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Christian Leadership Training Course

By J.C. Choate

Lesson 6

Women Teachers

Our purpose for this series of studies is to learn the kind of leaders that God wants in His church today. We are not interested in creating offices and positions contrary to God’s will. The work that God has given us to do must be done in the way He has directed or else it will fall short of His wishes.

We have seen that He requires each congregation to have elders and deacons to lead the members; that is, if there are qualified men within the congregation who can be appointed to these offices. If not, the men must be responsible for giving leadership until there are those who are qualified to be appointed. Then we have seen that there are to be preachers and teachers serving under the elders, along with the other members, and their job is to preach and teach the word of God.

With those lessons completed, we now want to give some time to Women Leaders or Teachers in the Church. In our last lesson we showed from the scripture how women may do personal work, teach children’s classes, and also teach ladies in class situations. Now in doing these things, they would be assuming a leadership role, but this would fall under the oversight of the elders, naturally.

The Bible clearly teaches that the woman is to keep silent in the church. Paul said, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church” (1 Corinthians 14:33-35). Paul says again, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:11,12). By putting these statements together, and looking at the context in which they were written, I think we can see that the main idea here is that the woman is not to place herself in a position of authority over the man. She would be out of place to stand before the church to speak publicly, such as to preach or to teach a mixed audience. On the other hand, in a class situation, where a male member of the church is in charge of doing the teaching, she might be called on to answer a question or she might ask a question. In neither instance is she taking control or usurping the authority over the man. She is in subjection to her husband or parents, whichever the case may be. She may also participate in public singing in worship, not as the song leader or singing a solo. Rather, she would join in with all of the other worshippers in singing praises to God. In doing so, she would in no way be usurping authority over the man or over the leadership of the local congregation.

When Jesus called the apostles, He called men only as listed in Matthew 10. When He commanded that the gospel be taken into all the world, he gave this command to the apostles (Matthew 28:18-20). As you read through the book of Acts and all of the New Testament, you will not find women publicly preaching the gospel to both men and women. You will not find Christian women being asked to serve as elders and deacons in the local congregation. Now in the religious world there are women today who preach, and there are women who are taking positions in the organization of some churches, but you will not find this in the Church of Christ, the Lord’s one and only church. When that happens you can mark it down that that congregation, or congregations, if such be, have gone off into apostasy. Women who do publicly preach and take a church office are in direct conflict with the scripture.

Now does this mean that the woman is inferior, that God has by-passed her, that His church caters mainly to men, and that men are given a superior position over woman? Does it mean that women will always be second-rate Christians in the church, second-rate, or without any rating, when it comes to the leadership of the church? No, none of these things are true. The fact is that God has given man a specific work to do and He has also given woman a specific work. Why should either want to take the place of the other and do the other’s work? Both have important roles in the church, and if they will do the work God has given them to do, they will both do a great work and there will be peace and harmony. Satan, however, enters the picture and influences some men and women to rise up and to make a big issue out of the work that each is to do, questioning why one should not be able to do the work of the other. The fact is, God knew best and His way is not only right, but it is the best way.

If you will take a look at Bible history, you will observe that there were many great women, both in Old Testament times as well as during the New Testament period. Women have a great role to play today, and that role can be as great as they want it to be, provided they will stay within the guidelines that the Lord has laid down and will put forth the effort to do the work the Lord wants them to do. The same is true with men. Both men and women generally fall far below their potential simply because they hold back and restrict themselves, set limits for themselves, build barriers around themselves, and simply show and demonstrate a lack of faith in their lives.

The Lord permits women to teach as many women as they want to teach, as many children and young women as they want to teach, to do as much personal work as they want to do. There are countless good works that they may do, caring for the sick, the aged, for orphans and the needy. Some of our own sisters in Christ have become known around the world for engaging in these kinds of teaching efforts and service to others. For sure, a good, godly woman is behind every good elder, deacon, preacher, or missionary. We just need more of them to get involved in the work God has given them to do. If this could be done, the church of our Lord would grow as never before.

Do we have any women leaders, that is, women taking the lead with other women, teaching women, doing personal work, engaging in good works? Yes, we have many, and these are the ones who are not griping and complaining about women being left out of the work of the church.

I would like to encourage you as a Christian woman to accept this challenge of greater involvement and service. If you are not a Christian, I urge you to become one. If you will believe in Christ and be baptized, He will save you (Mark 16:16).