We have a toxic masculinity problem in our society, and maybe even in our church. Does the Bible have an answer for that? I’m Joel Fieri for Christian Podcast Central, and this is What You’ve Been Searching for. Stay tuned. All right. In following up with my last week’s podcast on making distinctions, if you’ve missed that podcast, we put a link down below, but if you caught it you know we talked about how important it is for Christians to continue to be able to make the distinctions that the Bible talks about and mostly in God’s creation and mostly in relations to God’s creating man, male and female, in God’s image he created them, male and female, and how our society is trying to blur that distinction between male and female. And if we blur that distinction, we’ll eventually have no distinction between man and the rest of God’s creation, and eventually God and his creation altogether. So we need to make those distinctions.

What I want to follow up on is another question that was asked in our survey of what the Christian podcast listener is wanting to hear, and that is the question of gender roles, and what does the Bible say about men and women in church and in general, leadership, pastorship? And it’s particularly relevant now. A mega church here in California recently, it was in the news that they ordained three women pastors going against their denomination’s rules, and many people would say going against what the Bible teaches. So I want to look at what the Bible teaches, not only about pastor’s leadership roles within the church, but also within the family. I want to wrap up what we’ve been talking about, the difference between progressive Christianity and conservative Christianity. And this is one of the big, big issues and big, big divides we have in the church. Something that you always hear me say we need to get, right.

So what I want to do is talk about overseers and deacons and pastors in the church, because that’s what you asked about. And specifically where Paul talks in First Timothy Three and again in Titus One, he talks about the qualifications for overseers, pastors, and deacons. And I just want to read this passage. I’ll read First Timothy Three because Titus One pretty much repeats what Paul says in First Timothy. So Paul starts off in chapter three of First Timothy saying, “Here’s a trustworthy saying, whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now, the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him. And he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?

“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders so he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. In the same way deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.” And he talks about women a little bit. “In the same way women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers, but temperate and trustworthy in everything.” Going back to deacons, “A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.”

So the first thing that jumps out of this is,