110 FEMINIST VIEWS THAT UNDERMINE SCRIPTURE
town” (Titus 1:5) where it sells books because it is not planting churches
in those places, as Paul and Titus were. On the other hand, if a mission
organization is planting churches in a region, it should make plans for
how it could “appoint elders in every town” by raising up indigenous
Christian leaders. Similarly, the Evangelical Theological Society might
never celebrate the Lord’s Supper at one of its meetings. But if it did
decide to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, then it should follow Paul’s direc-
tions in 1 Corinthians 11.
The principle then is simple: parachurch organizations should fol-
low New Testament commands written to churches when those orga-
nizations are engaged in the activities that the command is talking about.
How does that conclusion apply to women’s roles in parachurch
ministries?
With all of the thousands of parachurch organizations in the world
today, and the hundreds of thousands of activities carried out by those
organizations, situations will vary widely. Before any decisions are
made, leaders in each organization will need to ask for God’s wisdom,
according to James 1:5-8, in order to understand how their situations
are similar to or different from the situations and activities found in the
New Testament. Although in some cases it will be difficult at first to say
how much the situation is similar and how much it is different, I believe
in most cases the application of this principle will be quite clear.
Teaching the Bible to an assembled group of men and women is so
much like the situation Paul had in mind when he said, “I do not per-
mit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim.
2:12), that only men should do this. I believe that such a principle should
apply not only to meetings in local churches but also to Bible confer-
ences, weekend retreats, and annual meetings held by parachurch orga-
nizations or denominations. For similar reasons, I do not think it
appropriate for women to hold Bible teaching positions in Christian col-
leges and seminaries. Teaching the Bible to a mixed group of both men
and women in a college or seminary classroom is sufficiently similar to
teaching the Bible to men and women in a local church setting, and thus
the same restrictions apply. Another reason is that teaching Bible in a
college or seminary carries a responsibility that is very similar to the
Bible teaching role of elders in the New Testament, or even to the role
of a mature, senior elder training younger elders.