Pentecostal Worship, Preaching, and Ministry — Unit 8: Women in Pentecostal Ministry: History and Current Views

Key Verse

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy." (Acts 2:17-18, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Name biblical women who prophesied, served and led, and say how Pentecostals read their example.

2. Describe the historic recognition of women called to preach and minister in classical Pentecostalism, with examples.

3. Explain that Pentecostal bodies differ on women in the senior pastoral office, and describe both main positions fairly.

4. State the objection based on 1 Timothy 2 and 3 in its own terms, and give the Assemblies of God answer.

5. Lead a congregation through this question with truth, patience and love.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for pastors who belong to it. On the question of women who are called by God to preach, teach, pray for the sick and serve, our tradition has a long and clear history, and we state it as our view. The Assemblies of God ordains women and recognizes women as senior pastors, and this unit leans toward that practice as the main view of the tradition and concludes in its favor. Some Pentecostal bodies hold that the senior pastoral office is reserved to men. We state their view and their biblical reasons as they would state them, and we ask you to treat them with respect. Many faithful evangelicals also disagree with us. For the early history of women in the movement, see also Course 1, Unit 5.

The Spirit Poured Out on Sons and Daughters

Our starting point is Pentecost. Peter explained the outpouring by quoting the prophet Joel: God pours out His Spirit "on all flesh," and "sons and daughters" and "menservants and maidservants" prophesy. Luke tells us that the women were among the 120 waiting in the upper room, "with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14). The Spirit then came on all of them (Acts 2:1-4).

Pentecostals have always read this as the charter of our movement. The Spirit gives gifts "to each one individually as He wills" (1 Corinthians 12:11). He does not ask the sex of the person before giving a gift. Because Pentecostals find the call of God in the gift, anointing and fruit of a life, we have long held that women who are called must not be silenced.

Women in Scripture

The Bible shows women whom God used in public ways.

• Miriam is called a prophetess (Exodus 15:20).

• Deborah was a prophetess who judged Israel and gave counsel to Barak (Judges 4:4-5).

• Huldah was a prophetess consulted by King Josiah's officials about the Book of the Law (2 Kings 22:14).

• Anna was a prophetess who spoke about the infant Jesus to all who looked for redemption (Luke 2:36-38).

• Mary Magdalene and the other women were sent by the risen Lord to tell the disciples that He had risen (John 20:17-18; Luke 24:9-10).

• Philip's four daughters "prophesied" (Acts 21:9).

• Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, took Apollos aside and "explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26). Her name is often placed before her husband's.

• Phoebe is called a "servant" of the church at Cenchrea and a helper of many (Romans 16:1-2). The Greek word is diakonos, which can mean a servant or a deacon, and scholars debate its sense here.

• Euodia and Syntyche "labored with me in the gospel" (Philippians 4:2-3).

• Paul takes for granted that women pray and prophesy in the congregation (1 Corinthians 11:5).

Some of these texts are debated. Whether Junia in Romans 16:7 was a woman and an apostle is argued by careful scholars, and we do not build our case on that verse. But the pattern is strong without it.

Prophecy matters here. Paul says that "he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men" (1 Corinthians 14:3). A woman who prophesies in the church therefore speaks a word from God to the whole assembly, men included.

The Historic Recognition of Women in Classical Pentecostalism

The tradition we belong to did not invent the ministry of women. The Wesleyan-Holiness movement already had women preachers. Phoebe Palmer defended women's preaching in The Promise of the Father (1859), and Catherine Booth, who with her husband William founded The Salvation Army, wrote Female Ministry (1859). Many early Pentecostals came out of this world and brought its convictions.

In the early Pentecostal revivals women appear again and again.

• Minnie Abrams wrote The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire (1906) from the Mukti mission in India, where she worked beside Pandita Ramabai.

• Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924) was a Holiness evangelist whose tent meetings, with healings and manifestations, drew crowds before and during the Pentecostal period.

• Florence Crawford carried the Azusa Street message to Portland, Oregon, and led the Apostolic Faith Mission there.

• Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) preached to large crowds in the United States and founded the Foursquare Gospel church in Los Angeles. Her life also included controversy, and a fair history does not hide it.

• Lillian Trasher was a missionary who founded an orphanage in Assiut, Egypt, and cared for many children.

The record is wider than any list of famous names. In many places, women were the first evangelists, church planters and missionaries, and many early Pentecostal missionaries were women. Large Pentecostal bodies such as the Assemblies of God and the Foursquare Church have ordained women, and many Pentecostal churches in Latin America, Africa and Asia have been planted and led by women. Historians of the movement have noted the importance of women in the early years, and also that women's roles were sometimes narrowed as groups organized into denominations. We do not hide that tension. It teaches us that human customs can press hard even on a movement that began with an open door.

Where Pentecostal Bodies Differ

Classical Pentecostal bodies agree that God calls women to prophesy, teach, evangelize, pray for the sick, serve as missionaries, lead ministries, and serve in other recognized roles. They differ on the senior pastoral office, meaning the office of lead pastor, elder or bishop with final spiritual authority over a congregation or group of congregations.

The Assemblies of God position. The Assemblies of God ordains women and recognizes women as senior pastors. Its view is that gifts, call and character, not sex, qualify a person for any office, including the senior one. This is the egalitarian position, and it is the view this unit holds to be the best reading of Scripture and the best expression of the Pentecostal tradition.

The position that reserves the senior office to men. Some Pentecostal bodies hold that men and women are equal in worth, in salvation and in spiritual gifts, but that God has given them complementary roles. They welcome women to pray, prophesy, teach, evangelize, lead ministries and serve as missionaries. They hold, however, that the offices of elder, lead pastor and bishop are reserved to qualified men. Some limit only the top office, and some limit the office of elder, while women serve in many other ministries.

Some Pentecostal churches are led by a couple or a team of elders, women and men together, so that who is "senior" is less central.

We ask you to know your own body's teaching, to explain it honestly, and to treat brothers and sisters who hold another position as people who love the Lord and His Word.

The Objection from 1 Timothy 2 and 3, and the Assemblies of God Answer

The strongest objection comes from evangelical complementarians, including respected scholars such as Wayne Grudem and many Reformed and Baptist churches, and from the Pentecostal bodies that reserve the senior office to men. We state their case in their own terms. They hold that some New Testament texts limit the teaching and ruling offices to men. Their case rests on these points:

1. 1 Timothy 2:12. "And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence."

2. Creation order. Paul grounds the instruction in creation: "For Adam was formed first, then Eve" (1 Timothy 2:13). They take this to be a universal principle and not a local custom.

3. 1 Timothy 3:1-2. Paul describes the overseer, or bishop, in these words: "If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife." Titus 1:6 says the same of elders. They read the language as plainly speaking of men.

4. 1 Corinthians 14:34. "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."

5. Pattern. The elders and overseers named in the pastoral letters are men, and Jesus chose twelve men.

6. Church history. For most of Christian history, most churches reserved the pastoral and teaching office to men.

They add that they honor women's gifts. They hold that the limit is narrow: the office of authoritative teaching and eldership in the congregation. We should state this fairly. They do not say women are less intelligent, less spiritual or less loved by God. They hold their view because they believe it is what Scripture teaches.

The Assemblies of God answer

First, the Spirit's gifts. The Spirit gives gifts as He wills, and He has given women the gifts of prophecy, teaching, evangelism and leadership. Pentecostals have seen this for over a century in the fruit: souls saved, churches planted, the sick healed, missionaries sent. We do not make fruit the final authority, since Scripture is. But when the fruit is plain, we are slow to say that God has not called.

Second, one in Christ. Paul writes that "there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Scholars debate how far this verse reaches, and we do not claim it settles the question alone. But it fits the Pentecost promise of sons and daughters.

Third, 1 Corinthians 11 and 14. The same Paul who wrote 1 Corinthians 14:34 writes in 11:5 that women pray and prophesy in the assembly. He cannot be forbidding all speech by women, or he contradicts himself. Many Pentecostal interpreters understand chapter 14 as correcting disorder, such as interrupting questions or the judging of prophecies, and not as a ban on women's speaking ministry. Since prophecy speaks "to men" for edification and exhortation, a woman who prophesies is already ministering the Word to men.

Fourth, 1 Timothy 2:12. Timothy was in Ephesus, where false teachers were spreading error and some women had been led astray (1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 3:6-7). We ask whether the instruction addresses that situation. Paul says "I do not permit," in the present tense, and the word for "have authority" is rare in the New Testament. The same Paul commended Priscilla's teaching of Apollos and greeted women who labored with him. A command that seems to forbid what Paul himself praised should be read with care for its setting. We concede that complementarians read it differently, and that Paul's appeal to Adam and Eve is not easy to set aside.

Fifth, 1 Timothy 3. "The husband of one wife" speaks first of faithfulness in marriage, and the same letter uses the phrase of deacons (1 Timothy 3:12). Many hold that it describes the character required of an overseer and does not settle by itself the sex of the person. We do not claim this removes all difficulty.

Sixth, history. Church history shows that custom is not Scripture. For centuries the church also accepted practices that it later saw were not demanded by the Bible. Holiness and Pentecostal history shows another stream, in which women preached and pastored with God's evident blessing.

Our conclusion, as a tradition, is this: the church must not forbid women who are called and gifted by God to preach and minister, and the Assemblies of God practice of ordaining women and recognizing them as senior pastors is the better reading of Scripture and the better fit with the Spirit's work among us.

Pastoral Application

A small village church has no pastor. For fifteen years Sister Marta, who planted the church, has taught the Bible, led the prayer meetings and visited the sick. A regional leader visits and tells the board that a woman cannot be the pastor. The board is divided. Some members are angry, and a few threaten to leave.

The pastor in this situation does five things. First, he calms the meeting and asks people to listen without shouting. Second, he finds out what his own body's constitution teaches about the office, because a pastor under a body's polity is bound by it in honesty. In a body that recognizes women as senior pastors, the board can move forward on that basis. In a body that reserves the office to men, he must be honest about that limit. Third, he studies the Scriptures with the board, reading Acts 2:17-18, 1 Corinthians 11:5, 14:3, 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12 together, and lets each side state the other's view fairly. Fourth, he honors Marta publicly and finds a place for her gifts that fits the body's rules, such as teaching, evangelism and leading prayer, and he stays in touch with the district about the larger question. Where the body allows it, he encourages the church to consider Marta for the pastorate. Fifth, he does not let the dispute turn into a division. Marta herself is asked what she believes God is saying, and no one speaks about her as if she were not in the room.

Summary

The Spirit was poured out on sons and daughters, and women were among those waiting in the upper room. Scripture shows women who prophesied, taught, served and labored in the gospel. Classical Pentecostalism inherited a Holiness tradition of women preachers and has recognized women called to preach and minister, as seen in Minnie Abrams, Maria Woodworth-Etter, Florence Crawford, Aimee Semple McPherson and many missionaries and church planters. Pentecostal bodies differ on women in the senior pastoral office. The Assemblies of God ordains women and recognizes women as senior pastors, and this unit holds that view. Other Pentecostal bodies reserve the senior office to men, and their case rests on 1 Timothy 2:12-13, 1 Timothy 3:1-2, 1 Corinthians 14:34, the pattern of the elders and church history. The Assemblies of God answers from the Spirit's gifts, from Galatians 3:28, from 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 14:3, from the setting of 1 Timothy, from the meaning of "husband of one wife," and from the evident fruit of women's ministry. We conclude in favor of the Assemblies of God practice, and we hold it with humility and love toward those who differ.

Further Reading

• Grant Wacker, Heaven Below (2001).

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

• Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (1997).

• Cecil M. Robeck Jr., The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (2006).

• Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence (1994).

• Phoebe Palmer, The Promise of the Father (1859), a primary source.

• Catherine Booth, Female Ministry; or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel (1859), a primary source.

• Minnie Abrams, The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire (1906), a primary source.

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