Why Women Should be allowed to be Leaders in the Church
By Devin Love-Andrews
Churches are not infallible, so the faithful may not agree with every portion of its doctrine�specifically, LCMS doctrine. This is one of those times. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, there have been female leaders and females who have brought people closer to God. Deborah was one of Israel�s judges, and she saved her people from the Canaanites. Miriam, Moses� sister, was a prophetess. Esther, or Hadassah, rescued her people from complete extermination. The Samaritan woman who met with Jesus by a well was the first person to bring the Gospel to her people. Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the resurrected Jesus, and she spread the news to the disciples.
When LCMS leaders declared that women should not serve as leaders in the church, they were probably thinking of 1 Timothy 2: 11-12, which says �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.�
This verse was written specifically for Ephesian women, and not all women. Most of them at the time of this letter were new converts, and they came from a culture and time when women were not considered worthy of education. Thus, these women had no leadership training, which made it easy for them to abuse whatever leadership powers they had. This is why much of the Bible and even our very catechism decries the idea of new converts being in leadership positions (and rightly so).
Even St. Paul recognized and showed gratitude for female leaders.
Pricilla, who is always mentioned before her husband Aquila, was the woman who taught Apollos, a man known as a great speaker (Acts 18: 24-26). Phoebe, along with Tryphena, Tryphosa, Julia, Persis, Mary, Euodia, Syntyche and Junias (whom Paul calls �outstanding among the apostles�) were also hard-working church leaders (Romans 16:1-7, 12, 15, and Philippians 4:2) If Paul did not mean for all women to be church leaders, would he then have mentioned their accomplishments as church leaders and his appreciation for them? Of course not!
If the LCMS decided to ban women from church leadership mainly on the basis of 1 Timothy 2: 11-12, then most churches have not been abiding by this prohibition. Of course there are no female pastors or elders, but we do have deaconesses, female board members, and female Sunday School teachers. To me though, this is like telling women �You may have a roll, but you can�t stay for dinner!�
Nevertheless, if motions to ban women from positions of influence were to carry�and if the Church were really serious about enforcing them, we would have to dissolve women from the board of directors and make all female Sunday School teachers resign. Do this, however, and watch how quickly churches will fall apart. There are no concrete Bible verses prohibiting all women from church leadership. Thus, if a woman wants to be a chairperson, an elder, or even a pastor, she should be allowed to.
Therefore, limiting any church positions to men must not be tolerated because it is unbiblical and discriminatory; hence, it is immoral.