11: TEACHING IN THE PARACHURCH? 111The activities and responsibilities that a military chaplain carries out
are not significantly different from the activities and responsibilities car-
ried out by a pastor/elder in a local church. Therefore, just as ordina-
tion to the pastorate is restricted to men, so appointment to the military
chaplaincy, to be consistent, should also be restricted to men.^2 However,
if there are military chaplaincy roles that do not involve Bible teaching
or governing authority over groups of Christian men, then such roles are
appropriate for women as well as men.
What about other positions of leadership and authority in
parachurch organizations? A member of an elder board in a church has
great responsibility for the lives, conduct, and spiritual well-being of
members of the church. Christians are to “be subject” to the elders (1 Pet.
5:5), and the author of Hebrews says, “Obey your leaders and submit to
them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have
to give an account” (Heb. 13:17). But the member of a parachurch gov-
erning board has authority over an organization, and over certain activ-
ities that people carry out within that organization, not over the entire
lives of the members. So, for example, I consider myself to be subject to
the authority of my pastor and the elders at Scottsdale Bible Church (of
which I am a member), but I don’t think of my life as subject to the
authority of the governing board of the Council on Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood (of which I am also a member). In like manner, the
members of the board of a Christian school have authority over the
school and its activities, but they do not have elder-like authority over the
lives of the parents who make up the association that owns that school.^3
(^2) I realize that the military chaplaincy includes chaplains from many denominations, including
those that ordain women. The military should accept such women chaplains if denominations
send them, I think, because the decision to ordain and endorse them for the chaplaincy does
not belong to the military but to the various denominations. Freedom of religion in a country
includes freedom to hold different views on whether women should be ordained. What I am
advocating here is that denominations that wish to be faithful to Scripture should not ordain
or endorse women as chaplains, in my judgment.
(^3) Theological seminaries have reached different decisions on this question. Both Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School, where I taught for twenty years, and Phoenix Seminary, where I
now teach, have women on their governing boards. I have not objected to this, since govern-
ing the activities of a seminary is sufficiently different from governing a church. The boards
meet rather infrequently and make decisions regarding broad policies and budgets. They have
exercised almost no direct authority over me or over my conduct in the seminary, nor have I
thought of them as having the kind of pastoral responsibility for my life that I think my pas-
tor and elders have. Some board members have even attended an adult Sunday school class
that I taught and where I was in charge. One board member was also a student in one of my
classes, and neither of us ever thought there was any kind of elder-like authority functioning