In this episode of A Reasonable Response, Robert Bosley responds to Sam Storms' article, "A Complementarian Case for Women as Pastors," and argues that the proposal ultimately blurs biblical categories rather than clarifying them.
Bosley contends that Scripture consistently links the work and title of pastor to the office of elder and that attempts to apply the title pastor to women—even while affirming male eldership—create unnecessary confusion. Examining key passages such as Acts 20, 1 Peter 5, Ephesians 4, and Titus 2, he argues that the New Testament provides no warrant for expanding the pastoral office beyond the qualifications God has established.
While affirming the vital teaching ministry of women in the church, Bosley maintains that faithfulness requires preserving the biblical distinctions God has given rather than redefining them to accommodate modern cultural expectations. This episode challenges listeners to let Scripture set the terms for church leadership and ministry.
Let me go on record as saying that I am a complementarian. I just have to say if right out of the gate and bold face type, you're saying you are a complementarian, but your article is arguing for women pastors, I'm sorry, your complementarianism is just egalitarianism wearing a skin suit. It's not real. Welcome to A Reasonable Response. I'm Robert Bosley, and the purpose of this podcast is to give a reasoned response to issues related to the Christian faith from a Reformed Baptist perspective.
Each episode contains what we call the breakdown, where I respond to a video related to our topic at hand. However, today we're actually going to be responding to a written article instead of a video on the topic of women pastors. Today for the breakdown we're going to respond to an article from Sam Storms on his personal blog titled A Complementarian Case for Women as Pastors. The purpose of his article is to defend what he believes is a proper use of the term pastor to apply to certain gifted women in the church. And this is all in light of the Southern Baptist Convention this year with another amendment to clarify the convention's perspective toward women in leadership, especially in light of Dr.
Al Moller's proposed resolution. Now, I'm not a Southern Baptist. I go to a reformed Baptist church, but I'm still concerned about what happens among the Southern Baptists. My bachelor's is from a Southern Baptist school, and the Southern Baptist denomination is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. So what happens with our Southern Baptist brothers is of vital importance and will have ongoing effects inside of wider evangelicalism even outside of that denomination.
And so, not being a Southern Baptist myself, I still think this is worth responding to in light of the convention that will have actually passed once this episode is aired. So, with that introduction, let's look at the article. Original post, I will respond to these objections in a subsequent article. Let me go on record as saying that I am a Complementarian. I believe only qualified men may serve as elders in the local church, and that the responsibility to preach, teach, and apply the scriptures to the gathered assembly of God's people on a consistent basis is restricted to men.
1 Timothy 2, 11 to 14. It seems to me like the article should just end there. You assert that you're a complementarian and the elders can only be qualified men in the local church. That should be the end of the discussion. Of course, it's not, as we'll see.
And I just have to say, if right out of the gate and bold-faced type, you're saying you are a complementarian, but your article is arguing for women pastors, I'm sorry, your complementarianism is just egalitarianism wearing a skin suit. It's not real. It's important that we spend some time looking at how the New Testament actually makes use of the noun pastor or shepherd in the verb to pastor. You may be surprised by what you see. The verb to shepherd or to tend sheep or to rule is poimino.
It is used 11 times in the New Testament. The only texts where The verb to shepherd or to tend sheep or to rule is poimino. It is used 11 times in the New Testament. The only texts where the verb to shepherd or to pastor is used of leaders in the local church are Acts 20 28 and 1 Peter 5 2. In the former, Paul is addressing the elders at Ephesus, and in the latter Peter is likewise giving instructions to elders.
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, that is, bishops or elders, to care for, paumenon, present, active, infinitive, the Church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." Acts 20, 28. Shepherd, poiminate, aorist, active imperative, the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. 1 Peter 5, 2. Clearly, these two texts where the verb is used indicate that an essential role or ministry of the elders in a local church is to shepherd or to pastor the people of God. Thus, it stands to reason that all elders must in some sense be pastors.
But nothing in the way this verb is used should lead us to believe that all pastors must be elders. No text asserts the latter. So he rightly says that this verb, poimino, is relatively rare, only 11 times the New Testament. And the uses of this verb break out into roughly four different things. The literal act of shepherding or keeping sheep in Luke 17, 1 Corinthians 9, the references to Jesus ruling or tending for his people, Matthew, Revelation, so on and so forth.
And the false teachers who shepherd or just feed themselves in Jude verse 12. He points out that the only time it's used of local leaders is Acts 20, 28, and 1 Peter 5, 2. I think we can also fold in the reference to the Apostles such as John 21, 16 where Peter is told to shepherd the the flock of God. This is Peter doing this as a shepherd, as a pastor, as Peter himself affirms in 1 Peter 5. So Dr.
Storms rightly points out that in these verses, the elders or the apostles in John 21 are told to shepherd the flock of God, the Church of God, the people of God, and so elders must be shepherds, must be pastors. The problem is then he is now asserting that we need a verse that explicitly says then that all shepherds, all pastors must be elders. But this is really just a poor way of understanding how words work and how the New Testament functions. We have a clear tight connection given in these handful of verses between shepherding and the eldership or shepherding and leadership in the church. It is leaders who shepherd, leaders who do this act of tending the sheep.
Why would we then say we can't make the necessary judgment or reach the implication, the conclusion that shepherds and elders are the same, pastors and elders are the same because there is such a tight connection here. This is almost akin to the arguments that Muslims will bring up that, well, there's no verse where Jesus says, I am God, worship me. Okay, that's true. There's no verse that says that, but there are verses that do say Jesus is God and that we ought to worship Him. Just because you can't find a particular verse that says exactly the phrase you wanted to say, doesn't mean that the truth of that statement isn't contained in scripture.
And That's what we have here. The idea that just because there's no verse that says every pastor is an elder, doesn't mean that the New Testament isn't teaching truly that all pastors are elders, which I think is pretty clear if we let the New Testament speak in its own categories and use its own words and we learn from it instead of wanting to impose our own categories and our own preferences on it. The noun poimmon, pastor slash shepherd, is found 18 times in the New Testament. Jesus saw that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9.36.
So just like with the verb form he now goes through, with the noun form of shepherd, poimane, and shows that it's used in a few different ways. It's found a little bit more frequently 18 times, again, still a relatively rare word, oftentimes with the connotation of literal shepherd or being used in a figurative sense of the people are like sheep without a shepherd or so on and so forth. There's only one text he says where the noun is used for leaders in the local church, Ephesians 4 11, and that's true. But you also need to keep in mind that when we're understanding how a word is used and how our language can best reflect the meaning and doctrine contained in Scripture, we need to not just look at what it says, but what it doesn't say. The burden of proof is on men such as Dr.
Storms or anyone else with this same opinion that if you want to say pastoring is something that women can do, the burden of proof is on you to prove that because the New Testament never says anything like it. There is no verse that equates shepherding with general care or even shepherding with, for instance, teaching what is good in Titus 2, a command given to the older women toward the younger women, that they're to teach what is good. There is a very tight connection given in this metaphorical use of shepherd in both the verbal and noun forms, a very tight connection made between the elders and these words and the obligation is on you. If you want to expand it out from there, that is your burden to prove that that is something that we're able to do. And Dr.
Storm simply doesn't make a compelling case for that. And I don't believe a compelling case can be made because in the New Testament, pastors are elders, elders are pastors. Whether or not apostleship is a spiritual gift or office in some sense of the term is a debatable question. It would seem then that we should conclude that pastors are those with the gift of pastoring. Contrary to what many in the Charismatic world believe, there is nothing in this text that would lead us to conclude that Paul is identifying five specific offices or governmental positions.
One often hears of the so-called five-fold ministry in Ephesians 4.11. But everywhere else where Paul lists spiritual gifts, such as prophecy, teaching, evangelism, etc., he simply mentions certain representative gifts. He could just as easily hear in Ephesians 411 have mentioned mercy instead of teaching, or tongues instead of prophecy, or helps instead of evangelism. This is one of the key problems, I think, that Dr. Storms has been understanding this passage is he reads gifts in the context of Christ giving gifts to his church in Ephesians 4.8.
He says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And then Paul explains what these gifts are beginning in verse 11. He reads gifts and maybe this is because he's charismatic, maybe continuationist, I'm not sure which language he'd prefer, but he reads gifts and he thinks of these spiritual gifts and these giftings to do certain things, such as tongues or word of knowledge or whatever. And he reads through here that God gave these gifts, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors and teachers. And so the gift is the gift of teaching the gift of Evangelism the gift of shepherding But that's not actually what Paul says The the gifts in Ephesians 4 are not abilities its people If you actually pay attention to the language, verse 11, and he himself gave, not he gave the gift of apostleship, and so some were apostles, rather he gave apostles.
He gave the prophets. He gave pastors and teachers. Now this can be a little unclear depending on your translation. We typically use the New King James and it renders that he gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, some pastors and teachers. That's not a bad way of translating, but the ESV is much more clear and much more in line with actually what the Greek grammar says.
He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. And so the gift in Ephesians 4 is not a capacity, not an ability, not some ability to do something you wouldn't otherwise have. The gifts are these people themselves or arguably the office of these things. But the point isn't an emphasis on a gifting to do something, but the gift is the person or the office itself. That is vital when we come to the question of what does it mean to be a shepherd teacher or a pastor teacher.
It's not having the ability to teach. A lot of people can have the ability to teach. It's only one qualification of what it means to be an elder. A lot of people can have a great concern for souls and an ability to tend to them and feed them spiritually. That doesn't then mean that they are a shepherd or that they are a pastor just because you can do something.
The emphasis is on the men themselves are the gift of God to the local church. Some insist that the nouns pastor and teacher are one gift or refer to one person and thus translate it pastor-teacher. The argument from the Greek text is that each of the first four nouns has the definite article the, preceding it, but the definite article is absent from teachers. Some insist that when two singular nouns, connected by chi and, have only one definite article, we are to understand them as closely related or in some sense overlapping in meaning. This is the so-called Granville Sharp Rule.
Other Greek scholars disagree and point out that this rule does not apply when the nouns are plural as they are here in Ephesians 411. There appears to be no consensus. I do personally think that there's probably a tight identification with pastor-teacher, because the article was only in front of pastor in Greek. It's not the Granville Sharp rule. As far as I remember, I don't recall ever reading any grammar that says plurals are able to function in a Granville Sharp construction.
But I think he's right that there's identification. So there's a sense in which he's right that these pastor teachers are not necessarily elders because we can have men who teach in a church and are through their teaching shepherding the people. But that doesn't then mean that you take the noun pastor as a title and apply it to women because the New Testament never hints that that is an appropriate or right thing to do. Paul says explicitly that he does not permit women to teach or exercise authority over men in the church. Here in Ephesians 4 11, God gives these people to be gifts to His church and these gifts are the Apostles, the Prophets, Evangelists, and pastor teachers.
Why? Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So these gifts are given to the church so that the church can be built up so that each saint is able to accomplish the ministry God intends for them to do. This is corporate instruction. There's no hint here that this is any one-on-one encouragement that we could theoretically say is a kind of pastoring.
Because that's not how the word pastor or pastoring, the verb or the noun, are used in the New Testament. Trying to build your argument that you can call women pastors based on Ephesians 411 goes beyond the example of the scripture. The New Testament never uses the noun or the verb forms in anything other than referring to Jesus, the literal shepherds, the elders, or false teachers. There's just simply no warrant to take what is clear and now apply it in an unclear fashion to women, quote unquote, shepherding the church. We simply have no basis for making that jump based on what Ephesians 4.11 says or any other passage.
Again, there's a sense in which it could be true, but you're using a very loose, non-technical, non-helpful, confusing way that is ultimately at odds with the purpose that God made the gift of pastor and really the purpose for which God made women and what he calls women to do. Why then do most evangelical churches use the word pastor to refer to an authoritative office most often equated with that of an elder, I identify two reasons. First, tradition. We have become accustomed to speaking of pastor and elder in this way, and it is difficult for many to break from the habit of doing so. It would call for considerable humility in acknowledging that we were wrong and that we have not accurately interpreted the New Testament on this point.
It would also require that denominations in local churches make changes in their longstanding and cherished doctrinal statements, something they are strongly disinclined to do. Consider, as one example, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 that serves as the doctrinal standard for the Southern Baptist Convention. In Article 6, we read this, while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture. In point of fact, as we have seen, this statement is false. He vastly overstates his conclusion here that in point of fact we've seen the statement is false.
No, you've asserted it, you've not proven it. The SPC confession, the Baptist faith, the message is right that the office of pastor is limited to qualified men, because when it's used as a clear title, it is referring to the elders. That seems to be unquestionable. There isn't any use of the noun in this general sense that he's wanting to apply it to, aside from literal shepherds. But that's not what we're talking about.
This isn't to say that I'm trying to defend the SBC's common practice of having an ecclesiology built around a single pastor with a bunch of deacons who function like elders. I'm not a Southern Baptist. I'm a Reformed Baptist who is a member of a Reformed Baptist Church that's not part of the Southern Baptist Convention. One reason is because often the Southern Baptist ecclesiology is really screwed up. The single pastor model with a bunch of deacons who function as elders is not found in Scripture.
Southern Baptist churches who govern, or who are governed like that, are wrong. They need to reform to get themselves in line with Scripture just as much as Dr. Storms needs to reform his thinking and get in line with Scripture by trying to assert that women can be pastors. Second, fear. I sense that another reason why many continue to affirm that pastor is an authoritative office and that all pastors are also elders is the fear that to predicate this noun of a woman will launch us down a slippery slope into full-scale egalitarianism.
He says that a lot of the opposition to using the title of pastor for women is based on fear, fear of sliding into full blown egalitarianism. And I would say that fear is perfectly justified. Simply look at the history of denominations who have gone this direction. Is there any of them that have retained conservative, Christian, biblically-based principles on what men and women are, or are different roles, or the purposes for which God made us? Once you go down this direction, the slippery slope is undefeated.
It simply is a fact that once you start applying the language of this office, and it is an office, to women, that does not stop there. It continues on into full-blown egalitarianism, even to the point where there are certain churches who've gone this way who don't even know what a woman is now. You cannot put the brakes on this once it gets started. In conclusion, I think we've seen that Dr. Storm's argument is not very compelling.
It's not very strongly exegetically based and his desire, I don't fully understand why you would even want to do this, but this desire he has for using the term pastor to describe women is really beyond the bounds of what the New Testament allows us to do. Ephesians 411 does not say that pastoring is a gift that God gives to both sexes equally. It says that the pastor teacher himself is the gift to the church. Why should we not stick closer to what scripture actually says? Yes, women can teach.
Certain women are gifted teachers, and what are they to do? Well, if Titus 2.4 says that the older women are to teach the younger women, they're to teach what is good, and to encourage them to love their husbands and children and to be self-controlled working at home and these things. Yes, women are called to teach because women, younger women can best learn from older women what it means to be a godly woman. That simply makes sense. That doesn't mean then that certain women, even if they're in a sense able to shepherd a part of the church, that doesn't then give us the right to call them a pastor.
It's confusion of terms, a confusion of categories, and it is not helpful to God's people when we ought to seek to be clear to one another and to the world outside what we mean when we use these terms. So we need to reject this supposed complementarian case for women pastors and instead embrace what the Bible actually says on who our pastors are and who our elders ought to be and be content to follow along with what God has clearly said, not accommodate our language to modern, feminist, secular culture. Well, that's all the time we have for today. If you'd like to connect with me personally, I'm on X at R. Bosley 1689.
And if you would like to learn more about church and family life, you can do so at churchandfamilylife.com. And remember, let your reasonableness be known to all men. Thanks, see you next time.