A Biblical Vision for Women in Ministry

One of the most popular videos on my channel is where I reacted to Mike Winger's teaching series on women in ministry. I share a bit about my own 3-decade long journey of researching, reading, studying and thinking about the topic. I discuss how I migrated into egalitarianism and then back out of it again. What took Pastor Mike 40 hours of teaching to accomplish, I am now going to try and boil down to a 2000 word essay.

Watch: My Response to Mike Winger's Series on Women in Ministry

Too often, conversations about women in ministry begin in the wrong place. We dive straight into debates over the Greek word for “authority” in 1 Timothy 2, parse obscure historical details about what Paul might have meant about women "keeping silent" in the church, and trade proof-texts like verbal swords. While these discussions can have their place, they often turn (what should be) a conversation about how God designed His church into a battle over obscure semantics.

In my view, this approach ignores the weightier matters. It also fails to make some critical distinctions.

Spiritual Gifts Are for Everyone

Let’s begin with where all Christians agree: the generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all of God’s people. On the day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the prophet Joel: “Your sons and your daughters will prophesy… Even on my male servants and female servants, in those days I will pour out my Spirit” (Acts 2:17-18).

All Christians receive at least one gift from the Holy Spirit to help them in their personal ministry to build the Kingdom and share the good news of Jesus with others. Paul lists gifts like teaching, exhortation, mercy, administration, and evangelism without gender qualifiers (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12). Women are also explicitly described exercising some of these gifts, such as Priscilla instructing Apollos alongside her husband (Acts 18) and many women laboring for the sake of the gospel (Romans 16; Philippians 4:2-3).

Every Christian should know how to competently share the Gospel. This includes women. (If you don't, I have a class on that.) If a woman has the gift of teaching, wisdom or discernment, a healthy and biblical church can help her explore an appropriate place to use it. Every believer is a priest in the new covenant (1 Peter 2:9), and the body of Christ suffers when any member sits on their gifts.

Gifts Are Not the Same as Office

Spiritual gifts are one thing. Ecclesiastical office is another. The New Testament distinguishes between the empowering of the Spirit for ministry and the formal leadership structure of the local church.

The consistent pattern in the apostolic writings is that the local church is to be led by a plurality of qualified elders. Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus are explicit. Qualified elders must be “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6). This description presupposes male leadership. These men must manage their own households well, be able to teach sound doctrine, and refute those who contradict it. These are not suggestions; they are qualifications rooted in creation order, the example of Christ and the Twelve apostles (1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Corinthians 11 and 14).

This structure does not mean men are superior to women. Being male is a necessary condition for eldership, but it is not a sufficient condition. Many men are simply not qualified to be elders in a local church because they lack spiritual maturity, godly character, and/or are unable to teach or discern sound doctrine. The standard is high because the stakes are high. Elders guard the flock from wolves (Acts 20:28-31). They must “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). If a man cannot explain the gospel to a non-Christian, summarize the major doctrines of the faith (theology) and engage in its basic defense (apologetics) or model godliness in his home, then he is not qualified to serve in the office of elder, no matter how gifted he may be.

Watch: The American Model of Church Is Broken—Here's Why

This is not arbitrary gatekeeping. It is God’s wisdom for the local church. The shepherding role carries unique responsibility and authority that differs from the exercise of gifts in other contexts. A gifted female teacher might have a podcast, share the Gospel with a friend, lead a women’s Bible study, write books or speak at conferences. She may even contribute prophetically in corporate gatherings (1 Corinthians 11). But the formal office of elder—those who are responsible for the doctrinal direction, discipline, and shepherding of the entire flock—is reserved for qualified men.

Tradition and the Witness of History

For nearly 1,900 years, the universal practice of the Christian church was that men led the local churches, administered the sacraments, and handled the public preaching of Scripture. This was not a regional custom. It was the consistent and normative pattern from the apostolic fathers through the medieval church, the Reformation, and into the 19th century, across Catholic, Orthodox, and classical Protestant traditions alike.

Only in the last century or so, coinciding with the rise of modern feminism and egalitarianism, did large segments of Protestantism begin asking questions that would have been foreign to 1900 years of Christians. Suddenly, practices that stood unchallenged for millennia were reframed as "oppressive" and "sexist." This doesn’t mean tradition is infallible. Scripture alone is. But when the universal practice of faithful believers across cultures and centuries aligns with one reading of the pastoral epistles, we should at least pause before assuming our cultural moment has finally seen what two millennia of wisdom missed.

Tradition here serves as a helpful guardrail. It reminds us that the pattern of male-leadership is not an invention of Western, conservative white men, but the historic Christian consensus. Ignoring it risks letting contemporary assumptions be read back into the text rather than letting the text (and its faithful practice) shape the discussion.

Opportunities for Women in Sacramental Traditions

Traditions that maintain a strongly sacramental understanding of the church’s life often sidestep many of the tensions that plague low-church Protestantism. In Catholicism, traditional Anglicanism, and Eastern Orthodoxy, the primary role of the ordained priest is to administer the sacraments (especially the Lord’s Supper and Baptism) and to provide ongoing spiritual direction and pastoral care for the congregation. Because these traditions tie the core of ordained office to the sacraments and apostolic succession, the question of “who can preach or teach occasionally” does not carry the same weight as it does in settings where the sermon is the central act of weekly worship.

This framework simultaneously upholds male-only ordination while creating meaningful space for gifted women. Educated women can teach in seminaries, write influential theological works, lead Bible studies, offer spiritual counsel (especially to other women), direct catechesis programs, and contribute to the intellectual and devotional life of the church. One prominent example is Dr. Jeannie Constantinou, an Orthodox biblical scholar, author, and professor who has taught New Testament and early Christianity at the university level for decades while remaining fully within the historic Orthodox tradition that reserves priestly ordination for men. 

Watch: An Ancient Faith Approach to Women in Ministry

The sacramental model shows that a high view of ordained male leadership does not require minimizing the contributions of women. Instead, it channels gifts into appropriate and fruitful avenues that build up the whole body without blurring the distinct roles Scripture and tradition have established.

The Protestant Dilemma

The debate over women in ministry is a uniquely modern Protestant problem. What should be a conversation guided by Scripture and the historic witness of the church has instead become tangled in four distinct but related dynamics that often pull us away from clarity.

1) First, Protestantism rightly emphasizes sola scriptura. But this sometimes slips into sola my favorite verses. It becomes a battle of my favorite verse vs. your favorite verse. This is where a healthy appreciation for the role of tradition as a servant to Scripture can be helpful. Instead of ending up in endless competitions over isolated proof-texts, we must let the whole counsel of God, as well as the church’s historic witness, shape our understanding of this heated issue.

2) Adding to this dynamic is the reality that Protestants, especially those who hold a symbolic (or memorialist) view of the sacraments and a lower view of the pastoral office, tend to center the entire life of the church around the Sunday preaching event. The pastor’s primary identity becomes that of the weekly preacher/teacher rather than the historic role of shepherd who guards, feeds, and oversees the flock through Word, sacrament, and care. When preaching is elevated as the almost exclusive function of pastoral ministry, the debate over who may occupy the pulpit intensifies, and the broader biblical vision of eldership can shrink. This also clouds the church’s understanding of the meaningful ways women can and should participate in the life of the local church, which is precisely why conversations about women in ministry so quickly devolve into debates over Greek words and proof-texting minutiae.

3) A third complicating factor is that there is a major debate happening right now among those who affirm male eldership. Complementarianism itself is fracturing. A recent book, Complementarianism: A Continuum of Perspectives on Men and Women in the Church (edited by David S. Dockery), highlights six differing views within the camp on how far the distinctions should extend in practice. This book reflects the major battles happening right now in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). These debates are not over whether men should hold the office of elder. That much is firm. The debate has now centered on whether preaching and other tasks related to "shepherding" are an inherent function of the office of elder, or whether shepherding (the root of the word "pastor") is a spiritual gift  (Ephesians 4) that women may exercise under elder oversight. Those who take the latter approach (that shepherding is a spiritual gift and not an office) see a space for women teaching and preaching. They would say that all biblically qualified elders must be shepherds, but not all those with the spiritual gift of shepherding are qualified to be elders.

Watch: SBC Women Preaching Debate

4) Finally, much of today’s conversation has been shaped around discussions about power dynamics rather than Scripture. Some complementarians operate out of an anxious fear of feminist ideology, treating every proposal for women’s ministry as a dangerous compromise. Others, driven by cultural pressure, frame any restriction on women’s roles as inherently sexist or oppressive, turning the discussion into a contest over who gets to exercise power. Both approaches miss the point. The biblical pattern is not about men protecting privilege or women claiming rights, but about joyful submission to God’s good order.

A Call for Humble Obedience

I think there are two common errors in the debate over women in ministry. On one side, some treat every gifted person as automatically eligible for every role, flattening the New Testament’s leadership structure in the church into the modern egalitarian vision where men and women are interchangeable. On the other, some act as if women have nothing valuable to contribute to the life of the local church. This is also unbiblical. The biblical path affirms the full dignity and gifting of women while preserving the male eldership pattern Scripture establishes.

The discussion about women in ministry shouldn't primarily be about empowering women. It should be about trusting that God’s design for the church is good. The same God who pours out His Spirit on sons and daughters also structures local congregations with qualified male elders. Both realities come from His wisdom.

Watch: Helping Women Find Their Place in the Local Church

The local church thrives when every member functions according to their gifts, under the leadership of qualified elders who ensure unity in truth. This might mean that women with the spiritual gift of teaching can pour into the next generation. (That's how I would see my ministry. I am engaging in a form of digital discipleship, especially to younger women. That's who I am mostly talking to these days and the analytics bear that out.) Women with administrative gifts can organize mercy ministries. Women with discernment can spot cultural drift long before it reaches the pulpit and bring it to the attention of their husbands and possibly the elders (depending on the situation and context).

If you’re a church leader, evaluate your elders rigorously by biblical qualifications, not cultural ones. If you’re a woman with significant gifts, use them humbly for the glory of Christ and the good of His people. And if you’re still wrestling with these texts, approach them with an open Bible and a willingness to submit to what you find there, even when it cuts against modern instincts.

The church does not belong to us. It belongs to the One who purchased it with His blood. Our job is not to reinvent it according to our preferences, but to order it according to His revealed will, for the health of the flock, the advance of the gospel, and the glory of God.