House Church Talk - Must elders be males?

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi Paula,

Welcome to House Church Talk !

You wrote:"Do Elders have to be men?  See Galations 3:28  "There is neither 
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor 
female; foe ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  (emphasis mine)  I believe we 
all have to deal with the same enemy and it is not by our own strength that 
we defeat him, but its by the power of Jesus Christ and we all have that 
power given to us as the children of God.  No one person or gender gets more 
power or authority than the other.  That would show respector of person's on 
God's part, and He is not like humans in that way."

The word "elder" is simply an "older one". So there are obviously women who 
are older than others and thus they are elders.  But there are 
qualifications for elders who are OVERSEERS of churches, and for deacons who 
are appointed by churches which require that they be males.  See I Tim.3 and 
Titus 1.  i.e. husband of one wife, ruling his own house well etc.

The concept or idea that overseeing elders have AUTHORITY OVER others is 
nowhere found in scripture!  God's concept of leadership among his people is 
that leaders be lowly and humble, not exalted and dominating. Leaders elders 
and deacons exercise INFLUENCE by example, not authority by domination. See 
Luke 22:25-27,  Acts 6:3; 20:35, I Cor.16:15,16 etc.

There are women who are elders: see I Tim.5:2 and Titus 2:3-5

There are also women who are deacons (servants) see Romans 16:1,2

However, the work of elders and deacons which is for males is that of 
overseeing elders and deacons appointed by the church for specific duties.

In this regard, Gal.3:28 does not cancel gender distinctions. Males do not 
cease to be males and females do not cease to be females when they are 
saved. Thank God for that!  But being "in Christ" has nothing to do with 
gender and gender has no priority as far as being "in Christ" is concerned.

But "in Christ", women ARE given priority and men are required to take the 
lowly place! We are commanded to love our wives as Christ loved the church! 
In order to do so, he humbled himself unto death even the death of the 
cross!

So too, believers who are sheep in a flock which has overseers are given 
priority over the shepherds or overseeing elders!  The elders are commanded 
to serve them, NOT vice versa!

There are no offices to be filled in Christ's church, only service to be 
rendered!

A sister once asked me what I thought about women in office. I responded 
that it is not women in office which troubles me most but MEN IN OFFICE!!!  
There is not a scrap of scripture to justify any believing man holding 
office in the church!  But there are plenty of opportunities for humble 
service to the saints!  There is a tremendous lack of men AND WOMEN who are 
simply willing to "addict themselves to the service of the saints" as did 
the household of Stephanus in I Cor.16:15,16.  They did not look for 
authority, they simply lived to serve others!  It is to that kind of 
believers to which Paul instructed the Corinthian saints to submit 
themselves!!

So the issues involved, if one wants to be an elder and have others submit 
to them voluntarily are these:  (1)maturity (being older in the faith than 
those one serves) and (2)giving one's self in consistent and humble service 
to other saints.  There is nothing stopping any believing man or woman from 
that kind of service or exercising that kind of influence for an example for 
others to follow.

Hope this helps to answer and put your question into a truly scriptural 
perspective (if not into the perspective of th"religious world" around us)!

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce Woodford

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