This is the last in a series of posts related to women serving as pastors. My point has been and is that the Bible is abundantly clear that the office and function of the Elder/Pastor/Bishop is for men only. Thus, any person who serves as a “lead pastor” or in any office in the church where the primary and priority function is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God combined with the care of the souls of the congregation is to be a man. The office of Elder/Pastor/Bishop is for men only. BUT when we come to this issue as Southern Baptists, we come with several concerns that can and have kept us from hearing with clarity what Scripture says. It is not now or ever that Scripture is unclear; it is that in too many of our churches we are not clear at all about proper biblical polity including the role of our confession of faith in the lives of our churches.
What I have sought to show in these series of articles is first that the Bible is clear about how a church is to be ordered. The local church by God’s design and declaration has two offices: Elder and Deacon. The office of the Elder serves the function of giving oversight to the church by providing the members of the church what is needed to grow up into spiritual maturity so as to function as a church in worship and before the world in witness in a manner that brings glory to God. Churches may differ on whether the church should have both “ruling elders” and “teaching elders” or whether one Body of Elders serves both functions. Churches may have a Body of Elders that is, due to the size of the church, occupied by the “lead pastor” and the men on the “staff” of the church whose ministry is primarily preaching and teaching in the context of pastoral care. Deacons are to give attention to the practical needs of the members of the church. This ministry can include mercy ministry, ministries to different groups in the church (men, women, special needs etc.), attention to the needs of the church as an organization, etc. Deacons can be men only or men and women depending on how the church chooses to develop her deacon ministry. These two offices with their complementary functions can operate both in a more hierarchical context or in a more congregational context. But the two offices and their functions are fundamentally foundational for a biblically ordered church.
When the church is rightly ordered biblically, it becomes very clear who is set apart for the work of the ministry of the Word of God in preaching/teaching and in the oversight of the congregation: it is men only. When the polity of the church is not biblically ordered, confusion rather than clarity comes in. When combined in a church with a failure to pay attention to our confession of faith as an ordering document along with a failure to see and to practice ordination for what it is biblically, confusion rather than clarity comes it. The failure to know and to practice proper biblical order when combined with a failure to give proper attention to our confession of faith with the added ingredient of failure to understand the practice of ordination biblically leads to a toxic mix that when consumed causes us to cry out as good Southern Baptists: local church autonomy.
Now let me lay my cards on the table here: local church autonomy is both a blessing and a curse to us. When employed a cultural setting where there is relative uniformity of belief about basic biblical truths, it can be a wonderful thing. It can bring people together around great biblical mandates for discipleship, education, evangelism and missions. But when the cultural middle is collapsing, local church autonomy can be a cause for the kind of confusion that leads to chaos that if left unattended can lead to complete collapse. This is where we are in the SBC with this issue of women serving as pastors of our local churches whether it is “lead pastor” or any pastoral position where the main function of the office is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
What it comes down to for me is whether we see this issue as a “first-order” issue or a “second-order” issue. Albert Mohler has helped us all by giving us three categories to do properly biblically directed triage on matters that confront every local church and now, our denomination. What is this issue for you? Let me give you in conclusion an analogy. Our church has gone on mission trips where the purpose was evangelism. We have taken along friends from a local Pentecostal Church who were not large enough at the time to do their own trip. Our team had one common goal: to share the Gospel with as many people as possible. Our doctrinal disagreements did not impede our call and command from God in Christ to evangelize. We have gone on other trips, however, where the goal was to assist a church plant. We were coming alongside a church planter to help this man in work that needed to be done to see God raise up a church. This church planter was clearly committed as I am to men only serving in the office of Elder to fulfill the Pastoral and Oversight functions. The issue in this context made it clear that women serving as Pastors in our local churches is no second order issue; it is indeed a first order issue. I believe that is true for our SBC as well. As I heard Ligon Duncan say once about this issue (and I am paraphrasing), “go read 1 Timothy 2 and tell me where Paul is not crystal clear in what he says about this issue.” I am praying for our SBC in New Orleans; thousands are. It will be there as always true that our gathering is not about “the issue” it is about our being faithful to the Word of God which is the only way that we can or will bring glory and honor to the Name of our great and majestic God.