Dr. Bruce Ware has studied the New Testament and says that women aren't called to fill the role of pastor or elder in the church, but does that mean women can't fill any role?

Sometimes I think the church has not helped in this by being overly restrictive to what women can do in the church.

This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wogglemouth, co-author of True Woman 101,

for April 18, 2018.

God calls men and women to different roles in the home and church. Over the past few days, Dr. Bruce Ware has been explaining why.

He's a professor at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Yesterday, he described the biblical qualifications of an elder.

We're about to address some practical questions on this topic.

What if your situation isn't exactly spelled out in the New Testament?

Nancy's here to continue that conversation.

So Dr. Ware, as we think about practical applications of this principle, it's the adult Sunday school class, the couple Sunday school class, we have to make decisions on these kinds of things.

What helps inform and direct our thinking as to whether this is a role a woman can and should have?

Very good question, and it's a hard one.

You know, we have so many ministry positions today that didn't exist in the New Testament.

So we don't have Paul's instruction.

We certainly know about senior pastor.

We know about elders because he told us directly, but we don't have worship leaders.

We don't have Sunday school teachers and so many

other positions. So I think what is helpful is to ask the question of a contemporary non-New

Testament position, ministry position, is if it is sufficiently elder-like in what it does in the nature of its function, if

it's sufficiently elder-like to justify then bringing elder principles to bear on that position.

So let me give you one example. I teach theology at a seminary. Now I think what I do for a living, teaching pastors who then have the responsibility to teach the word to their congregations, I teach them theology.

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