Women Pastors: No big deal? No, BIG DEAL.
By Mark Coppenger,
President,
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Reprinted from THE SPIRE.

Editors Note: This article represents the fundamentalist perspective on women pastors with implications about women in ministry. It is reprinted here to provide readers a contrast of opinions.

Last year, we experimented with a panel chapel, where six of us discussed a prickly issue, in this case, divorce and remarriage in the church. As we finished, the Student Body Association (SBA) president requested that we tackle the issue of women pastors next. We scheduled the panel, but then had to change things to accommodate end-of-year SBA election speeches. So I simply said a ten minute word on the subject and got out of the way.

I opposed the notion of women pastors. Most of those in chapel applauded. Some were not so happy. One withdrew from my evangelism class. Several had thoughtful questions and wanted to do some reading on the topic. An off-campus critic caught wind of my message and fashioned a news story that made the rounds, gratifying some, inflaming others. She meant it for harm, but however imperfect the story, it did a great deal of good, for it helped to set out our convictions.

Let me rehearse those convictions, using the same text that I used the other day, 1 Timothy 2: 11-13. Incidentally, the Southern Baptist Convention used the same Scripture in its 1984 resolution “On Ordination and the Role of Women in Ministry,” stating, “Whereas, While Paul commends women and men alike in other roles of ministry and service (Titus 2:1-10), he excludes women from pastoral leadership (1 Timothy 2:12) to preserve a submission God requires because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in Edenic fall (1 Timothy 2:13).

To the modern ear, it is a shocking passage of Scripture. Never mind that, for it is a portion of God’s inerrant Word, the Bible. So much the worse for the modern ear.

1. Women Pastors are an Affront to the Creation Order. (vv. 11-14: 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. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.)

A number of Bible passages reserve the pastoral role for men (for example, “husband of one wife” in Titus 1:6 and 1 Timothy 3:2), but those in favor of women pastors say that the Bible also supports slavery (for example, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters” in Ephesians 6:5). They conclude that both were situational/cultural rules for that time, not applicable to ours. Even if 1 Timothy 2:11-15 were situational, one could argue that the brand of feminism which afflicts our nation is situation enough for such a reaction. But these verses show that it was not situational, except in the broadest sense. Rather, Paul grounded his ruling in Genesis, something he did not do with slavery.

2. Women Pastors are an Affront to Home and Family (v. 15: But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.)

Of course, this is not a new plan of salvation. It is, instead, a particular application of the call for repentance, much as Christ called for the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give to the poor. These “liberated” women were demeaning the traditional role of mother and homemaker, and Paul met them at the point of their rebellion. He was determined that church practice not undermine God’s order in the home, as expressed in Ephesians 5:22-33.

3. Women Pastors are an Affront to Themselves. (v. 14) Eve helped wreck herself as well, for women fell in The Fall, just as surely as men did. The world tells women that self-promotion and liberation are the key to happiness and fulfillment. The world lies. The world says that women may and should be pastors as they please. Women who buy that rob themselves of God’s best for their lives.

4. Women Pastors are an Affront to Holy Scripture. (vv. 11-15) Liberals like to treat Paul’s writings as second-class material. Some attempt to set Paul off against Jesus (For example, concerning this passage, The Interpreter’s Bible, says “Obviously, the disposition of this epistle to limit the service of women in the churches does not accord with Jesus’ attitude of complete respect and chivalry toward women. It is not in keeping with the modern attitude which moves steadily toward the equality of the sexes insofar as right and privileges are concerned, and does so under the pressure of the spirit of Christ.”) Southern Baptists, on the other hand, affirm 1 Timothy as inerrant Scripture, thoroughly in concert with the teachings of Jesus.

Who then is enthusiastic for women pastors? (1) Those whose doctrine is experience- centered, e.g. Pentecostals: (2) Those whose doctrine is culture-centered, e.g. the old “mainline” denominations. The former are susceptible to contra-biblical “insights” and “calls.” The later are susceptible to the blandishments of “progress.” In contrast, Southern Baptists have elected to be Wordcentered.

Sharon, my wife, has taught Masterlife to women, been a Continuing Witness Training equipper, helped build a Brazilian church in the equatorial sun, led our children through the Survival Kit for New Christians, gone door-to-door for pre-Convention evangelism in Atlanta and Orlando, made the seminary president’s home winsome for family and guests, and stood as this minister’s chief friend and counselor through the years. Yet, there are some who say that she’s been limited by the inaccessibility of the pastorate. To this, we both say “Bunk!”

Am I the enemy of women by saying these things? No more than I would be the enemy of a driver hurling toward a fallen bridge as I stood on the roadside, waving and shouting warning.

Through the millennia, the Christian church, with relatively few dissenters, understood these truths. It is unfortunate but not surprising that, in our day this understanding has come under attack. Even some evangelicals are working to undermine it. So much the worse for these evangelicals. So much the better for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, increasingly known as a school where the traditional biblical perspective on the role of women endures and prospers.

For those who want to read on, I offer the handouts from that day’s chapel: (1) a column from my 1980s church paper, one in which I discussed whether and how a woman might serve as a minister of education; (2) a comparative Scripture chart on the two rival positions; (3) quotes from Southern Baptist luminaries, John A. Broadus, B.H. Carroll, and A.T. Robertson, who repudiate the misappropriation of Galatians 3:28 for the feminist agenda. I can also supply a copy of our new faculty questionnaire, which reflects these concerns, and the Danvers Statement in which conservative evangelicals, both men and women, stand against the onslaught of sub-Christian feminism.

Some would tell you that women pastors are no big deal. They are wrong. It is a big deal. As big a deal as the veracity of scripture and the soundness of the church.

April 1997