What Does The Bible Say About Women Preachers?

Women Preachers? What does the Bible say about women preachers? I remember my father telling me that my grandmother was a preacher. Her name was Mollie (Wilson) Shelton but we called her Mawmaw. She and Pawpaw were from Harlan County, Kentucky. She was born in 1898. Pawpaw married her when they were still teenagers and in due time, they had 6 sons. Together, my grandparents started a house church during the Great Depression. That’s where Mawmaw preached. I’m pretty certain that she didn’t ask, “What does the Bible say about women preachers?” Mawmaw wasn’t that type of woman.

In the early part of the 20th century, Harlan, Kentucky was known for homemade whiskey, coal mining, and going to church (in no particular order). There were a variety of denominations in Southeast Kentucky. But in the coal camps back in those day, the Pentecostal churches were popular. Some were snake-handling churches. Not in my family though. “Absolutely not,” according to Mawmaw!  Sensible folks knew to stay as far away as possible.  Life was hard enough, and survivors had to be harder.  What does the Bible say about women preachers? “Don’t handle snakes unless one handles you!” Eventually, they followed  the Hillbilly Highway and settled in Detroit.

When I was a young child, Dad, Mom, my sister, Mawmaw, and Pawpaw, and I piled in my dad’s 1955 Pontiac and drove 50 miles to a Pentecostal church in Detroit. A church where women preachers often graced its pulpit. We usually stayed all day because after Sunday School was the morning worship. Then there was the afternoon service. Finally, there was another service in the evening. Then we drove the 50 miles back home. I loved it. I heard the adults talking about the church; both the way it was and how it was changing. Dad, however, was frugal and found a calmer but still Pentecostal church closer to our home. I remember some folks asking, “What does the Bible say about women preachers.” But there was no debate.

I began to realize that serving as a pastor is more of a maternal characteristic than a paternal one.

Even though our denomination approved of women preachers long before I was born, I don’t remember hearing very many preach. But after I felt the call to ministry and planted my first church, I saw the benefit. I began to realize that serving as a pastor is more of a maternal characteristic than a paternal one. It requires care, understanding, mercy, instruction, and multitasking; something most men find difficult. I am not suggesting that there isn’t a place for fatherly influence. Of course, there is, but that has never been the question, has it?

The purpose of this article is to ask, “What does the Bible say about women preachers?”  Herb Scribner, of Deseret News covered the subject quite well in his article, “15 Female Christian Leaders That Are Changing The World.”  As I read it, I could relate because of how women ministers helped to shape my life and ministry. Throughout the years, women pastors, evangelists, and worship pastors took an interest in me. They chose to attend my church and tithe to my ministry from their love offerings or ministerial salary.

I knew that God was using this spiritual mother, like other women preachers, to reassure me

One such sister approached me shortly after we had planted our first church. She attended our services for a few weeks. One Sunday after service she told me about her ministry. She was Michigan’s State President of Women’s Aglow. She asked me to consider serving as one of the state advisors. Then she told me that she wanted to make a 1-year commitment to attend our church. After that year, she planned to start a church of her own in another town. In that year, she didn’t even hint at her interest in preaching during a Sunday service. Instead, she chose to support me. I knew that God was using this spiritual mother, who was 25 years our senior, to reassure and bless us. Over the years that followed, she started that church and we watched it grow, change lives, and make a difference in her community.

Is it possible that God approves of women preachers?

I am not suggesting that every woman who is called to preach is good at it, or even ready for it, but neither was I. Is it possible that God approves of women preachers? I am well aware of the broader discussion that is occurring in the Church world asking, “What does the Bible say about women preachers?” Romans 12 reminds us that we are all parts in the body of Christ and we belong to each other. To that discussion, I would only say, “Look around. It’s happening whether men approve or not.” After all, the Bible is a story about the Love of God for a lost world. In it, we read of the work of God, excluding no one,  “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).