The College admits women as students to study for any program except for degree programs designed to prepare students to serve as ordained pastors (associate of divinity, bachelor of arts in Christian studies/pastoral track). Female students are welcome to audit or to take for credit any individual course offered in the curriculum for which they are otherwise qualified. This policy accords with the College’s conviction that the ordained pastor of a church must be male. The following is the trustee resolution mandating this: “We believe that God has signally blessed women and has given them a position of honor and opportunities for service.” However, we believe that Scripture prohibits a woman from serving as pastor of a church. The following Scriptures specifically refer to this regulation:
1 Corinthians 11:3 ff. This passage teaches that women are under the leadership of men. (This headship relates to functional relationships, not spiritual standing.) For a woman to serve as pastor/teacher reverses this creation ordinance.
1 Timothy 2:9–15. This passage is part of a larger context which outlines the qualifications of bishops (pastors) and deacons and forbids women to exercise positions of authority and teaching over men. Therefore, a woman should not be pastor of a church.
Genesis 2–3. In the record of Creation and the subsequent fall of man, Adam stood in a primary relationship over Eve. The ramification of this position was intensified by the Fall (i.e., the negative aspects of subordination of woman to man) but was in existence prior to the Fall. Thus, from Creation and in the Fall, the woman is subordinate to the man, which is the basis of Paul’s argument in 1 Timothy 2:13–14 in which women are forbidden to teach or exercise authority over men in the church.