Dr. Preston Sprinkle has written extensively on important topics facing the Christian church today, including Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage? and Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Body, and What the Bible Has to Say. Dr. Sprinkle always brings rigorous and responsible Biblical scholarship to the issues he addresses. He has brought that same excellent scholarship in his recent book that addresses a critical issue for churches: From Genesis to Junia: An Honest Search for What the Bible Really Says about Women in Leadership.
I would highly recommend this thorough yet readable book. Here is Sprinkle’s conclusion: “In the end, I think the best interpretation of all the Bible’s evidence shows us that both women and men can be equally qualified and gifted for all forms of church leadership.”[1]
After having done extensive study myself over the last 20 years, I have also reached the same conclusion as Dr. Sprinkle. I believe the best reading of all of the Bible’s texts on this subject leads to the conclusion that women should have full participation in all leadership roles in the church, including preaching, teaching, and serving as elders/pastors. I would urge you to do your own study, and From Genesis to Junia is a good place to start.[2] A thorough examination of the relevant texts is obviously beyond this short blog, but the following is a brief summary of certain of my conclusions.
CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
I believe allowing women full participation in all leadership roles in the church provides the best Scriptural understanding of what it means to be humans created in the image of God. God made humans in his image, “male and female,” and God instructed both male and female together to fill the earth and “subdue it” and to “rule over” the creatures together (Gen. 1:26-28). God’s intended creation involves men and women working together as partners created in God’s image (see also 1 Peter 3:7). It was the Fall, not creation, that disrupted this partnership and created a hierarchy between men and women (as well as among humans) which God did not intend. Patriarchy is a consequence of the Fall, and the Church has the responsibility to proclaim and work toward God’s restoration of humanity in His image, “male and female.” As Paul said, “In the Lord (Jesus), woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God,” (1 Cor. 11:11,12). Paul further emphasized that in Jesus, the One who is the true image of God, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). In our present culture in which the distinctions between male and female are constantly under attack, the Church has a great responsibility to “image” this male/female partnership, which, I believe, must include allowing women greater leadership roles.
JESUS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
Jesus certainly broke with convention in the way he treated women, even allowing women to be his disciples when such was culturally reserved only for men. Just a few examples of his actions include speaking to the Samaritan woman in John 4, allowing Mary to sit at his feet and listen to his teaching (Luke 10:38-42), allowing various women to follow him along with men (Luke 8:1-3), and choosing a woman to be the first witness of his resurrection (John 20). Likewise, women had important ministry roles in the New Testament church, as is reflected in Acts and in Paul’s writings (including the numerous women mentioned in Romans 16). We should notice how often house churches are referred to as meeting in women’s houses: Lydia (Acts 16:40), Priscilla (1 Cor. 16:19), Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11), and Nympha (Col. 4:15). In four of the six references to Priscilla, both Luke and Paul, contrary to the custom of their time, refer to her before her husband, Aquila (Acts 18:18, 26; Rom. 16:3, 2 Tim. 4:19). Priscilla was also instrumental in instructing Apollos on his visit to Ephesus (Acts 18:24). The first church in Europe (Philippi) was started by women (Lydia, Acts 16:11ff).
Most important for our understanding should be how Jesus radically changed how we view “leaders” and “leadership:” “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matt. 23: 8-11).
SPIRIT EMPOWERED IN THE BIBLE AND TODAY
Throughout the Old and New Testaments (as well as today), the Spirit of God gives certain women spiritual gifts of preaching and teaching, just as God does to men—all of these as “the Spirit determines” (1 Cor. 12:11). One gift of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 11-14 is “prophecy,” which is given for strengthening, encouragement, comfort, and edification (1 Cor. 14:3-4). Throughout the Bible, to prophecy means to tell the Word of God, as did Moses and the prophets throughout the Old Testament (see Deut. 18:15-22). The Old Testament mentions a number of women prophets, including Deborah; Miriam, Moses’ sister (Exod. 15:22); Huldah (2 Kings 22:14); and Isaiah’s wife (Isa. 8:3). Huldah appears in 2 Kings 22, when the Book of the Law was uncovered as Josiah was renovating the temple. When Josiah heard the Word of God read to him, he was distressed and asked the high priest to find someone to inquire of Yahweh about the words. As Alice Mathews points out, there were several male prophets in Jerusalem at this time from which the high priest could have inquired, including Jeremiah and Zephaniah. But they brought in Huldah, a woman, to explain and interpret the word of God (2 Kings 22:14).[3] Huldah “preached” the word of God to the king and his court.
We continue to see women prophesying in the New Testament, as predicted by the prophet Joel (whom Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost): “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). The four unmarried daughters of Philip the evangelist are included in those who “prophesy” (Acts 21:8-9). Likewise, in the Corinthian church, women were prophesying as well as publicly praying in the public assembly, and the only limitations that Paul gave was that these public actions be done in a way that did not bring shame to their own husbands (11:3-16) and was done in an orderly manner (14:34-35). Our reading of Scripture needs to give full weight to these Scriptural affirmations of women preaching, as well as to the direction and movement of the Spirit of God.[4]
FOR THE SAKE OF THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE WORLD
Just as the Spirit worked through and used the ministries of women in the early church both for building up the body of Christ and for spreading the good news of Jesus to the world, so today the Spirit empowers all of us, including women, to use Spirit-given gifts. As Dallas Willard said, “Women and men are indeed very different, and those differences are essential to how God empowers each to induce the Kingdom of God into their specific life setting and ministry. What we lose by excluding the distinctively feminine from ‘official’ ministries of teaching and preaching is of incalculable value.”[5]
[1] Preston Sprinkle, From Genesis to Junia: An Honest Search for What the Bible Really Says about Women in Leadership (David C. Cook, 2026), 291.
[2] For a balanced study on both sides of the debate (“complementarian” and “egalitarian”), see Linda Belleville, Craig Blomberg, Craig Keener, and Thomas Schreiner, Two Views on Women in Ministry (Zondervan, 2001, 2005). See also my review from a number of years ago, Set Me Free! Understanding our Traditions in the Light of Grace (Leafwood Publishers, 2003).
[3] See Alice Mathews, Gender Roles and the People of God: Rethinking What We Were Taught about Men and Women in the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 64.
[4] There are a number of important passages in the New Testament that the space of this blog will not permit discussion, including 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 11 and 14. Sprinkle provides a thorough exegesis of these passages, considering all sides of the debate. See Sprinkle, From Genesis to Junia, 193-286. See also Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 291-459, and John Stackhouse, Jr., Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism (Downers Grove, Il.: IVP Academic, 2015).
[5] Dallas Willard, in How I Changed my Mind About Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals (ed. Alan F. Johnson), (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 10.