To understand these first six points, you will need to look back at my teaching from Monday through Wednesday:
1. THE DIFFICULT PASSAGES (1 Timothy 2:8–12; 1 Corinthians 13:33-35)
2. PAUL’S VIEW OF WOMEN BEFORE HE MET JESUS
3. PAUL’S NEW VIEW OF HIMSELF
4. Paul’s view of others
5. the overarching principle for understanding God’s plan for the role of women in the Church. “there is no male and female”
6. What changed Paul’s view?
7. THE AMAZING TRANSFORMATION OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH

As we saw yesterday, women were very involved in ministry in the church and alongside of Paul.
But were women allowed to speak in church?

You mean there were women prophets in the church?

8. WOMEN PROPHETS IN THE CHURCHES
1 Corinthians 11:2–16 (ESV)
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.

It is obvious that women were praying and prophesying. But were they doing so in the church, that is in the actually assembly? Apparently not since just two chapters later Paul says this:

1 Corinthians 14:34–35 (ESV)
34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

Because the custom was that women were never allowed in public, Paul had to correct some of the liberties that the new women believers were taking. The need for corrections was there because, since women had been liberated to actually sit in the assembly with the men, they were taking liberties that within their culture would cast a poor image of purity in the church.

While within the church, it appears that women were restricted to teaching only other women and children, it is also clear that women were in certain settings instructing men, as we just saw when Priscilla gave instruction to Apollos.

This is not meant to be a detailed attempt to understand all that was going on in the early Church. Still, I want to give you two other Scriptures to help us understand the prominent role women had in the early Church.

Acts 21:8–9 (ESV)
8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.

On the day of Pentecost Peter said,
Acts 2:14–18 (ESV)
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

Now, the word “prophesy” simply means to preach or to declare the truths of God.

It seem to me that if a woman in our church has a word from God, she should be allowed to share it.

As far as I can tell, there is only one role that is restricted from women

9. THE ONE RESTRICTED ROLE

1 Timothy 3:1–5 (ESV)
1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?

If it were not for this one passage, there would be no clear Scriptural teaching that would prohibit a woman from being a pastor. It is not the statement “the husband of one wife.” That you might be able to pass of as cultural fo the day in which it was written.

No, it what is said in verse 4 and 5 regarding “managing his own household.” This statement establishes that the pastor must be the leader of his household in order to lead the many households that make up the church. The idea of a man being the head of the home is not a cultural teaching. It is the very way God instituted the home from the day He brought Eve to Adam.

So, it only makes sense that if the church is the sum total of its many households, then the pastor must the the head of his household leading the heads of the households in the church.

From my perspective, I can even accept a woman occasionally addressing the entire church with a word from the Word of God. But, the week by week teaching to the church must be a man who is using his platform, not only to expound the Scriptures, but to guide the church family.