Questions

Spiritual leadership for men and women

updated on

Background

This Sunday, LFC-UCity pastor Terrell Huntley will preach the next chapter in God’s Whole Story – focusing on the biblical influencer Deborah and the Book of Judges. 

  • One thing to note: At LFC, we believe the Bible teaches equal gifting of spiritual leadership for men and women (aka we have female preachers, elders and ministers). Deborah is one example – our sovereign God did not make a mistake appointing her as Judge over Israel (political, military and spiritual leader). God was not limited by ‘no available good men in that generation’ or other interpretations. This was God’s appointment, giving a powerful signal to God’s people, even in a strongly patriarchal culture and period of history.

Open Mike, July 30, 2021, What About Female Church Elders & the Bible? + Elders as the Special Sauce of our Church

Reference: This is written by my friend Gerrit Dawson, a scholarly pastor and leader in our denomination (currently pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Baton Rouge LA): Download Women Ordination Paper _ Gerrit Dawson (2011)

Reference: This resource is from the Evangelical Covenant denomination, which shares our same commitment to the authority and infallibility of the scriptures for Christian faith and practice.  I’ve posted it before: Download Women-called-and-gifted-booklet-2.10-1

Relevant Scriptures

1 Timothy 3:2

2 An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

1 Timothy 3:2 CSB

Looked up translations of 1 Timothy 3:2 and found the phase “husband of one wife” or its equivalent in all 60 translations on BibleGateway.com except:

Word “wife” The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon

  • Strong’s Number: 1135
  • Transliterated Word: gune
  • Word gune
  • Definition:
    • a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow
    • a wife
      • of a betrothed woman
  • NAS Word Usage – Total: 214

Word “husband” ἄνδρα (andra) Englishman’s Concordance — 31 Occurrences in NT

216 Occurrences

Titus 1:5-6

5 The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town. 6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful[Or believing] children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion.

Titus 1:5-6 CSB

Looked up translations of Titus 1:5-6 and found the phase “husband of one wife” or its equivalent in all 60 translations on BibleGateway.com except:

  • CEB
    • “Elders should be without fault. They should be faithful to their spouse, and have faithful children who can’t be accused of self-indulgence or rebelliousness.”
    • Translates “gune” in 28 of 29 times it appears in Matthew either “wife” or “woman” except:
      • Matthew 11:11 “I assure you that no one who has ever been born is greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
        • Other translations the word “born” as the phase “born of women”
        • Of course, John could only have been born by a woman so perhaps the phase is redundant.
  • CEV
    • “they must have a good reputation and be faithful in marriage. Their children must be followers of the Lord and not have a reputation for being wild and disobedient.”
    • Translates “gune” in 28 of 29 times it appears in Matthew either “wife” or “woman” except:
      • Matthew 11:11 “I tell you that no one ever born on this earth is greater than John the Baptist. But whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.”
        • Other translations the word “born” as the phase “born of women”
        • Of course, John could only have been born by a woman so perhaps the phase is redundant.
  • NABRE
    • “on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious.”
  • NRSV, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE
    • “someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious.”

1 Timothy 3:2