Last Update: June 3, 2026
Reference A Biblical Regional Church Organizational Model
I came across the terms EFS/ESS in a Facebook group. Not doing anything about EFS/ESS I did an Internet query that produced the following: “EFS (Eternal Functional Subordination) and ESS (Eternal Subordination of the Son) are Trinitarian doctrines that describe a view of the relationship between the Father and the Son in eternity, often used to support complementarian (male–female role) theology in the church.” I am not very familiar with EFS/ESS. I certainly have not used it to formulate my view of the biblical roles of males and females. EFS/ESS has no bearing on anything presented here in this document.
An article at Got Questions says the below:
Summarized by “The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,” complementarianism is the viewpoint that God restricts women from serving in certain church leadership roles and instead calls women to serve in equally important, but complementary roles. Summarized by “Christians for Biblical Equality,” egalitarianism is the viewpoint that there are no biblical gender-based restrictions on ministry in the church. With both positions claiming to be biblically based, it is crucially important to fully examine what exactly the Bible does say…
I of course take the complementarianism view. That is the view promoted herein. When I looked at the Christians for Biblical Equality, egalitarianism, the first scripture they present is Galatians 3:28 that says:
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Immediately I saw egalitarianism wrong use of Galatians 3:28 and probably why they do the same regarding a number of other scriptures. Galatians 3:28 is about salvation. It is not about the difference in the roles of males and females. The same person who wrote 1 Timothy 2:11-15 wrote Galatians 3:28. In 1 Timothy 2 as many other places he certain declares there is male and female when it comes to teaching and authority as he does other places when it comes to other areas of life.
Note that the male headship principle that restricts women from serving in certain roles in ministry does not apply to activities such as running a computer business or other commercial businesses and nonprofits whose primary focus is not worship and the preaching/teaching of biblical spiritual matters. The Proverbs 31:10-31 virtuous woman had a business but it was her husband who set among the elders at the gate (Proverbs 31:23). This means women may doctrinally head church internal auxiliaries whose primary focus is not congregational worship and is not preaching/teaching of biblical spiritual matters involving adult males.
Radio, TV, Internet are modern day equivalents to the physical street and mountain. This includes things like podcasts on various platforms such as YouTube.
The Samaritan woman in John 4 clearly went into the physical streets in the city and proclaimed the good news of Jesus arrival. For Jesus himself had told her he was/is the Messiah that she and others looked for. This was not her in the capacity of an Evangelist like Philip (Acts 21:9). She was rather in the capacity of informally doing evangelistic witnessing and giving her testimony in the sense every disciple of Christ is called and sent to do.
Yet, here is the key. There was no captive audience. They could stop and listen to her or keep on walking or ignore her if they were not walking. If she went to someone’s house door, they could not open the door or once day did simply tell her they are not interested.
This is also the case for podcasts and other Internet platforms or communications technologies. There is no expectation that she is representing the organized church.
Whether or not her local church should discipline her is not a function of her having the broadcast but rather of what and how she presents to the public.
Let me say that I hold that the KJV is more trustworthy than any translation made after the 1769 KJV translation regarding the matters I am discussing here. This is because later translations may tend to compromise due to modernized cultural influences.
Title of address is not used in the Bible. That is of human invention and is to be governed by human organizational choice. In the Bible first names are used when referring to individual. One does not find the phrase Apostle Peter or Apostle Paul, One sometimes find the phrases like Peter “who am also an Elder” or Paul, “an apostle of Jesus Christ”. But those are function designations not titles of address.
Does it all require strong leadership to manage the dynamics? Yes, it does. The church needs strong leadership.
Per the biblical male headship principle as set forth by scriptures such as Titus 2:1-8; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Timothy 3:5, 11; 1 Corinthians 11: 1-16; Genesis 30:21; Genesis 49:1-2, 28, I conclude men may exercise some measure of spiritual authority and leadership over both men and women but women only over women and children. Notice that Genesis 30:21 says Jacob/Israel had a daughter. Yet, no tribe was established in her name; tribes were only established by the name of the sons. The God can use a donkey claim some cite does not invalidate the male headship principle. Jesus called/sent twelve male apostles though he despite cultural norms of the time had the power/authority just as he did after his resurrection to call/send females as one of the twelve apostles. Yet, he did not.
In Acts 20:17, 28 Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders using the three concepts of elders, bishop/overseer, shepherd/pastor/feed, saying (17) And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. (28) Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
In so doing he shows the positional equivalence of modern day commonly used terms of elder, bishop, and pastor with respect to church leaders.
One should note that an apostle is a bishop (Acts 1:20) but not every bishop is an apostle. Similarly, a bishop is an elder but not every elder is a bishop.
Within a regional/local congregation context, the word bishop denotes a male with congregation level pastoral responsibility.
Therefore, although the term elder may be applied to Women Level Ministry, the term bishop should not be so applied.
Congregation Level Pastoral Ministry (Acts 20:17, 28; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; 5:1) and Deacons are restricted to biological males and Women Level Ministry to biological females.
God does not call or send anyone in a way that contradicts the Word of God ,the sword of the Holy Spirit.
All participate to various degrees in ministry of the Word of God.
I conclude that women may serve in any church function and position in which they do not function as one having spiritual leadership authority over adult males in organizational elements or activities involving preaching, teaching, determination, implementation, and/or oversight of church doctrines. In whatever spiritual capacity women serve they are to do so in attitude, voice, and action as being in submission and subjection to adult males.
This means women may not serve as heads of local assemblies/churches, districts, conventions, etc. They may serve as heads of subordinate units/auxiliaries consisting of women and children but not adult males unless the adult males are part of a unit only involves the application of biblical principles.
Women may not be Deacons but they may be Deaconess where Deaconess are subordinate to and not independent of Deacons. Deacon Ministers are in essence a special class of assistant pastors. Deacons focus on manhood, family-hood, brotherhood, societal-hood but also on the Word as individually gifted.
Women may preach/teach from the “pulpit” on an occasional basis as long as she has a head covering. To allow her to regularly do so defeats the whole purpose of the biblical male headship principle which is not to allow the women to dominate the church and church ministry. Instead, church leadership is to require and exhort the men to stand up and be men and lead as God established it to be from the beginning. It has nothing to do with who has the most exciting or pleasant personality.
Women may not serve as Sunday School Superintendents. Women may not serve as regular teachers of coed Sunday School classes. However, she may occasionally teach a coed Sunday School class as long as she has a head covering; this is consistent with 1 Corinthians 11:5 which allows her to prophesy in the midst of the congregation. To allow her to regularly do so defeats the whole purpose of the male headship principle as mentioned above concerning pulpit preaching.
Women may serve as heads of other subordinate mixed adult units/auxiliaries that do not involve bible preaching and teaching as a primary focus. For example, both males and females may serve as head of the Usher ministry; although it like all ministries and human activity involve the application of biblical principles, its primary focus is not the preaching/teaching of biblical principles.
Women Level Ministers provide a valuable/important focus on womanhood, family-hood, sisterhood, childhood, societal-hood but also on the Word as individually gifted especially with respect to feeding, caring for, and nurturing other women as well as children.
All issued certificates or other ministry authorization documents is to specify in some form that her ministry credentials are for spiritual headship over women and children but not adult men.
