rules but draws the line at verse-by-verse Bible teaching.

Bonus Q after viewer watched WIM series: Is a woman helping her husband teach a co-ed adult Sunday school class an elder-type role?

Jesus & the Samaritan Woman: Was Jesus pointing out the sin of the Samaritan woman, or was He letting her know He understood her circumstances, considering women had little control over their marital status?

Q&A question: Jesus & the Samaritan Woman

Exodus: Conjugal Rights vs. Adultery?: Exodus 21: 10 says a man married to multiple women shouldn't deny them conjugal rights. Isn't each instance of intimacy in that situation adultery against one wife?

Q&A question: Exodus: Conjugal Rights vs. Adultery?

Why Didn’t God Forbid Polygamy?: If verses like Exodus 21: 10 aren't supporting polygamy but protecting women in a bad situation, why didn't God just outlaw polygamy outright? I agree with you, but don't know how to counter this argument.

Q&A question: Why Didn’t God Forbid Polygamy?

Winger says there is no biblical requirement for an ordained person to officiate a wedding — marriage is a public covenant between a man and woman, and the authority to marry doesn't reside in a pastor, government, or anyone else. He wrestles with whether to recommend a woman officiate for non-believing family.

Q from a female believer: brother (non-believer) asked her to officiate his wedding; only option is online ordination, which feels like mocking God.

Choosing Between Two Churches: What would you do if you had to choose between a Calvinist leaning church and a church that believed women could be elders? Both churches are otherwise healthy and doctrinally sound.

Q&A question: Choosing Between Two Churches

Winger advises a 16-year-old in an egalitarian church on how to approach leaders: do self-assessment first (Matt 7:5, Gal 6:1), don't become one-sided in critique, acknowledge blessings from women's ministry even if the role is unbiblical, bring SPECIFIC evidence rather than just conviction, and start with encouragement.

Q from 16-year-old who has been studying Winger's Women in Ministry series and wants to discuss egalitarianism with church leaders.

Should Abortion be Prosecuted?: Do you think it's biblical that women who have abortions should be legally judged the same way as someone who commits murder?

Q&A question: Should Abortion be Prosecuted?

Men Are like Waffles and Women Are like Spaghetti

.Women Who Follow Jesus from the Cross to the Tomb

The presence of women as the primary witnesses to the empty tomb was an embarrassment to the early church in first-century culture, where women's testimony was widely discredited. What was a liability then is actually strong evidence for historical reliability now — people don't fabricate stories that hurt their own credibility.

The criterion of embarrassment and the women witnesses; Celsius's criticism

Richard Bauckham's thesis in "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses" is that names appearing in Mark's gospel identify living witnesses known to the community receiving the text. When Mark names Simon of Cyrene "the father of Alexander and Rufus," and Paul greets a "Rufus" in Rome (Rom. 16:13), this likely connects to the same family — confirming these are not invented characters but real people vouching for the account.

Named eyewitnesses in Mark as evidence of historical reliability; Bauckham's thesis

The three women witnesses (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome) are named only at this point in Mark's narrative, precisely when Peter disappears. Mark systematically uses named witnesses when Peter is absent — suggesting these women functioned as eyewitness guarantors of the crucifixion, burial, and empty tomb accounts.

The women replace Peter as named witnesses at the passion; Mark's literary structure as historical indicator

Salome is present at the death scene and the empty tomb, but absent from the burial scene (only the two Marys watch where Jesus is laid). This inconsistency would have been smoothed over in a fabricated account. The simplest explanation is she wasn't there for the burial — a subtle but significant mark of historicity.

The inconsistency of Salome's appearances as evidence of historical accuracy rather than legend

Mark uses consistent "witnessing verbs" (looking on, saw, looking up, behold the place) as the women observe Jesus die, watch where he is laid, and discover the empty tomb — signaling to the reader that these women are functioning as formal eyewitness testimony in a legally significant sense, not merely as background characters.

The pattern of seeing/witnessing verbs applied to the women in Mark 15-16

Winger explains the reason for his extensive long-COVID delay in completing the Women in Ministry series: the number of complex texts and exegetical issues in 1 Timothy 2 is genuinely large, and he refuses to produce a rushed or shallow treatment of a topic that will have real impact on people's lives and churches. This reflects his broader ministry philosophy of thoroughness over speed.

Long-COVID illness and the delay in completing Women in Ministry series; commitment to thoroughness

"Does the Bible Permit A Woman to Preach?" - John MacArthur

John MacArthur addresses whether the Bible permits women to preach, presenting a restrictive complementarian position. Sermon from Grace Community Church.

Women in Ministry - Prof Craig Keener

Paul's letters stand at the centre of the dispute over women's role in church ministry, with each side of the dispute championing texts from the Apostle. How do we understand the text in 1 Corinthians 14 where Paul instructs women to be silent, or the 1 Timothy 2 passage where women are forbidden to teach or exercise authority over men? Are these texts addressing a specific cultural situation or should they be treated as universal prohibitions? Craig Keener delved deeply into the world of Paul and wrestled with these thorny texts in his book [*Paul, Women and Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul*](/library/25) (Hendrikson, 1992). In a public lecture at Laidlaw's Henderson campus in September 2019, Professor Keener looked at the arguments for both sides of the question: 'are women allowed to be in ministry?', and the approaches various theologians and church traditions have taken throughout the centuries. He gave insights into the culture at the time Paul wrote his letters, and of the way false teachers were targeting women. He notes the importance of considering the original situation of Paul's letters, and that Paul does affirm women's ministry which helps us to see that Paul himself did not prohibit women from teaching the Bible always.

Gender-Segregated Seating — No Historical Evidence

The sermon's claim that men and women sat on opposite sides in the Corinthian assembly, with wives shouting questions across the room to husbands, has no credible historical or archaeological support.

The Status-Seeking Reading of 1 Corinthians 14 — Well Supported

The sermon's central thesis — that Corinthians were using spiritual gifts for status seeking rather than building up the body — is one of the best-supported readings available, backed by 40 years of s

Peppiatt's Quotation-Refutation Theory on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

[Lucy Peppiatt](logosres:LLS:9781498201476;ref=bible.1Co14.34-35) (now [Peppiatt Crawley](logosres:LLS:9781498201476;ref=bible.1Co14.34-35)) argues vv. 34-35 are not Paul's words but the Corinthians'

Podcast Q1: The "Law" That Doesn't Exist (Impact 9/10, Reconsideration 7/10)

"Brett, verse 34 says women should be silent 'as the Law also says.' You mentioned this was about order, but which law is being referenced here? There's no Old Testament passage that commands women's

Podcast Q2: "Shameful" Is Stronger Than You Let On (Impact 8/10, Reconsideration 6/10)

"You moved past the word 'shameful' fairly quickly, but the Greek there — *aischron* — is the same word Paul uses in **Eph 5:12** for things 'too shameful even to mention,' and it carries the sense of

Podcast Q4: The Segregated Seating Problem (Impact 7/10, Reconsideration 8/10)

"You described a scenario where men and women sat on opposite sides and wives were shouting questions across the room. I looked into this and couldn't find archaeological or historical evidence for ge

Podcast Q5: Paul's Own Conclusion Contradicts the Silencing (Impact 8/10, Reconsideration 7/10)

"You made a strong case that Paul's concern is building up the body and that everyone should be able to contribute. But if that's true, how do you read verse 39 — 'do not forbid to speak' — right afte

Commentary: Membership Interviews as Doctrinal Gate

Ardavanis says: > "It is a question that comes up frequently in our member interviews." He doesn't explicitly state agreement is required for membership, but the framing is revealing — he preaches a

Commentary: Image and Glory — The 1 Corinthians 11:7 Avoidance

Ardavanis says: > "Both are made in the image of God and bring profound glory to God. Males do not reflect God's image more than females." Yet he never addresses **1Co 11:7:** "For a man ought not t

Commentary: Complementary Means Shared Roles, Not Divided Authority

Ardavanis says: > "God made man and women different and complimentary." Agreement: Yes — and this is precisely why God didn't make another man. He made a woman to rule WITH him. Their differences co

Commentary: One Flesh Cannot Be Hierarchy

Ardavanis says: > "This beautiful picture of men and women, a groom and a bride... this is the central metaphor in all of the Bible... complementary yet different sexes that come together in union pa

Commentary: Genesis 3:16 Is Descriptive, Not Prescriptive

Ardavanis says: > "God tells Eve that as a derivative of the curse, you will desire to master your husband... Women are going to fight against God's design for male leadership." **Ge 3:16** is descr

Commentary: Deception Is Not Gender-Specific — Paul Fears It for the Whole Church

Paul writes: "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (**2 Cor 11:3,** NASB). Paul is

Commentary: Following a Woman Is Not the Problem — The Bible Commends It Repeatedly

Ardavanis says Adam "passively followed his wife's leadership," framing the act of following a woman as itself the failure. She did go first, and yes, he followed without objecting. But Ardavanis miss

Commentary: Same Word for Adam and Eve — Toil, Not Gendered Punishment

Ardavanis presents Adam's and Eve's curses as distinct experiences — Adam gets "toil" working the ground, Eve gets "pain" in childbirth — as if God is using different language to describe fundamentall

Commentary: God Never Said She Would Want to "Overpower" Her Husband

At 11:31, Ardavanis claims that God tells Eve she is going to want to "overpower her husband" and "subvert God's design," and calls this "one of the most timeless wars waged in culture." ### God Says

"If Any Man" — τις Is Gender-Neutral, and 1Ti 3 Does Not Exclude Women

At 14:32, he claims that one of the qualifications for a pastor is "most noticeably" that the elder be a man, which he states is THE consistent pattern of male leadership established in Ge and seen th