The question of women pastors continues to be a strongly debated issue among evangelical Christians. Even some who classify themselves as complementarian and believe that women cannot be elders will, at the same time, claim that women can be pastors.
Those who take this position argue that Scripture distinguishes between elders and pastors, leaving the latter open to both men and women. Evangelical theologian and pastor Sam Storms makes this claim. But is it valid?
In this article, I will contend that, contrary to Storms’ argument, Scripture does not distinguish between pastors and elders. Storms’ argument, therefore, cannot be used to advance a case for women pastors.
First, let’s consider the word “pastor.” This word is only used once in the NASB and NIV, but never in the ESV. It is used eight times in the KJV, with seven of those times occurring in the Old Testament (Jer 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 12:10; 22:22; 23:1). In every case in the Old Testament, the KJV uses the word “pastor” to refer to Israel’s “shepherds”—her spiritual leaders—who had become corrupt and were no longer feeding, protecting, and leading God’s people. The English word pastor is derived from the Latin word pastor which means “to shepherd.”
In the NASB, NIV, and KJV, pastor translates the Greek word poimen, which means “shepherd,” and is only used once in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he describes the various gifts Christ has given to the church: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11; NASB). Due to its usage in Ephesians, the English word “pastor” has come to designate those who serve in a leadership capacity in a local church setting.
Are Pastors and Elders Different?
Are we intended to see this pastoral role as distinct from the office of elder? Storms argues in the affirmative, concluding that Christ can, on this basis, bequeath the pastoral “gift” to both men and women while maintaining the elders can only be men.
Storms anticipates the observation and corollary argument that the words for elder and pastor are used interchangeably in the New Testament and are, therefore, two different words for the same office, not two different offices (see Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2). He responds to this argument by saying that these texts only indicate that shepherding is an essential task for elders, not that all pastors must be elders. Storms writes, “Thus, it stands to reason that all Elders must, in some sense, be pastors. But nothing in the way this verb is used should lead us to believe that all pastors must be Elders. No text asserts the latter.”1 But Storms’ argument disproves itself if it is carried out consistently. In 1 Peter 5:1-2, for example, Peter writes,
Therefore, I exhort the elders [noun, presbuteros] among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd [verb, poimante] the flock of God among you, exercising oversight [verb, episkopountes] not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock (NASB).
In this passage, Paul uses three words to describe the ministry of these church leaders. As elders, they were to shepherd God’s flock and exercise oversight over the church. The noun form of the word translated “exercising oversight,” is found in 1 Timothy 3:1 where Paul describes the ministry of elders: “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer (episkope), it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer (episkopon), then, must be above reproach….” If we follow Storms’ logic, however, we would have to infer that all elders must, in some sense, exercise oversight, but nothing in this verb (episkopountes) should lead us to believe that all who exercise oversight must be elders. This, of course, would be an illegitimate conclusion, for 1 Timothy 3:1-8 describes an elder’s role precisely as one who formally exercises oversight, and the New Testament never grants church oversight (in an official capacity) to anyone other than the church’s elders.2
Acts 20:28 affirms the earlier point that elders and overseers are two words for the same office. Storms agrees. Luke tells us that Paul “called the elders [presbuterous] of the church” in Ephesus (Acts 20:17), and addressed them, saying “Be on guard for yourselves and all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [episkopous], to shepherd [poimenien] the church of God which He purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28; ESV). Here, the noun “overseers” is used instead of the verb “exercising oversight” (1 Pet 5:2). The word “shepherd” is in its verb form.
Regarding this last observation, an important plank in Storms’ argument is that the noun form of pastor/shepherd is only used with reference to church leadership once in the New Testament (Eph 4:11). According to Storms, the verb usage in 1 Peter 5:2 and Acts 20:28 does not require that the noun gift to be applied to exclusively to elders.
A Question of Theological Method
But even with my above point of logical consistency in 1 Peter 5:1-2 notwithstanding, we must ask why our interpretation of the solitary noun form of pastor/shepherd, when used in the context of church leadership, is not guided by the verb forms of that word when they are used in contexts that also refer directly to church leadership. It makes the most methodological sense to allow those verb forms that fall within the context of instructions to church leadership to decisively guide our interpretation of the solitary noun form.
According to Storms, the verb forms of “pastoring/shepherding” in Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2 do not inform our interpretation of the noun “pastor/shepherd” in Ephesians 4:11—these passages only tell us that “pastor” is a gift, something that elders/overseers do, but not the same as the elder/overseer office. But this is not a sound methodology.
By “methodology” I am referring to theological method—the logical procedure by which we draw doctrinal conclusions from our exegetical data, and how we determine which texts carry more or less hermeneutical weight in our theological formulations. It makes the most methodological sense, in my view, to allow the verb form “shepherd” in Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2 to have definitive influence on our interpretation of the solitary noun form in Ephesians 4:11, especially when the former passages are dealing specifically with church leadership. In light of what Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2 say about the role of elder/overseer in relation to shepherding, to say that “pastor” is not an elder/overseer seems to beg the question—Storms must assume that these are distinct roles—because the New Testament speaks of elder/overseers in terms of shepherding but never speaks about shepherding with reference to any other office or individual in the church. Nor does Storms’ argument fit with the rest of the New Testament’s usage of the noun and verb forms of pastor/shepherd. More on that in a moment.
The “Gift” of Pastor
Another important component to Storms’ argument is his point that “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11 is a gift, not an office. Thus, the gift of pastor may or may not be linked to the office of elder/overseer.
In [Ephesians 4:11], Paul is identifying several representative gifts that Christ has given to the church. We know that prophets are those with the gift of prophecy and that evangelists are those with the gift of evangelism and that teachers are those with the gift of teaching. Whether or not apostleship is a spiritual gift or office (in some sense of the term) is a debatable question. It would seem, then, that we should conclude that pastors are those with the gift of pastoring.3
Storms is correct to identify these church leaders as “gifts.” The word for “gift” here, however, is not charisma, but dórea. Paul uses the word charisma when describing the various gifts that the Spirit endows every Christian with at conversion (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:1ff). The important difference between the gifts in Ephesians 4:11 and the other passages where Paul catalogs the charisma is that in Ephesians he describes the gifts as people, whereas in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, he describes the gifts as given to people. The difference in the nature of the gift accounts for the difference in words that Paul uses to describe them.
But there is a slight problem with Storms linking the charisma in Romans and Corinthians with the people in Ephesians when he says, “We know that prophets are those with the gift of prophesy and that evangelists are those with the gift of evangelism and that teachers are those with the gift of teaching.” Yes, prophets have their associated prophetic gift affirmed in Romans 12:6, and teachers have their gift affirmed in Romans 12:7. But nowhere is evangelism listed as a “gift” (charisma) in the New Testament. (Same with “apostle.”) Similarly, nowhere is “pastor” identified as a gift (charisma). We cannot conclude, therefore, as Storms does, that “pastors are those with the gift of pastoring.” This is an assumption—it is not stated explicitly anywhere in the New Testament.
Rather, it is best to view the gift of pastors as people whom God has specifically equipped to shepherd God’s flock. When Storms presses his point that “pastor” is a gift and not an office, he seems to be toggling definitions.4 There is no shepherding gift (charisma) listed in the New Testament that can be distributed to various people; there are only shepherds (dórea). In other words, the shepherds are the gift. The importance of this last point will emerge in the next sections as we consider how the word “shepherd” is used in the New Testament and how the New Testament describes the role of elders.
The Noun and Verb forms of “Pastor” in the New Testament
The noun poimen (pastor; shepherd) is most often used with reference to Jesus. Jesus had compassion on lost people because they were like a “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36; Mark 6:34). Jesus likened his activity in the final judgment as a “shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:32). Jesus warned his disciples that they would fall away from him on the night of his crucifixion because the Scripture said, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered” (Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27). Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:2, 11, 14, 16). The epistles identify Jesus as “the great shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:20) and the “shepherd and overseer” of our souls (1 Pet 2:25).
The verb form poimaino is used with reference to Jesus’s shepherding God’s people (Matt 2:6), people keeping sheep (Luke 17:7; 1 Cor 9:7), Jesus ruling over the nations (Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15), false shepherds feeding themselves (Jude 12), Peter’s responsibility to tend Christ’s flock (John 21:16), and, as we’ve seen above, elders caring for God’s people (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1-2).
We can make two relevant observations about the noun and verb use of the word pastor/shepherd in the New Testament. First, the offices of shepherd and overseer are combined in Jesus Christ (Heb 13:20). There is New Testament precedent, therefore, for viewing the noun form of “shepherd” as one with the office of overseer, for they both reside in Jesus Christ.
Second, the work of shepherding requires and assumes oversight. In every case where the word “shepherd” is used of Jesus, it requires and assumes Jesus’ oversight of his people, just like the work of shepherding a flock of sheep requires oversight of that flock. In truth, it is impossible to separate the role of shepherd from the role of overseer. When a shepherd cares for his flock, he is, at the same time, exercising oversight of that flock as he leads, feeds, and protects it. Shepherding in any form—physical or spiritual—cannot be conducted without oversight. The role of overseer is embedded in the responsibilities of a shepherd, and true shepherding requires oversight (see 1 Peter 5:2). It should not go unnoticed that Peter, the one to whom Jesus gave the command, “tend my sheep” (poimaine, John 21:16), identified himself as a “fellow elder” (1 Pet 5:1).
Importantly, we have two places in the NT where elders/overseers are instructed to do the work of shepherding. Nowhere else in the NT can we find instructions given to someone other than an elder/overseer to do the work of shepherding, nor is there any place in the NT where a woman is told to shepherd God’s people.
The Role and Responsibility of Elders
We must also consider the comprehensive way in which the New Testament speaks of the roles of elders. In Acts, Paul appointed elders in every church, and these men stood alongside the apostles in church leadership (Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 22). In the epistles, elders are tasked with overseeing and managing the church (1 Tim 3:4; 5:17), preaching and teaching (1 Tim 3:2; 2 Tim 4:2; Titus 1:9), shepherding God’s people (1 Peter 5:2; cf. Acts 20:28), and caring for the sick in the congregation (James 5:14). If this is the role of the elder, what is left for the “pastor” to do, if these two offices are distinct? Practically, how does the pastor conduct his shepherding ministry without exercising oversight, and why is he not included in an important shepherding task like caring for the sick among God’s people (see James 5:14)?
According to Storms’ argument, shepherding is something that elders do, but it is not required that shepherds be elders. In his argument, then, shepherding is distinct from the other tasks that elders are called to fulfill. In what, then, does shepherding consist? Following Storms’ logic, it cannot consist in overseeing, managing, teaching, preaching, or caring for the sick. The shepherding gift, then, is exceedingly narrow. Creating a distinction between pastor and elder requires us to make strange and artificial limitations on the pastoral role—restrictions that seem to encroach on the very nature of shepherding.
Conclusion
In light of these observations, I am convinced that Storms’ attempt to separate the office of pastor and elder/overseer does not do justice to the New Testament data. Given the evidence, the most natural and methodologically sound approach is to view “pastors” in Ephesians 4:11 as the same office of overseer/elder. Or, if one is uncomfortable calling pastor an “office,” we can say that godly overseers/elders are the shepherds that Christ has gifted to his church.
What does this all have to do with the question, “Can women be pastors?” It doesn’t answer every argument made in favor of women pastors, but it does decisively undermine the idea that we can successfully separate the office of pastor and elder/overseer. Thus, if you believe that only men can be elders, then you must conclude that only men can be pastors.
NOTES
1Sam Storms, “Is it Biblically Permissible for a Woman to be Called a ‘Pastor’?”, https://www.samstorms.org/enjoying-god-blog/post/is-it-biblically-permissible-for-a-woman-to-be-called-a–pastor-, October 28, 2019. Emphasis removed.
2Other than 1 Peter 5:2, the word episkopountes (verb: present active participle) is only used in Hebrews 12:15. In Hebrews it is used as an exhortation to the congregation to watch carefully over one another so that that no one fail to obtain the grace of God. The reference is clearly to the spiritual concern that believers are to have for one another, not to a formal office.
3Storms, “Is it Biblically Permissible for a Woman to be Called a ‘Pastor?'”
4See Sam Storms, “My Response to Denny Burk’s Response to my Article on Women as Pastors,” https://www.samstorms.org/enjoying-god-blog/post/a-response-to-denny-burk-s-response-to-my-article-on-women-as-pastors, November 4, 2019.