Boice: ...we have women serve as deaconesses...

James Montgomery Boice comments on Romans 16 v 1-2

The bottom line is that the text itself is not decisive, and a judgment on this question must be made on other grounds. In my judgment, based on 1 Timothy 2:12, there are two limitations placed on the function of women in the church: (1) an authoritative teaching position and (2) an authoritative disciplining position. Those seem to me to be restricted to male leaders, functioning together in what the Presbyterian tradition calls a session. But aside from that restriction there is no office or service in the church in which women may not perform.

Again I quote Barnhouse:

What we owe to [women] in the Sunday school and in the work among women, is shown by the devotion to the Lord of those whom he has called to direct his work. We remember that a group of women followed the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here on earth, for we read that, in addition to the twelve, there were “certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance” (Luke 8:2–3). And to this day, the faithful ministration of such women makes possible a vast amount of the missionary activity of the church throughout the world.

At Tenth Presbyterian Church we have women serve as deaconesses, in the Sunday school, and on all our committees, with the sole exception of the session, and we encourage them to do so.

James Montgomery Boice, Romans: The New Humanity, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 1914.

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