Should women be pastors? What does the Bible say about women in ministry?
The Bible reserves the office of pastor/elder for qualified men, "the husband of one wife" (1 Tim 3:2), and Paul does not permit a woman "to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man" in that office (1 Tim 2:12). This is a matter of role, not worth; women's ministry is honored throughout Scripture.
What the text states
Paul grounds the teaching not in culture but in creation order (1 Tim 2:13) and applies it to the church at large. The elder is to be a man, "the husband of one wife" (1 Tim 3:2, Titus 1:6). At the same time Scripture honors women's ministry everywhere: Priscilla teaching Apollos (Acts 18:26), Phoebe a servant of the church (Rom 16:1), the daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9), women the first witnesses of the resurrection. The restriction is on the office of governing elder/pastor, not on women serving, teaching other women and children, or ministering. It is a difference of role in the household of God, never a difference of value, "there is neither male nor female... in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).
Egalitarians read 1 Timothy 2 as addressing a local first-century problem, not a standing rule, and appoint women as pastors. We hold the complementarian position because Paul grounds it in creation, not culture (1 Tim 2:13), while fully honoring women's ministry.
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 62 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Wave 5. 62 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, splitting at every ellipsis. FOUR CORRECTIONS, each to the KJV row: Acts 4:12 "in none other" is not contiguous, replaced with "none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"; Deut 1:39 "have no knowledge" corrected to "had no knowledge"; Eph 3:2 "dispensation of grace" corrected to "dispensation of the grace of God"; Rom 11:23 "shall be graffed in again" corrected to "shall be graffed in" (the KJV runs "shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again").
wsb.bible/answers/should-women-be-pastors