How Women Can Teach Without Disrupting Headship
Self-reliance may tidy your life, but only Christ can truly redeem it.
Questions surrounding where women can teach in the church stir deep reflection among believers who long to honor Scripture while stewarding their spiritual gifts faithfully. Can a woman teach in a mixed Sunday school class? Lead a small group? Deliver a keynote at a Christian conference? Preach on Sunday morning? These are not just theological debates they’re practical questions affecting thousands of gifted women in the body of Christ.
At the heart of this tension lies 1 Timothy 2:12, where the apostle Paul writes, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” What does this mean for a woman who loves the Word and is called to teach?
The Church Is a Family
The first step in answering this question begins with understanding the church not merely as an organization but as a spiritual family. Scripture paints this picture repeatedly: “the household of God” (1 Timothy 3:15), “God’s house” (Hebrews 3:6), “the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). In both nuclear and church families, God assigns the role of headship gracious, sacrificial leadership to men.
That leadership takes shape in the office of elder or overseer, men who are called to teach and govern the spiritual household. In many churches today, these leaders are often referred to as “pastors,” though not all staff or pastors hold the biblical office of elder. For clarity, we’ll refer to those who fill the biblical elder role as church fathers those uniquely called to shepherd the doctrinal and spiritual life of the church body.
Women, in turn, are not sidelined in this family. Rather, they serve as spiritual mothers wise, nurturing, instructive, and powerful in their influence. The goal is not sameness, but complementary partnership.
The Line at the Pulpit
The clearest boundary where male headship is expressed is in the authoritative, doctrinal instruction of the gathered church most often represented in the Sunday morning sermon. This regular, covenantal time of preaching is not just another teaching moment; it’s when the church fathers speak God’s Word as those accountable for the household.
For that reason, many complementarian women choose not to preach during the main service, even when they are capable, articulate teachers. It’s not a question of competence it’s a question of role. Just as a mother may be more organized or even more spiritually mature than a father, that doesn’t shift headship in the home.
Other Contexts, Other Questions
But what about all the other spaces where teaching happens conferences, podcasts, Sunday school, college courses, writing books, or leading prayer nights? Scripture doesn’t give a black-and-white list, but it does give principles. One helpful approach is to assess each opportunity along eight helpful spectrums:
Context: congregational ⟶ non-congregational
Nature: exegetical ⟶ testimonial/inspirational
Authority: governmental ⟶ nongovernmental
Relationship: close ⟶ distant
Commitment: formal ⟶ informal
Obligation: obligatory ⟶ voluntary
Constancy: habitual ⟶ occasional
Maturity: sister ⟶ mother
The further an event or setting leans toward the right-hand side of these pairings, the more likely it is that a woman’s teaching role is appropriate. For instance, giving a message at a national Christian women’s conference may involve occasional, non-congregational, testimonial instruction to a voluntary, distant audience making it far removed from the authoritative teaching of a local church elder.
On the other hand, regularly leading a coed Bible study in one’s home without male leadership may too closely resemble pastoral oversight potentially crossing the line.
Honor in Discernment
Ultimately, this issue cannot be resolved with strict rules. It requires spiritual discernment, love for the local church, and a posture of joyful submission to God’s good design. It’s not about legalism, but wisdom. And it’s not about limitation, but flourishing in our God-given callings without assuming roles God has entrusted to others.
As women grow in spiritual maturity and teach from places of humility and submission to church authority, many find increasing freedom to instruct younger men as spiritual mothers not to exercise authority, but to build up the body in love.
According to a 2022 Barna study, 52% of practicing Christian women feel underutilized in their church. Yet when women are encouraged to teach within the bounds of biblical headship, their contributions bring life, clarity, and deep nourishment to the church.
God’s Design Is Good
God’s design for male headship is not a relic of the past it’s a reflection of His nature. Within the Trinity, we see order without hierarchy, submission without inferiority. The Son submits to the Father; the Spirit glorifies the Son. This divine choreography inspires the church’s own structure: men and women flourishing together, honoring God by respecting His good order.
And when we embrace that order not out of fear, but out of faith we bear witness to the wisdom of God. A wisdom that says women don’t need to imitate men to be faithful. They simply need to be who God made them to be co-laborers in the gospel, daughters of glory, teachers of truth, and mothers of the church.
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Reply
Jakki McDonald • 6 hours ago
My experience of women pastors has been mostly disappointing because too often there's a very liberal feminist and or pc agenda. Also I notice a sharpness that is often underlying. Only one female pastor have known/heard that showed Jesus from the pulpit
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