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While the Baptist Faith and Message expressed the convention’s opposition to females serving as pastor, it did little to delineate parameters for other leadership roles within the general ministries of the church.
Susie Hawkins, women’s author and speaker, was one of two women to serve on the committee to revise the confessional statement. Even while SBC messengers overwhelmingly approved the 2000 revision to the BF&M and all six SBC seminaries function in agreement with its position to limit the role of pastor to men, Hawkins noted there is an ongoing discussion about women in ministry, particularly concerning those who teach or serve on church staffs.
“Even within theologically conservative circles, there are differences of interpretation of the ‘women passages,'” said Hawkins, referring to Scripture’s more controversial passages regarding women’s roles in the church and home, such as 1 Timothy 2.
For example, Southern Baptist churches are seeing a trend in women teaching mixed Sunday School classes, particularly with the growth of home-based Bible study or small groups, according to Randy Stinson, president of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He sees Sunday School and Bible studies are the biggest battleground for applying complementarianism in the local church.
“Many of our churches are allowing women to teach Sunday School classes where there are both men and women present,” Stinson told the TEXAN. “The rationale is typically that the BF&M only prohibits women from being the senior pastor. But the BF&M is not exhaustive,” he said.
Rather, Stinson said passages such as 1 Timothy 2:12 do not merely prohibit an office, but also a function.
“Regardless of office, a woman should not be asked to do the things that 1 Timothy 2:12 prohibits, even if she is a Sunday School teacher and not a pastor,” stated Stinson, dean of the church ministries school at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
At Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, pastor Michael Dean looks to Acts 13:1, 1 Corinthians 12:28-29 and Ephesians 4:11 to conclude “that there are teachers who are called and gifted by God, and who are recognized by the church as having authority in doctrine and biblical interpretation.” However, he sees the Ephesians reference as indicating that the office of the teacher is either closely associated with or entirely synonymous with the office of the pastor. “If that is the case then the position must be held by a male.”
Dean said the New Testament permits and encourages women to teach in other settings, citing Titus 2:3-4 as an example of women teaching women and 2 Timothy 1:5 and 3:15 as examples of them teaching children. “Acts 18:28 states that Priscilla, in tandem with her husband Aquilla, taught Apollos ‘the way of God more adequately,'” he noted.
While he does not find in Scripture the circumstance of a woman teaching a mixed class, Dean said, “In those instances the woman must only teach under the authority of her husband and of the pastoral leadership of the church.”
He reiterated the need for men to serve in the capacities of spiritual leadership in the local church as well as in the homes. At Travis, he said women are encouraged and enlisted to teach in a variety of different settings, but in the case of a mixed gender class, “a woman may teach if she does so in tandem with and under the authority of her husband.”
Acknowledging that women’s roles in the church has historically been “a thorny issue,” Ron Holton, pastor of RockPointe Church in Flower Mound, said, “We allow women to teach as long as they are under the authority of a pastor or elder. We allow them to teach with a man. We allow them to speak on Mother’s Day in the service, to share testimonies as God leads us, to read Scripture, to sing, to teach our children and teenagers, and to be used by God under the authority of leadership.”
However, “women are not permitted to exercise authority over or disciple men,” he added.
Stressing context, Holton said, “Timothy seems to be dealing with specific issues at hand. If Paul’s command is uniformly applied throughout all time and in every situation without regard to context, should we not also apply the same standard to verses 9-10 of 1 Timothy as well as verses 11-12?” Citing 1 Corinthians 11:5, he noted, “Paul seems to indicate in some situations that women pray and prophesy openly in the context of worship.”
“The timeless application in verses 8-9 seems to be the adornment of Christlike modesty combined with good works,” Holton added. “In verses 11-12, using the same principles, the central message seems to be that women are not to exercise final authority in the congregation.”
Holton said ministerial leaders at the church attempt to interpret Scripture as faithfully as possible within that historical context, drawing out the theological meaning before applying it to their church. He believes there is room for differences of interpretation and practice when evaluating the “different representations of women’s roles and contextualized instructions regarding women in specific circumstances.”
DECORUM OR CONVICTION?
Stinson believes many Baptist churches hold to the traditional views of gender roles out of a “sense of decorum” rather than “clear biblical conviction.”
“This means that their level of resolve over this issue may not be as strong and we very well could be more egalitarian in 10 years than we are now.”
Stinson added: “Churches are largely failing to train men to be the leaders of their homes. When this happens, wives and mothers end up having many burdens that should not be theirs. This distorts the Christ/Church picture of the marriage and consequently hinders the furthering of the gospel.”
Terri Stovall, dean of women’s programs and associate professor of women’s ministries at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, added, “The statement that ‘there are no men to step up’ is never a valid excuse to violate the teaching of Scripture. “Rather, maybe we need to emulate the examples we have in Scripture. We need our Deborahs to encourage, challenge and affirm the Baraks. We need our Priscillas to teach and redirect our Apollos. We even need our Eunice and Lois to nurture the next generation of leaders.
“In some cultures, this can prove challenging, but we must trust that what God teaches through his Word can still be applied today in whatever culture we serve.”
Some believe local churches would be better served had the BF&M study committee utilized the exact wording of Scripture instead of interpreting the positions of Scripture.
One such proponent of this view is Southwestern Seminary student Katie McCoy, who charged in a white paper delivered in a symposium on the seminary campus last year that Southern Baptists have inconsistently applied complementarian rhetoric in the local church.
“I hope that my generation will be vigilant and discerning as we test cultural trends and church practices against God’s perfect Word,” McCoy said. “I also hope that our convention will eventually change the Baptist Faith and Message’s wording on women in the church to say what the Bible does in 1 Timothy 2:12, rather than only stating that women should not be pastors. If our standard reflected what the Bible said, we would not have as much room for misinterpretation in applying it.”
Regarding this criticism, Hawkins said the study committee sought to use “contemporary conversational language” in its articles on the church and family.
“Numerous scriptural references are given to support each article,” Hawkins added. “The committee sought to clarify what Southern Baptists believe and practice in our contemporary culture. Our chairman, the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, wisely led us in staying focused on our charge, whic
