Are Women Called to Be Pastors?

Marsha DuCille feels that women are called to be church pastors and her new magazine "CALLED" is needed to serve them.  According to a recent story in the Times Daily, she plans to begin publishing this fall "to fill a void of resources for women in ministry." The article describes how it all began:

Marsha DuCille grew up the daughter of a female pastor. "As a by product, I naturally have been involved in ministry," she said.  About a year ago, she put her background in publishing and writing to use after receiving spiritual prophesy redirecting her future in academia. Shortly after, the idea for CALLED, a quarterly cross-denominational magazine, was born.

The website editorial page describes the magazine and provides insight into what the editors of CALLED feel is critically needed by female pastors:

CALLED is sophisticated and practical. We provide reliable information on marketing a ministry at all stages of its development, managing and growing organizational finances, nurturing a start-up congregation, and effectively tackling all nuances affiliated with "everyday" ministry.  Most importantly, CALLED does not forget about the reader herself. Our magazine equips female pastors & women in ministry with the inspiration they need to be all that God has called them to be-while never losing sight of their needs, beauty, and worth as women-inside and out.

John Piper and Wayne Grudem would dispute the premise that women are called to be pastors and likely would prescribe a different spiritual diet for all women.  They write:

We do not believe God genuinely calls women to be pastors. We say this not because we can read the private experience of anyone, but because we believe private experience must always be assessed by the public criterion of God's Word, the Bible. If the Bible teaches that God wills for men alone to bear the primary teaching and governing responsibilities of the pastorate, then by implication the Bible also teaches that God does not call women to be pastors. The church has known from its earliest days that a person's personal sense of divine leading is not by itself an adequate criterion for discerning God's call. Surely there is a divine sending of chosen ministers (Romans 10:15); but there is also the divine warning concerning those who thought they were called and were not: "I did not send or appoint them" (Jeremiah 23:32). Probably what is discerned as a divine call to the pastorate in some earnest Christian women is indeed a call to ministry, but not to the pastorate. Very often the divine compulsion to serve comes upon Christians without the precise avenue of service being specified by the Holy Spirit. At this point we should look not only at our gifts but also at the teaching of Scripture regarding what is appropriate for us as men and women.

The spring 2008 issue of the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood includes an article affirming the valuable and necessary role of women serving in the church and suggests biblical ways for them to contribute.