Should Women Lead Music?
For discussion - does the New Testament allow women to lead music during worship services? What saith the Scriptures? I’m curious as to what this community thinks on this issue. In most fundamental-evangelical circles, this hasn’t been traditionally done. Is this Biblical?
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Scripture says, “No.” Leading a congregation in Scripture reading, prayer, and singing is both a leadership and teaching function that is reserved for men.
Will you ever allow a woman to publicly read Scripture on Sunday morning? Can a woman pray in public in your church? Can a woman teach children’s Sunday school in your church?
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[TylerR] Will you ever allow a woman to publicly read Scripture on Sunday morning?
Of course, we have women reading the Scripture every Sunday in their Sunday school classes. (see below) But, we have our elders or our worship leader (who is male) lead the congregation in Scripture reading.
Can a woman pray in public in your church?
Of course, but she cannot lead the congregation in prayer.
Can a woman teach children’s Sunday school in your church?
Of course, but she’s not leading / teaching men.
Ok; thanks. This goes to the crux of the matter:
- Is a woman “exercising authority” when she’s invited to real Scripture publicly, in a corporate worship setting? Why?
- Ditto for public prayer.
- Why is leading in song different than leading from the piano?
- How is a woman performing a “special” in front of the congregation different and allowable? Or, is it not allowable?
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[TylerR]Ok; thanks. This goes to the crux of the matter:
- Is a woman “exercising authority” when she’s invited to real Scripture publicly, in a corporate worship setting? Why?
- Ditto for public prayer.
- Why is leading in song different than leading from the piano?
Leading the congregation in Scripture reading in a corporate worship setting is a leading / teaching function.
Leading the congregation in prayer is also.
Playing music for the worship service is different than leading the congregation in corporate worship.
Our worship service doesn’t include specials. If you want to sing, you sing with the rest of the worship team.
Got it.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
I wrote a paper last semester on Tyler’s point two and was surprised to come to the conclusion that at least in the church service the answer might be no.
No “special” music? I have to seriously consider Tom Howard’s church! :^) (OK, OK, I’ve heard some good stuff, but some of the bad stuff makes me seriously want to consider throwing out the baby with the bathwater….)
Seriously, the point of male authority in key areas is well taken. I just don’t know that I can interpret 1 Cor. 14: 34-5 and such as forbidding women to make a peep in church at all. That noted, the principle of authority is well taken; we’re just, IMO, discussing where to draw a line.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Bert Perry] Seriously, the point of male authority in key areas is well taken. I just don’t know that I can interpret 1 Cor. 14: 34-5 and such as forbidding women to make a peep in church at all. That noted, the principle of authority is well taken; we’re just, IMO, discussing where to draw a line.
Any role that involves leading / teaching the entire congregation is reserved for qualified male leaders (1 Tim 2:12). Leading the congregation in prayer is both an exercise of authority as well as a teaching function. Pastors, when we lead our congregation in prayer, we’re teaching our people how to pray and we should be teaching them sound theology.
There are certainly some gray areas we can discuss, but when we’re talking about what takes place during corporate worship, the Bible provides repeated guidance on the need for qualified male leadership.
Ashamed of Jesus! of that Friend On whom for heaven my hopes depend! It must not be! be this my shame, That I no more revere His name. -Joseph Grigg (1720-1768)
I asked a woman to lead singing this morning at church. She did so, did a lovely job, and I wasn’t struck dead.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Were your men intimidated?
Did any of your men feel that their authority was being challenged?
Did she wave her arms?
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
None of that. The more cultural taboos (or, to be fair, what I interpret to be cultural taboos) I break, the more I see that people in the Pacific Northwest don’t seem to care about the traditional hobby horses. I see nothing stopping a woman from leading the congregation in song, but tradition. I asked her to lead it, and she did - the same as the lady who kept the tune by playing the piano.
While I’m at it, I’ll confess this:
- I also allow women to do public Scripture reading
- I allow women to pray publicly (the lady who led singing this morning did that, before we took the offering)
- I’m going to have two women help distribute the elements for the Lord’s Supper next week (along with two men), and
- I’m going to have women begin help collect the offering soon, too.
- I’m also appointing a woman to coordinate all music for the Sunday morning worship service, and lead singing, too. She’ll set the song leading rotation and manage the program.
Soon, Satan worship will break out from the pulpit. The slippery slope has begun.
In all seriousness, though, I felt enormously happy as this lady led singing. We have several highly skilled ladies in our church, who are quite good at singing and playing various instruments. If I followed the traditional pattern, they wouldn’t be able to do it. Instead, they’d have to watch a man fumble around and lead singing, when they can do it 1000x better and exercise their gifts, under the authority of the pastors. Now, they can.
That’s why I was happy.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
I’ve been struggling with this for the last two/three years or so. I am very opposed to a woman leading the congregation in prayer (or the Scripture reading, for that matter, as I see both as Elder responsibilities), but considering that women are generally more adept at music, I don’t have a problem with women musicians. A woman lead the music ministry at my home church for many years, and did it very well, but the woman that took her place is (in my opinion) not as good. To be fair, she also has massive shoes to fill.
When we joined our current church, I specifically discussed this with our pastor. We disagreed politely, and I still was able to join the church, but there is some minor tension there between what I believe/affirm and our established practice. We do have female deacons, if anyone is wondering, which I am OK with.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
My general approach is to integrate as many people from the congregation into the work of the ministry, especially on Sunday mornings. To that end:
- We have a rotating number of church members who do Scripture reading, both men and women, along with children who have been baptized and made a credible profession of faith. A different person does Scripture reading every Sunday.
- We will soon have a similar rotating group of church members (men and women) do announcements on Sunday morning
- We just opened up song leading to men and women, and we’ll have a similar rotating group who does this. We will soon have a woman coordinating this rotation.
- We’ll soon do likewise with offerings and the Lord’s Supper.
- I appointed a woman to be in charge of the “visitor welcome” group, and she’ll coordinate follow-up with new visitors and run that program.
- I’ve also formed a small group of people to help me revise the bylaws, among them two women. One used to run a local pregnancy care center ministry, and the other is in a senior management position with a State agency. Both have extensive leadership and management experience, and their help will be invaluable as the others pastor and I work through revising a set of incoherent bylaws.
- We’re going to kick off an associate pastor search committee, and I invited a woman to be on the panel to assist us.
The alternative is to have the associate pastor and I lead and do everything. Nope. We’re using everyone to get the work done, and guess what? Lots of able, competent women are willing and eager to pitch in, under our leadership. Things are going well. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you allow the other 65% of the congregation (i.e. the women) to actually serve and do something besides nursery, playing piano and teaching little kids.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
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