What Does Church History Reveal About Women in Public Ministry?

What does church history reveal about women in public ministry? Does the Bible affirm women serving in ministry leadership? Yes, no, maybe?

For approximately twelve months, from 2021 into 2022, I had the privilege of serving on the writing team for the book 40 Questions About Women in Ministry. Just as its’ title states, the book asks and answers forty questions about women and church leadership. This newest book collaboration by Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews is part of the Kregel Publications 40 Questions series. On their website, Kregel describes the book like this:

“40 Questions About Women in Ministry charts a course for understanding differing views on the topic regarding the ministries of women. The accessible question-and-answer format guides readers to specific areas of confusion, and authors helpfully zero in on the foundations of varied beliefs and practices…Combining a strong adherence to Scripture, vast academic and ministry experiences, and a commitment to Christ-honoring dialogue, 40 Questions About Women in Ministry is a valuable guide to pastors, ministry leaders, church groups, and seminarians.”[1]

From my past decade of study on women and the church plus the numerous conversations I’ve had with seminary students, ministry leaders, and my Theology of Women Academy students, it seems clear that if graded, the church would receive poor marks on how well they have told the stories of women in the Bible. Yet, women are active participants throughout the story of God. The church has much to learn from the ministries of women, the spiritual gifts they employed, and how their communities received their service.

A few years ago, I took an informal survey by asking many faithful church-going people two questions. I asked, “Have you heard of Huldah in the Bible?” The second question was, “Have you heard of King Josiah?” Not one person in my informal survey knew anything about Huldah, including a friend who has taught the Bible for decades. Every one of them was familiar with King Josiah. Guess what? Huldah, the prophet, and King Josiah are in the SAME story repeated in TWO Old Testament books (2 Kings 22; 2 Chron 34). I wrote about Huldah and female prophets in the Bible here. When we don’t highlight the actions and faith of women in Scripture, we miss the significance of Huldah’s prophecy, as well as Rahab’s faith-filled courage, Esther’s death-defying actions that saved the Jewish nation, Tabitha’s ministry to the vulnerable—to widows, and on and on.

In his book The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible Scot McKnight asks his students: “Do you permit women to do in your churches what women did in the Bible and in the early churches?”[2] McKnight poses a great question that the church universal should answer. The problem is too many Christ-followers don’t see the women in Scripture, don’t hear their words, don’t know the diversity of their godly functions, functions beyond marriage and motherhood, and therefore don’t learn faith lessons from their examples—women whose lives, and in many cases their words, God included the Holy Book.

McKnight’s question isn’t just an academic one, it’s practical, with real consequences. A recent article in The New York Times discusses a historic pattern reversal: “Young women are now disaffiliating from organized religion in greater percentages than young men.”[3] Thirty-nine percent of Gen Z women and 34% of millennial women are unaffiliated with church compared to 14% of baby boomer women.[4]

An important part of my ministry is highlighting the words and witness of women in history. So, I’m sharing an excerpt from the first of my three chapters which comprise the “Women in Church History” section of 40 Questions About Women in Ministry.

What does church history from the ancient church through the Middle Ages reveal about women, leadership, and public ministry? Plenty! Evidence that alters our understanding of New Testament backgrounds—including online concordances of inscriptions, social-history findings, and discoveries in archaeology—provides reasons to reexamine the text.1 New Testament professor Susan Hylen notes that interpreters in the past few centuries have assumed women played nonpublic roles in their communities, did not own or manage property, and were restricted to the household. Yet, scholars continue to unveil new findings, including literary evidence illuminating that “women were active, just as men were, in the religious life of the Christian communities in all its different forms.” Here’s a glimpse at women’s ministries.

Question 30: What Does Church History Reveal About Women in Public Ministry? Part 1: Early Church to the Middle Ages (excerpt)

The Early Church

The church began at Pentecost with the Holy Spirit’s descent. We know the apostles gathered with about 120 believers in an upper room, including women (Acts 1:13–15). Soon, all present were filled with the Holy Spirit (2:1, 4). Peter saw this as a fulfillment of Joel’s prophetic word, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy” (v. 17; Joel 2:29). Women’s public ministry in the early church began at Pentecost, when women, alongside their brothers, prophesied as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s descent.

Women Prophets

God authorized women prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to speak his word to others.5 Luke names Anna (Luke 2:36), Elizabeth (1:42–45), Mary (vv. 47–55), and the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9) as prophets. The apostle Paul describes prophecy as providing instruction and encouragement (1 Cor. 14:31) for building up God’s people (vv. 3–4). He ranked the gift of prophecy higher than the gift of teaching (v. 28). And Paul referenced women praying and prophesying in the gathered church (11:4–5; 14:23–24).6 The early church had many women who were part of prophetic movements.

Women Disciples

A disciple is a follower, and many women in the early church followed Jesus. Peter healed a woman named Tabitha, whom Luke praised for “continually doing good deeds and acts of charity,” calling her “a disciple” (Acts 9:36 NET). The author of Acts mentions women disciples three times: those among a group of unnamed men and women (9:1–2), Tabitha (9:36), and Priscilla (18:23–26).

Women Teachers, Leaders, and House Church Hosts

Paul highlighted and commended the faith of many women who served as teachers, leaders, and house church hosts. Lois and Eunice, the grandmother and mother of Timothy, Paul’s protégé, forged Timothy’s faith (2 Tim 1:5). Paul evangelized Lydia, a businesswoman, who with Paul planted a house church in Philippi (Acts 16:14–15, 40), which opened “a significant door for the advancement of the gospel into a new region of the world.”9 A married couple, Priscilla and Aquila, “explained” to Apollos, who needed correction, “the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:26). They hosted churches at Ephesus and Rome in their home (1 Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:3–5).10 Paul affirmed Euodia and Syntyche, women in the church at Philippi. He wrote, “they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel” (Phil. 4:3).

Cynthia Hester, “Question 30: What Does Church History Reveal About Women in Public Ministry? Part 1: Early Church to the Middle Ages,” Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews, 40 Questions About Women in Ministry, (Kregel Publications, 2023), 241–243. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Conclusion

I hope you learned something new about women in the early church from this chapter excerpt. You can read the rest of the chapter here, about women patrons, martyrs, and women in the Middle Ages. Best of all, pick up your Bible read about Huldah, then move to the Gospel of Luke and Acts paying careful attention to the women and noting what they do. Does your church encourage women to do what the women in the Bible did?

[1] Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews, 40 Questions About Women in Ministry, Kregel Publications, 2023. https://www.kregel.com/ministry/40-questions-about-women-in-ministry/

[2] Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, 2^nd ed. (Zondervan, 2018), 215.

[3] Citing a study by Survey Center on American Life (April 2024) written about by Daniel Cox and Kelsey Eyre Hammond: Jessica Grose, “Young Women Are Fleeing Organized Religion. This Was Predictable.” The New York Times, June 12, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/opinion/genz-women-organized-religion.html.

[4] Daniel Cox and Kelsey Eyre Hammond, “Young Women are Leaving Church in Unprecedented Numbers: The gender divide in religiosity has flipped,” American Storylines, April 4, 2024. https://storylines.substack.com/p/young-women-are-leaving-church-in?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=422480&post_id=143266150&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2i4e&triedRedirect=true

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