What’s the Problem with Female Pastors?

This morning the Southern Baptist Convention disfellowshipped five churches due to their affirmation of women preachers. New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia, St. Timothy’s Christian Baptist in Baltimore, Maryland, Calvary Baptist in Jackson, Mississippi, Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky, and Rick Warren’s church Saddleback were deemed to be not in friendly cooperation with the SBC. The vote took place yesterday during one of the afternoon sessions, and the results read this morning were overwhelmingly against the notion of allowing women preachers in the SBC. This is a step in the right direction for the SBC. And we should praise the Lord for every little victory that brings the convention into closer alignment with His Word.

As Christians, we see in scripture that there are primary issues that are non-negociables, such as the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the resurrection of Jesus, just to name a few. Primary issues separate Christians from false believers. All Christians must be unified in primary issue of the faith, or they are apostates who are outside of the Kingdom of God.

Then there are secondary issues of our faith. Secondary issues are things in scripture that believers can agree to disagree on. They are areas of scripture that are not crystal clear, and leave room for Christians to hold differing views. One example of a secondary issue is in the realm of eschatology, which is the study of end times. Another secondary issue is how a family chooses to educate their children. Yet another example of a secondary issue pertains to the topic of spiritual gifts. Also mode of baptism,(pedo-baptism or credo-baptism) is a secondary issue. On these issues, Christians can agree to disagree with one another and still remain in Christian fellowship, as long as they remain united on the primary issues of our faith.

In his many attempts to defend the idea of allowing women preachers in the SBC, Rick Warren has referred to this topic as a secondary issue. The problem is that this issue of women pastors is not unclear nor is it something that can be casually overlooked. To allow women preachers is literally an assault on the authority of God’s Word and it is to pervert the image of God’s created order, which is a reflection of Christ and the church. Allow me to give an explanation.

When God created Adam and Eve, He set in place the mandate for headship. The man is to be the head of his wife, and the wife is to be his help mate. The woman was created to be the man’s complement. God created women to have gifts and strengths that the man does not have. Therefore they were made to fit together, as two halves making a whole. 

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18.

And in this marriage relationship, there had to be some semblance of structure or ordering. So God deemed that the man would be the head of the wife, and she would be submissive to him, as the man is submission to the Lord. 

“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” Genesis 3:16.

Due to the fall, God knew what the reaction would be to His ordering the man as head over the woman. In her sinful flesh, the woman would rally against this idea of male headship. Due to her sin nature, her desire would be contrary to the idea of male headship, but the man would remain as head of this relationship. 

Are we not still seeing these objections to headship today? God ordained that the man should be the head. He should be the leader. This does not devalue women in any way. This does not mean that men are better than women. Far from it. As I have stated before, men and women are equal in value and dignity, but they differ in their God given roles and function. God gave separate and distinct responsibilities to the man and woman. Yet due to sin, our world desires to blur those lines so that men can do what God called women to do and women can do what God commanded men to do.

This is happening in our world, and unfortunately it’s happening in the church.

Ephesians 5 gives us God’s reasoning for this created order. It also gives insight into what male leadership should look like. Male headship is not domineering nor is it controlling or abusive. Male headship is sacrificial, and it caries with it a weight of responsibility that is antithetical to using his God given authority in a selfish way. 

“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” Ephesians 5:23-24.

First we see God’s reason for male headship. It is not to elevate the man over the woman. Nor is it to devalue the worth of the woman. Rather, the headship ordering in marriage is to be a mirror image to the world of Christ and His church. It is the closest thing to a stage play that we see in scripture. 

The man is looking to Christ for guidance on how he should love His wife, and the wife submits and loves her husband as the church submits to Christ. Marriage is not about our happiness. It is about God. Marriage is the clearest picture that we have this side of Heaven of a display of the Gospel. The union of man and woman and the headship therein is God’s revelation of Himself to the world around us. 

Lest the man ask, “What does male headship look like?” Paul fleshes this mystery out even farther. Lets take a look at some of the responsibilities of male headship.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” Ephesians 5:25.

How has Christ loved His church? He gave His life for her. The church is made up of sinners that were under the wrath of God due to their rebellion. There was no reprieve or penance due to them. Had Christ refused to allow men to crucify Him, the human race would have gone straight to Hell and He would be completely justified in His actions. God’s bride was wayward and disobedient. Yet He overlooked her trespasses, and Jesus fulfilled the perfect life of righteousness that is required by God for fellowship with Him. And then died in her place, for her sins. 

To husbands, Jesus says that we are to be eager to overlook our wives trespasses against us and quick to forgive, to the point of giving our lives for her. Even if she is not deserving. Why? Because this is exactly how Jesus loved you. Through marital headship the Lord mandates that men love their wives with the same level of self sacrificing unconditional love that He has love His church. This is why if a man ever tells me that he is leaving his marriage because he is not happy, it is a clear indication that he has no idea of what Biblical headship looks like. Aren’t you glad Jesus chose to love you unconditionally and give His life for your sins? Because Im sure He wasn’t ‘Happy’ about bearing the wrath of God in your place. As the appointed head, the man is to love His wife, unconditionally. 

“…that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26-27.

Not only is the man to love his bride unconditionally, but he is also charged with leading her spiritually. As the head, the man is to spearhead the charge in leading his wife to worship and know the Lord. He is to wash his wife in the word of God. The picture is to literally shower her with God’s word daily. The responsibility of family worship falls first and foremost upon the man, not the woman. If a man neglects to lead his wife spiritually, he is failing in his duties as head of the wife. And he will answer for not protecting her spiritually. 

The wife will not be the only one answering for her sins before the Lord. God holds the man responsible for the spiritual state of his wife. When Eve sinned in the garden and partook in the forbidden fruit, she and Adam hid from God. And the Lord did not first call Eve into account for the sin. She called Adam, because he did not lead his wife to follow the commands of God.

“But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9.

The man is charged by God to be the head of the wife. And this entails a willingness to give his life for her, regardless of if she is deserving of unconditional love or not. Headship also puts the man as being responsible for the spiritual state of his bride, and having to give an account for her sins against God, along with his own.  Paul continues to lay out God’s job description for the man.

“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” Ephesians 5:28-30.

How does one love their own body? Just look at the lost world. We live in a society that  lives by the motto, “Me, myself, and I.” In our flesh, we want to magnify our flesh. And human nature is to care for our bodies. If we cut ourselves, we are quick to mend our wound. We desire to keep our bodies from any danger or harm. We nourish our bodies so that we extend our lives. Paul says that husbands are to love their wives as if they were an extension of their own flesh. No one in their right mind would dream of cutting off part of their body. In the same way, no man should ever dream of harming or severing ties with his wife. 

This is what Biblical male headship looks like. And to any woman that would object to this form of headship, I ask this question. If you have a man that loves you like Jesus and in the way that Paul has described in Ephesians 5, is submission really that big of a deal? Most woman that I know would gladly submit to a man who was willing to give his life for her and lead her deeper into the knowledge of God. 

This comes full circle to the topic of female pastors in the SBC. Christ is the head of His church. And he has commanded that men be the spiritual leader in order to reflect the headship of Christ over His church. Therefore, within the church, that same ordering applies. Men are given the task of leading the church spiritually. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5 that the man is the mirror image of Christ. 

Therefore the created ordering of headship is Christ, man, woman. Again, they are equal in value and dignity, but different in function and responsibilities. The man leads spiritually, the woman follows him as He bears the responsibility of leading after Christ. And this same ordering that we see in Genesis 3 and Ephesians 5 remains consistent in the ordering of God’s church. 

A woman that is leading a church spiritually as the pastor is assuming the role that God gave to the man. It is a distortion of the created order, and a perversion of the picture of the Gospel which we see in the scriptures. Contrary to what Rick Warren says, this is more than just a secondary issue. God has called the man to be the spiritual leader. And he has called the man to bear the responsibilities of this leadership to reflect the self denying sacrificial nature of Jesus Christ. 

That is why the issue of female pastors is a problem. That is why this is not an issue that we can just agree to disagree on. God’s ordering of His creation and His display of the Gospel imaged through marriage and His church is not something to be taken lightly. The creature does not have the right to redefine the creation. We don’t get to move the furniture that God has placed in the room just because we don’t like the arrangement. The church is not our house, it is HIS.  God has made men and women with differing strengths and different roles. And these roles are not for self elevation, but for God’s glorification.