A few months ago, a man left a comment on my YouTube channel asking why I was teaching men. He told me women cannot speak in church and that I had no right to teach a man what the Bible says.
If you know anything about YouTube, you know no one gets a personal invite to watch someone’s channel. It’s a public platform; anyone can click on, and anyone can click off. So you can imagine my surprise when I read his comment.
I immediately told him that if my podcast title Her Faith Inspires, along with a pink-and-white logo shaped like a heart, didn’t give away that he wasn’t my target audience … maybe he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. (Okay, I didn’t say that last part, but I wanted to.)
There are plenty of debates online about whether women should preach, teach, or pastor in the church. I’ll be honest – I used to think a woman had every right to pastor a church, even though I had no desire to do so myself. But after deeper study, I now believe Scripture clearly reserves pastoral and elder roles for men.
With that important point made clear, I in no way believe women lack the same ability or responsibility to teach within the body of Christ.
Here’s my argument:
God gifts women with the same ability and responsibility as men to teach and disciple the next generation, but to do so within the roles He has assigned them, for His glory.
God Gifts Women With the Same Ability to Teach
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the gifts of the Spirit. Verse 28 says, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.”
These gifts are not gender-specific. The gift of teaching, healing, helping, and administration are not reserved for men alone. The New Testament shows women using these gifts faithfully: Priscilla (with her husband Aquila) taught Apollos (Acts 18:26), and Phoebe served as a key leader in the church at Rome (Romans 16:1).
To be clear, I’m not arguing for women holding the office of pastor or elder. I’m saying that God gives women the same ability — and the same responsibility — to teach and disciple within their God-given roles in the body of Christ.
This matters for two reasons.
First, some who claim women shouldn’t teach at all misrepresent Scripture. God gave women minds capable of reason and theological understanding.
Second, many resources available to women today appeal more to emotions than to intellect. Christianity is an intellectual faith. We are people of the Book. Nowhere does Scripture imply that learning, studying, and teaching belong only to men.
Perhaps many women don’t see themselves as teachers. But every man who stands behind a pulpit has a mother. In Dr. George Barna’s 2018 study on households of faith, 68% of practicing Christians attributed their mother as the primary reason for their faith in Christ. That doesn’t diminish the father’s role; it simply highlights that women play an enormous part in shaping the next generation’s understanding of God.
Women Have the Responsibility to Disciple the Next Generation
I’m often puzzled when feminists criticize the biblical roles of men and women, especially the idea that men are the heads of the home and the church. I always want to ask: does she realize she birthed him?
She was his first teacher. She had the opportunity to model what a godly woman looks like so that he could lead well in his own God-given role. Moreover, she not only can do this because God designed her to, but she must because He created her for it.
Women have the same ability as men to teach within the roles God has given them, and we may never know how our faithfulness will shape future generations.
Think of young Timothy. Paul credited Timothy’s mother and grandmother for their spiritual influence, writing in 2 Timothy 1:5:
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”
Few women are named in Scripture, but Lois and Eunice were because of the impact they had on Timothy’s faith.
So, to my YouTube friend who asked if women can teach … yes, we can.
And not only can we, we should.
When women start by discipling their own children and mentoring younger women, they follow in the footsteps of Lois and Eunice, passing down a sincere faith from generation to generation.
And many sons will know the Lord because their mothers were faithful to teach them God’s Word.
Resources
References: Christian Today (Barna Stats)
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