Last week we talked about the controversial passage of women being silent in the Church. Hopefully it was made clear the social issues that were being dealt with at the time, and how God’s created order, was to strengthen the spiritual bond within both the Church and the family. Now, one thing I want to make clear if I haven’t already. In chapters 11, through 16, Paul is speaking about the corporate worship time when the Church meets. Paul is not saying that women, or prophets, or those with the gift of tongues, are not allowed to speak at any time. Paul is not saying that in all of life, women are to be silent. That’s not it at all. Instead what Paul is calling every person to is this: during the time when the Church meets together for worship of God, no one should engage in behavior that would take the focus off God and onto themselves. If something comes across our mind and can wait until after the worship time, then it needs to wait. This isn’t an attack on women, but rather a purposeful effort to make sure the worship time of the Church stays focused on God, and doesn’t devolve into a social hour. This is why Paul speaks not just to women, but to those who speak in tongues, and those who communicate prophecy.
But in doing so, I know it can feel as if passages like the one we covered last week make it seem like women are second class believers in the Church. And so, I asked for your votes to see if you wanted to go a little deeper into the role of women in the Church. The large majority voted to do just that. Now, we will be continuing our study in 1st Corinthians next week, but this is a perfect time to look at the role of women in the Church, because we’re talking about women in the Church.
Now, in order to do that, we have to realize one key factor, that a lot of the time, gets skipped in this area. We have focused heavily in the last several weeks on the gifts of the Spirit, and on the corporate worship time of the Church. But when we start talking about roles in the Church we must recognize first what most people are talking about. When the question is asked, what is the role of women in the Church, the underlining question is actually, should women be pastors. And it’s here that we must recognize that contained within the Scriptures is a blueprint for the leadership structure for the Church. This leadership structure are called Offices.
To begin to understand the Offices of the Church, let’s compare them to the Spiritual gifts. The gifts of the Spirit are spiritual gifts given to each individual believer that might or might not be utilized in a Church Office. Whereas every believer has a spiritual gift, not all believers are given an Office of the Church.
An Office of the Church is a specifically created role within the Church that is a function of the practical workings of the Church. In other words, an Office of the Church represents a title with specific ministry responsibilities that are attached to it.
To put it simply, gifts are given to believers by the Spirit for his purpose of benefiting and uniting the Church, whereas the Offices are given to a believer by the believers in the Church based on the perceived spiritual maturity of a person.
The two tend to get muddled together because in Ephesians, Paul talks about Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds/Pastors, and Teachers. Now, we have gone into great detail about why these five are gifts, and we do not have time to go into that much detail here. So suffice it to say, these are spiritual gifts and not offices. But if these are spiritual gifts, then what are Offices?
This is a distinction that can’t be underlined enough. A spiritual gift is given by the Sprit for the purpose of benefiting and uniting the Church, whereas an Office is bestowed upon a believer by the Church to maintain and guide the collective body of believers.
The question should then naturally come to us, where then in Scripture would we find these Offices? There are two main passages, 1st Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9, and then there two secondary ones, Acts 6:1-6 and Romans 16:1.
Now in our time today, we will not be able to read through all of these passages and give it the complete deep dive that we could, so I highly encourage you to read through them. Instead today, we’re going to hit the major points of these passages, so as to understand them in the context of the role of women in the Church.
In 1st Timothy 3:1 and 8, we’re given the two Offices clearly. The first is Elders or Overseers. “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task (3:1).”
In Paul’s letter to Titus, Paul writes this about Elders in the first chapter, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you (1:5).”
What’s interesting about Elders is that no one is specifically given the title of Elder in the New Testament. Peter, in his first letter, refers to himself as a fellow elder, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed…(5:1)”
But this doesn’t mean that all the Apostles were elders, because in Acts 15 verse 1, were told, “…So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.” IN this passage we see that there is a distinction of Apostle and Elder.
So we are given only one name directly connected to the Office of elder in the New Testament, which is Peter, but we are given three, maybe four, other people who play the role of Elder. These are James the half-brother of Jesus who was an Elder of the Church in Jerusalem, Timothy who was an Elder of the Church in Ephesus, and John who fulfills the role of Elder to several Asian Minor Churches as can be seen in his 2nd and 3rd letters. Titus is possibly another Elder, because he takes on a role of one when picking those that are right for that position.
The fact that these are the only mentions connected to eldership in the New Testament will be important later.
So what’s the role of the Office of Elder? The Greek word is episkopé (ep-is-kop-ay’), carries with it the idea of being a judge, and in the case of the Church, it’s a judge in spiritual matters. In other words, an Elder’s role is to give spiritual oversight and guidance to the Church, while making decisions on how the Church as a whole is to proceed.
Reading through 1st Timothy 3 and it’s requirements for Eldership, and comparing it to the second office which we’ll cover in a minute, we find that the Office of Elder has two unique requirements. The first is they must be male. This comes from this observation, nowhere in the New Testament are we given a female who takes the role of Elder. Like I said, we are only given one name, and three maybe four other people connected with the Office. All of which are male. So when Paul writes in 1st Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6, “…faithful to his wife…” If we are going to be as true to Scripture as possible, we must stay within that perimeter, of concluding that the Office of Elder is restricted to a male.
The other unique requirement for the Office of Elder, is that the man must be old in the faith. This is interesting, because age is not the focus here, but rather how long a person has been faithfully walking with God. So, a new believer or even a young believer cannot fulfill this role of Elder. This is why most Elders are older, but in the case of James, Peter, and Timothy, they are relative young men. With Timothy being about 30.
Those in our Church who fulfill this position of Elder are, Jeff, Jim, Del, Ancil, and myself.
But let’s take the Office of Elder and compare it to the second office, which is Deacon.
Let’s go in reverse here, first what is a deacon? The Greek word we translate as deacon is diakonos (dee-ak’-on-os), which is just the general word for servant throughout the New Testament. But when used in connection with the Office of Deacon, it takes on a more formal role of servanthood. The Office of Deacon really focuses on the everyday hands on work of the Church. Where the Elders tend to be the spiritual guides of the Church, Deacons are setting up chairs, getting food out to people, making sure people’s needs are being met, and more. They are the waiters of the Church.
Now, there are eight people connected with this Office in the New Testament. The first seven are mentioned in Acts chapter 6, verses 1-6. The situation was this, the Apostles were preaching the Gospel and many were coming to Christ, but a group of widows were not being taken care of properly, so the Apostles stopped preaching and began taking care of the widows. This created a problem, because that wasn’t the calling God had for them, so instead, the Apostles called for some men to be appointed to this position. These were people serving steadily in the Church already, who were then given a more formal position of servanthood. This position would eventually be called the Office of Deacon. But even though these seven men were the first to be called to the position of Deacon, they were never called Deacons, much like James and Timothy were never directly called Elders. However there is a person that is directly called a Deacon, and they are named so by Paul himself. This person is Phoebe, and Paul gives her the the title Deacon in Romans 16:1. “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.”
This is the only mention of a woman fulfilling the Office of Deacon in the New Testament, but because we are given a clear mention of a woman fulfilling this office, we can now say that the the office can be fulfilled by either a man or a woman. That’s important because we cannot say the same of the Office of Elder.
And so, the Office of Deacon is open to both male and female. But, like the Office of Elder, there is a unique guideline for those who fulfill this position: they must be a believer that holds to the faith with a clear conscience (1st Timothy 3:9). This means that they are solid in their faith. This means that they are not struggling with the basic questions of the Bible. They are faithful people that would make great mentors to the young believers of the Church. They are believers who are serving faithfully without the need of formal recognition. And because of their solid faith, they work hard to serve the people around them. In our church, those who serve in formal positions of what the New Testament would call a Deacon are, Dan and Wednesday our youth leaders, Faye, David, Steve, Cookie, Gary, and Laura our Ministry Board, and Marika our Children’s director. We have many who serve and would make great Deacons and Deaconesses, but these are simply the ones called into a more formal position.
So, we have two Offices of the Church, Elders and Deacons, and if we go through the gifts of the Spirit, we can see how those gifts would aid in those offices. Leadership, administration, discernment, service, hospitality and more, can be seen as being used in those offices to bring benefit and unity to the Church.
Now, in our Basic Beliefs of Christianity class, we pose the question, where does the modern day position of Pastor fit within these two offices. And the answer is both, because the modern day Pastor role is a mixture of many aspects of each office. Yet, if we went with the biblical offices, as our local congregation is structured, the Lead Pastor would be an Elder, while the Youth Pastor would be a Deacon. Not to say, one is greater, but each has their calling and their position to fulfill.
Of course the next question, and the underling question of a woman’s role in the Church, is, can a woman then hold the title of Pastor? Now, today, we’re not going to answer that question, because I think that answer only comes from deeper discussion.
But I hope that you see that the role of women in the Church is not found in the offices or positions of the Church. These are functions that some are apportioned to, but is not they are not the role in which a believer has in the Church. Some will hold these Offices, and some will not, but these are not our roles within the Church. Instead, I want us to look at a passage that I believe actually speaks to roles both men and woman have in the Church. Paul writes about it, in the second chapter of his letter to Titus.
Paul writes this, “1 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (2:1-14).”
In these words to Titus, a person taking the role of an Elder at his Church, Paul directs him to where our focus needs to be. Older men be temperate, be worthy of respect, be self controlled, be sound in the faith, love and endurance. Then turn around and teach the younger men to be the same.
Older woman be reverent, and teach what is good. Then turn around and teach the young woman how to lift up their families.
To slaves, or those under the command of others (we could say employees here), do what is pleasing for your masters or your bosses.
These are our roles: each of us are to take our spiritual walks seriously, and each of us are to lift up the people around us so that they can be encouraged and walk in their faith as to how Christ would have them walk.
When we get bogged down with, what position do I get in the Church, we have missed the point. Instead our focus should be on Christ, and if he calls us to more formal positions we are honored, if not, we continue to serve and lift each other up.
So ladies what is your role in the Church? The same as your role in the family, you are a back bone, without you the unseen things of the workings of the Church would be hard pressed to get done. And just as a body needs it’s bones, so too we need you. You are loved, and we honor you for the work you do in loving, encouraging, and pointing us back to Christ, as you follow him.
So today, I want to challenge both the men and the woman with this simple question, instead of asking what is my role in the Church, ask instead, “have I encouraged and pointed one of my bothers or sisters back to Christ today?” Because as Paul writes in Galatians 5:14, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Let us fulfill our role of people who love God and love people. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment