Perhaps there is no more contentious subject in the church today than whether women can serve as pastors and evangelists in pastoral service. Finally, this issue is critical not to be regarded as a conflict between men and women. Some women feel that women should not be pastors and that the Bible forbids women from ministering. And some males believe women can serve as missionaries and that women have no limitations in ministry. This is not a case of discrimination or fanaticism but instead of following the Scriptures.
There are numerous arguments against women ministering or serving as female pastors. According to popular belief, Paul prevented women from being taught since women were illiterate in the first century. However, 1 Timothy 2:11-14 is unrelated to the situation of education. If education is a ministry characteristic, most of Jesus’ disciples do not appear to have it. The second widespread criticism is that Paul prohibited Ephesian women from teaching (Paul wrote the letter to Timothy, the Ephesian church’s pastor). Ephesus is well-known for housing the temple of Atemis, the Greco-Roman goddess. Women were given responsibility over the temple of Atemis.
1. Paula White
Paula White is an Evangelical preacher and Christian author best known for hosting the Paula White Today series on Spain and BET. Her books include Birth of Your Dreams: God’s Plan for Living Victory (2003) and The Ten Commandments of Health and Wellness (2006). (2007).
2. Juanita Bynum
Juanita Bynum is an author, televangelist, and singer who created the No More Count audio and video tape series in 1997 and the Classic Goes Gospel music album in 2006. She also hosted the Women’s Weapons of Power Conference from 2000 to 2006. She has several gospel music C.D.s to her credit, including The Diary of Juanita Bynun and Morning Glory.
3. Darlene Zschech
Darlene Zschech is an Australian Pentecostal Christian singer-songwriter best known for her song “Shout for the Lord” and rock-influenced albums by Been Rolling Away and Friends in High Places. She was Hillsong Church’s worship pastor from 1996 until 2007. However, she still leads worship at the church regularly.
4. Victoria Osteen
Victoria Osteen is an American novelist and co-pastor of Houston’s Lakewood Church. She also hosts Victoria Osteen Live, a national weekly radio broadcast on Sirius XM’s Joel Osteen Radio. Victoria Osteen is John Osteen’s daughter-in-law and Joel Osteen’s wife.
5. Bobbie Houston
Bobbie Houston founded the Hillsong Church of Australia in Sydney, as well as Pentecostal (Assemblies of God in Australia) congregations in New South Wales, Australia, and Liverpool, England.
6. Bernice King
Bernice King is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s youngest child, the executive director of The King Center, and serves as a Baptist minister. She received the Legend Award on my 50th anniversary of having a Dream Speech.
7. Marilyn Hickey
Marilyn Hickey is an American minister and television host who teaches Bible study lessons nationally and internationally. Born and raised in Dalhart, Texas, Hickey has co-hosted the Today Show with Marilyn and Sarah Tv since its debut in 1996.
8. Antoinette Brown Blackwell
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (May 20, 1825 – November 5, 1921) was the first ordained woman minister in the United States. She was an eloquent speaker interested in the issues of her time, especially women’s rights.
9. Priscilla Shirer
Priscilla Shirer is an actress and author known primarily for her works on faith-based non-fiction. She is also known for her live speaking engagements, where she has focused on teaching the message of the Bible to women through a descriptive teaching method.
10. Joyce Meyer
Meyer is a member of Our Savior Church in St. Louis, a Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod congregation. She began taking an early morning Bible class at a local coffee shop and became active in the Life Christian Center, a charismatic church in Fenton. Within a few years, Meyer was the pastor of the church.
11. Nicole Lamarche
Nicole Lamarche is a former beauty pageant winner and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC). She was crowned Miss California 2003 and placed fourth in the Miss America 2004 pageant.
12. Beverly Yvonne
Beverly Yvonne was a pastor, and her grandfather Royal Titus Bozeman was a Pentecostal children’s preacher dubbed “Boy Wonder” by the Indiana newspapers.
13. Anita C. Hill
She is a Brandeis University undergraduate professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies, as well as a member of the Heller School of Social Policy and Management. She rose to public prominence in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment at the U.S. Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
14. Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar is a gospel musician, songwriter, and recording artist from Durham, North Carolina. She is best recognized as the Queen of Gospel Music and the First Lady of Gospel Music. She began recording songs at the age of 12 and has since published over 40 CDs.
15. Serita Jakes
Serita Jakes is a visionary, author, and speaker. Serita works alongside her husband, Bishop T. D. Jakes, at The Potter’s House, a 30,000-member Dallas church. Serita A. Jakes was born on August 19, 1955, in Beckley, West Virginia, USA.
16. Judith Babirye
Judith Babirye is a Ugandan politician and gospel artist. She is the lead pastor of “New Life Liberation Church,” which is located in Makindye Division, southeast of Kampala, Uganda’s capital.
17. Kim Burrell
Kim Burrell, born Kimberly Burrell, is an American gospel singer from Houston, Texas. Burrell’s radio talk show, Bridging the Gap with Kim Burrell, has been canceled by Texas Southern University.
18. Susan Norris Fitkin
Susan Norris Fitkin (March 31, 1870 – October 18, 1951) was a Canadian ordained pastor who worked in the Society of Friends, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, and the Church of the Nazarene. From September 1915 to June 1948, Fitkin was the founder and first president of the Church of Nazarene’s Women’s Foreign Missionary Society (now Nazarene Missions International). Fitkin was a member of the Church of the Nazarene’s General Board for twenty-four years. Fitkin and her husband, Abram Fitkin, funded and founded the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini, Swaziland, as well as the Nazarene Bible Training Schools in China and Beirut, Lebanon, in 1924.
19. Bimbo Odukoya
Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, also known as “Pastor Bims,” was born on September 12, 1960 (Née Abimbola Rosemary Segun-Williams). For primary education, she went to St Mary’s private school, and for high school, she went to Holy Child College in Lagos. She finished her ‘A’ levels at Federal Government College Ijanikin before attending the University of Ibadan, where she got a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Archaeology and gave her life to Christ in 1978. She then began her career at the National Theater of Lagos.
20. Ida Bell Robinson
Ida Bell Robinson grew up in Pensacola, Florida, the seventh of twelve children born to Robert and Annie Bell. After her teenage conversion at an evangelistic street meeting, she led prayer services in homes. In 1909 she married Oliver Robinson, and they soon relocated to Philadelphia for better employment opportunities. She did street evangelism in Philadelphia under the auspices of The United Holy Church of America.