Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 13:1 (Spring 2008)
Article: Pastors Are Not Elders: A Middle Way?
Author: James M. Hamilton, Jr.

JBMW 13:1 (Spring 2008) p. 53

Pastors Are Not Elders: A Middle Way?

James Hamilton

Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Houston Campus
Houston, Texas

At the November 2006 meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Harold Hoehner presented a paper asking, “Can a Woman Be a Pastor-Teacher?” Hoehner argued that Eph 4:11 indicates that pastor-teacher is a spiritual gift and not an office in the church. This is consistent with what he had earlier written in his commentary on Ephesians, and his paper has now been published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (JETS).1

The main thrust of Hoehner’s JETS essay “is to assert clearly that a woman can be a pastor-teacher because it is a gift and not an office.” Hoehner then makes an astonishing statement: “By distinguishing between office and gift, 85–90% of the problems raised about women’s ministry would be resolved.” Suggesting that 1 Tim 2:12 applies to the context of a local church, Hoehner goes on to state that “women who have the gift of pastor-teacher could utilize their gifts in parachurch situations such as mission organizations, colleges, or seminaries.”2

One major problem with the distinction between gift and office is that in Eph 4:11 Paul seems to be saying that Christ has given people as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. In other words, Paul’s language does not seem to communicate the idea that the Lord gave apostleship as a gift, prophecy as a gift, evangelism as a gift, and the skill set of pastor-teacher as a gift. Rather, Paul states that Christ “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor-teachers” (Eph 4:11). The question would then be whether the Lord gave any people of the female gender to the church as pastor-teachers. Hoehner answers this question in the affirmative, but consideration of what the New Testament says elsewhere about pastors might lead to another conclusion—more on this below.

Hoehner’s views, especially the suggestion that distinguishing between gift and office would resolve “85–90% of the problems raised about women’s ministry,” betray little concern for the deep significance of humanity’s gendered state. If gender is only a superficial accident, then a distinction between gift and office might resolve artificial tensions. But the reality is that gender is at the core of who we are as human ...