updated August 2026
The views on women in authority in the church generally sort into three positions: hard complementarian (most restrictive), soft complementarian (less restrictive), and egalitarian (least restrictive).
This chart shows the general spectrum of roles open to women under each view. It's a map of what different churches actually do, not an argument for any of them.
Two cautions before you use it. Individual churches vary widely, sometimes more from each other within a position than across positions. And job titles are unreliable, because "pastor" names an ordained office in one church and a job description in another. Two churches with identical practice can look quite different on paper.
How to read the chart:
- Yes means churches holding this view generally open the role to women.
- Varies means this is genuinely contested within the view, and you'll find churches going both ways.
- No means churches holding this view generally restrict the role to men.
Teaching & Preaching
| Role | Egalitarian | Soft Complementarian | Hard Complementarian |
| Teach children | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teach women | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teach mixed adult class or small group | Yes | Yes | Usually no |
| Occasional preaching in the main service | Yes | Yes | No |
| Regular preaching in the main service | Yes | Varies | No |
| Teach at a seminary or Bible College | Yes | Varies | Varies |
Teaching & Preaching
| Role | Egalitarian | Soft Complementarian | Hard Complementarian |
| Ministry director (children, women, missions, administration) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Director supervising a mixed staff | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Pastor to children | Yes | Yes | Varies (Title usually "Director") |
| Pastor to women | Yes | Yes | Varies (Title usually "Director") |
| Associate pastor over men and women | Yes | Yes | No |
| Senior or lead pastor | Yes | No | No |
Office and Governance
| Role | Egalitarian | Soft Complementarian | Hard Complementarian |
| Deacon | Yes | Varies | Varies |
| Elder or governing board | Yes | No | No |
| Ordination | Yes | Varies | No |
| Denominational leadership | Yes | Varies | No |
Participation in Public Worship
| Role | Egalitarian | Soft Complementarian | Hard Complementarian |
| Give a testimony or ministry report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read Scripture aloud in the service | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Lead public prayer in a mixed service | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Lead worship or music | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Serve communion | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Baptize | Yes | Varies | No |
Ministry Outside the Local Church
| Role | Egalitarian | Soft Complementarian | Hard Complementarian |
| Missionary | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Church planter | Yes | Varies | No |
| Chaplain (hospital, military, campus) | Yes | Yes | Varies |
| Author, blogger, conference speaker | Yes | Yes | Varies |
Drawing the Line
The disagreements in the chart cluster. That's not an accident. Nearly every cell above comes down to two questions.
- Does this role involve authoritative teaching of Scripture to the gathered church?
- Does this role carry governing authority over the congregation?
Egalitarians answer that neither question excludes women, because they don't read the New Testament restrictions as universal rules about who may teach or govern.
Soft complementarians answer that question 2 restricts women from the highest office, but question 1 restricts very little else. That's why women in these churches can preach and pastor but not sit on the elder board.
Hard complementarians answer that both questions apply broadly, which is why the restrictions in that column start much earlier and cover teaching mixed adults, not just holding office.
This explains the "Varies" cells too. Those are the roles where people who share a position still disagree about whether the role counts as authoritative teaching or as an office. Is a deacon a governing officer or a servant? Is reading Scripture aloud teaching, or is it just reading? Is leading worship a form of leading the congregation? Reasonable people inside the same camp land differently.
So if you're trying to figure out where a particular church stands, don't ask about titles. Ask those two questions.
The Passages Behind the Disagreement
5 Passages on Women in Authority
Every position on this chart is downstream of a reading of the same set of texts. Nobody gets to use only half the list.
Texts read as restricting women:
- 1 Timothy 2:9-15
- 1Corinthians 14:26-40 Order in the Church
- 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. See: Should women wear head coverings?
- Qualifications for elders and deacons in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9
- Genesis 2:15-25. See 01 God’s Design for Marriage
Texts read as showing women in ministry:
- Romans 16:1-7 (Phoebe as diakonos, Junia as noted among the apostles)
- Acts 18:24-26 (Priscilla instructing Apollos)
- Acts 2:17-18 and Acts 21:9 (daughters prophesying)
- Judges 4-5 (Deborah judging Israel)
- Philippians 4:2-3 (Euodia and Syntyche as coworkers in the gospel) - Rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:1-23)
- Galatians 3:23-29
Keep in mind
- Both complementarians and egalitarians defend the essential equality of men and women.
- Believers who hold to biblical inerrancy and seriously seek to follow the Bible as the source of truth hold both complementarian and egalitarian positions.
- Everyone agrees that certain commands are culturally specific. The question is not whether culture influences instructions in Scripture, but how it influences.
- Where a church lands on this chart tells you something about how it reads a handful of passages. It doesn't tell you whether the church loves Scripture or takes it seriously.
Related
- What is an egalitarian?
- What is a soft complementarian?
- What is a hard complementarian?
- Resources on the issue of women in authority in the church
- Women's Ministry Resources