Should Women Lead Music?

Since most good pianists and organists happen to be female, and very often the man trying to lead music is really cuing off the pianist because that’s the only way he knows to make it work, my older daughters (who both have earned partial scholarships in piano performance) note that in effect, women are already leading music. Leading from behind, perhaps, to use the ballroom dancing picture, but leading nonetheless. My daughters have led me from behind while I tried to “lead” congregational singing.

Is this a big deal? I don’t think so; as long as you have some church leaders exercising some authority over what’s played and sung, and if they’re especially talented over the “mood” set by instrumentalists, I don’t think it violates any notion of male headship or women acting in authority over men.

My manhood is no less threatened by a woman leading singing, praying, or reading Scripture than it is by the Incredibles. the Berenstain Bears, or Inky Tinky.

I’m looking forward to hearing the interpretations of I Cor. 14:33-34. I’ve seen the following:

-Women are to be totally silent except for congregational singing (no solos allowed).

-Women can sing, including solos, but not talk or pray aloud in a meeting. (one forbid female testimonies and prayer requests as well)

-One allowed a woman teaching or presenting her mission work as long as she wasn’t behind the pulpit.

Thankfully, I’ve seen more sane interpretations,

We might look up 1 Cor. 14:35, where it notes that if the women want to “learn something”, they ought to ask their husbands, no? One might infer there that what’s being said is that women were not to take part in what may have been some rather raucous discussion of theology that occurred on meeting day. We might also look up 1 Cor. 14:26, where it’s noted that “each of you” is bringing some contribution—psalm, prophecy, etc..—and wonder if Paul is not saying women ought totally be silent, but ought to be quiet during the time of theological instruction.

You’ve also got Anna the Prophetess (Luke 2:36) as well. I’ve got to wonder if what they’re really getting at is that in a rather raucous meeting, they needed to reduce the number of debaters by half. At any rate, some of the other implications of the passage might be seen as rather uncomfortable for us cessationists too, don’t ya think? Good implications for the discussion of teaching and Sunday School we’ve got going elsewhere, too.

What churches permit may depend on whether they follow the normative or regulative principle. We don’t have a song leader, choir, or special music but in churches that do I don’t see any scriptural reason why a woman couldn’t lead in those situations under the authority of the elders. We do have a woman who “leads” from a keyboard. We have women read Scripture, translate, and hold communion trays as people come forward (we don’t serve in the seats). We do not have women preach, lead communion, baptize, lead in (pastoral) prayer or give the final benediction, acts reserved for elders.

As for I Cor.14, here’s what I think is a good response.

https://document.desiringgod.org/50-crucial-questions-about-manhood-and…

The context of 1 Cor 14:34-35 is instruction by Paul regarding the order of a proper worship service. It appears that women may prophesy (14:31, “you can all prophesy one by one”) as long as proper covering/submission to authority is maintained (11:5), but this seems to be an activity of a different nature than the other verbal activities mentioned in this chapter, such as speaking in tongues (cf., 14:2-3), interpreting tongues (14:27), or weighing/judging the prophetic speech of others (14:29). These last three are prohibited by verses 34-35.

1 Tim 2:12 also prohibits women from teaching or exercising authority oven the men in the church. Men are to have the responsibility for teaching the adults of the church, and men are to be put in leadership positions of the church. To me, that excludes women from leading the worship service or even mixed adult choirs in the context of a worship service.

I had occasion to visit a church out of state this last Sunday and was surprised that the adult class I attended was taught by a woman. The worship service was also led by a woman. The only part led by a man was the introduction of the speaker, the sermon, and a closing after the sermon.

[AndyE]

The context of 1 Cor 14:34-35 is instruction by Paul regarding the order of a proper worship service. It appears that women may prophesy (14:31, “you can all prophesy one by one”) as long as proper covering/submission to authority is maintained (11:5), but this seems to be an activity of a different nature than the other verbal activities mentioned in this chapter, such as speaking in tongues (cf., 14:2-3), interpreting tongues (14:27), or weighing/judging the prophetic speech of others (14:29). These last three are prohibited by verses 34-35.

1 Tim 2:12 also prohibits women from teaching or exercising authority oven the men in the church. Men are to have the responsibility for teaching the adults of the church, and men are to be put in leadership positions of the church. To me, that excludes women from leading the worship service or even mixed adult choirs in the context of a worship service.

I think you’re hard pressed to show this is the order of a proper worship service normative for all churches. Paul is dealing with issues in the church where some women seem to be engaged in inappropriate activity (prophecy in the immediate context) and not in submission to leadership. I’m not sure it offers any support to prohibit women from leading mixed choirs. I’m not sure what “leading the worship service” means.

[TylerR]

1. What does it mean for a woman to “exercise authority” over a man in a corporate worship context? If the elders appoint a woman to lead music, is she “under authority,” just like any person serving in church is?
2. What does Paul mean when he said women must “keep silent” in 1 Cor 14, and how does this apply to a modern context?

My earlier explanation of 1 Cor 14 didn’t delve into any modern applications. Based on my understanding, the things going on in 1 Cor 14 (tongues, interpreting tongues, prophecy in the sense of speaking direct revelation from God, judging if such revelation is actually from God) is not happening today, because those gifts have ceased. Consequently, what women are directed to keep quiet about, is not really happening. An application, though, regarding the judging of revelation, is probably relevant, and worth a discussion about what it means today. I don’t think it has a direct application to the question of leading music, though.

A number of years ago I visited a Mennonite Church and the teacher of the adult male Sunday School class was a woman. She was the only woman in the class. She did however, have a head covering on to show submission to her husband.

Because we could not afford a full-time worship leader or pastor, my church, in its past, had relied on part-time worship leaders who were women (no men who were musically inclined in my church wanted to do it). Both experiences ended up being unmitigated disasters. Never again while I’m an elder.

Lesson learned: violating Scripture out of expediency or pragmatism doesn’t end well.