Q:When can women teach students in connection with the church?

Q1: I’m hoping you can clarify a situation at my church. We are searching for a youth pastor for our students.  We have been unable to find one, and so our Pastor is looking to hire a female youth director. I am against this based on 1 Timothy 2:12.

When I brought my concerns to the Pastor and Elder, they advised that this passage does not apply because she is not a Pastor and will not be preaching a sermon on a Sunday morning. However, she will be giving a message (the Pastor and Elder stated that this is not preaching) to high school boys and also any adult high school male leaders there during youth group. 

I am concerned this seems to be conforming to or caving to current progressive feminist culture of the times. Please advise. 

A: If you mean any adult men (males over 21), then no, because here she would exercise authority over the adult men in the church.  There are many things women can do and roles they can have in the Church and in Christian service in general, but not here in that example. 

If there are men leaders in the youth dept they should be teaching and leading the men. No need for women to take such roles! The church needs to be educating and training up men to be teachers and leaders in the church. Too many churches today and for far tooo long have shurked their duty and responsibility to raise up godly men. 

Today, lots of "churches" try to circumnavigate Scripture by putting women in leadership positions over men but not giving them the title of elder or pastor. 

But, I would want to draw a distinction between teaching young people and preaching with authority over "all of" the congregation. Teaching is imparting knowledge and exploring truth, preaching-teaching is specifically in regard to God’s word to the congregation as a gifted office to men, and should be lead with authority.

[Commenter says] I home educate and am happy as a woman to teach my younger boys but as they head into their teens I’d be looking for their father to have more input. I think in a lot of the education system boys don’t have enough male role models. I’d be happy for a woman to teach Sunday School but as a boy grows towards manhood I prefer those male role models and that authority become more important. Even male teachers over teen and adult classes where women are is preferred. 

Also I think as a society we draw an arbitrary line of adulthood beginning at 18. In Jewish culture a boy reaches a milstone at 13 - not is not the definitive age of manhood. but I think we should be encouraging our boys to mature earlier and our churches to have more mature men in teaching positions as well. 

So- When exactly does a boy become a man  Is it a number of years old?  Is it a level of maturity?  Puberty?  When not under the care of their father? Something else? There's no definition. Many boys back then seems to indicate more like 20-21. Are you now saying mom's can't teach their high school boys at home? They are still children. Look to Timothy's upbringing.

Note, In Jewish culture 13 was the age where a male child was responsible for his own religious observance under the law; but that never translated to "full adult status" in all areas of life.

According to OT law; men had to be 20 years old or more to be in the military and 25 or more to serve as priests in the temple. For census purposes; males under 20 years old were still counted as "under parents household". Also, a male was not considered "a man" until he could support a wife and children; which would have been a minimum age of 20.  

No 12 year old stood in front of a congregation and "preached" or "taught". The most one (between 12 and 20) would have done in a congregational setting would have been to simply read Torah or give a testimony. 

Also, the infant New Testament church didn't have a division of people under different pastors or position roles. Like at the Temple, the church met as a group of people of all ages, and this continued in churches for a long time until, at some point, some though that the family should be separated into different age groups at church for Sunday School and age appropriate Discipleship, a practice which is not found anywhere in the New Testament for the church meetings, but isnt spoken against either. A lot of moms since 1950s(?) ended up taking teaching roles in Sunday School and youth settings, as they did at home. And to endure order in Worship (not unruly children running or screaming) there was a need for in caring for kids during Worship; basically the women were caring for the babies, children and youth at church as at home. That gave them parental disciplining, educating, and supervising of their children at church for teaching them to behave in public, in church,  and while still guiding them in the Lord. The seperation happened so mother's could also worship (and have a break from their many children) to worship freely too on Sunday, and could focus on their own learning & discipleship in Sunday School. Women were seperated in Jewish culture but not so in Church culture. The Apostle in Scripture notes Timothy's mother and grandmother raised him well in the Lord and those ladies are doing the same thing in that way in churches today. Larger churches do have mature men who are then given teaching and serving positions, and those would include over youth, teens and women in Sunday School etc. It is better to have men in those roles, but depending on what the situation is, there is freedom for women to serve as noted. 

Q2: I am female and was a youth director for all ages at a small church for a few years [with mostly aged elderly congregation], under the Pastor's leadership, [after the youth pastor left]. I never gave messages nor preached a pulpit message, I did teach from Scripture as a mother would in her home and came up with some fun activities in the youth group room. We did not have male leaders in the dept nor would I be over any men, nor have authority over the congregation (men). There were only a couple unsaved teen boys who showed up occasionally (from a apt complex with mostly catholics). I did take the girls to a 1 day conference in the area once. I shared the Biblical Gospel after years of trying to find training, and was grateful to God to learn that, and used what I had and could (do with a serving heart) to educate children. Had there been a man willing to take the role I would've happily moved aside or assisted if they'd liked help, under his leadership. 

* I had wanted in my youth around 16 to be a pastor but was explained to me from Scripture that women cannot do that, and I have held firmly to that biblically explained belief since then. I just wanted to serve God and the saints at Church, and did in various ways where I could, and was sorta pulled into the position by the prior older woman in that position i assisted [after the youth pastor left] and when she left the role was left to me because there was no one else. I have had no intention since 16 to take a role that violates Scripture, and this temp role I had (around age 26) was not like what would be found in big churches, or in "churches" where women try to take pastoral roles & have authority over men. I am 50 now and dont even have any kids. But looking back was grateful to be a blessing in those kids lives, and I hope they got saved, incl the ones from those catholic homes. 

A:  Youth are still considered under the authority of their parental households. (According to OT law 20 years old seems to be the age one was considered full fledged legal adult.) So yes, women can teach teenage boys; and serve as "youth teachers". That is not a "pastoral / elder" role. "Shepherding" those not still under the authority of a family household should fall on the "pastor / elder". "School teaching" itself is not necessary confined to only pastor / elders.  

Many reputable truly biblical preachers will agree "teaching Scripture" in that kind of setting can be done by believers who are not a male "pastor / elder". There's also the issue of what is considered "church setting authority" and what is not. We are all to teach, counsel, guide, admonish, exhort, encourage and point to Scripture. 

Recall, Apollos was a Jew who had been taught the way of the Lord who was a friend of the Apostle Paul.  He taught mightily in synogogues took educational correction on a biblical matter by Priscilla and Aquila who heard him preach after to traveling to Ephasus with Paul. They heard his error, invited him to their home and they took time to give him a better understanding "of the way of God", and he took their corrective teaching. And, further....Evangelism is tasked to every believer women included. 

You did nothing wrong, as you did not have nor try to hold any authority over men.