When did co-pastor married couples become acceptable?

By Elizabeth Prata

In 2007 Thabiti Anyabwile wrote:

It was once a rising trend. It’s now a model for ministry for significant numbers of churches and pastors. It simultaneously offers itself as an example of deep partnership between husbands and wives, and dismisses biblical instruction. What am I talking about? The widespread approach to pastoral ministry where a husband and a wife “co-pastor” a local church.

Co-pastoring in this case refers to churches where the male pastor and his wife are listed as equal pastors of the flock. Since that article above was written sixteen years ago, co-ed co-pastors are touted as something acceptable – desirable even. Recently, then-retiring pastor Rick Warren chose a duo replace him, sparking a brouhaha and subsequently splitting the Southern Baptist Convention meeting over this contentious issue.

Not just co-pastor, but co-SENIOR pastor.

V. Osteen: co-pastoring, which dilutes her motherly duties, is not a good trade.

I remember the Presidential election of 1992. Bill Clinton was running. His wife is Hillary Clinton. Clinton used to brag that “America was getting two for the price of one.”

It was during the 1992 presidential campaign that Arkansas governor Bill Clinton — the nation’s first baby-boomer presidential candidate, running against President George H. W. Bush — used the phrase “two for the price of one.” This twofer concept was Clinton’s quaint way of bragging (to the delight of feminists) that his wife, Hillary, an accomplished corporate lawyer and fellow Yale Law School graduate, was going to play a major role in his administration well beyond that of a traditional First Lady. (National Review) emphasis mine

How did that work out for them? Hillary led a Health Care Reform that crashed spectacularly and she was publicly humiliated. Then Whitewater Scandal happened and things got worse.

From the moment she dazzled Capitol Hill last autumn (‘In future the President will be known as your husband,’ Dan Rostenkowski, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, gushed at one appearance) Hillary has been her plan’s most potent weapon. No longer. In Washington more than anywhere, vulnerability equals weakness. Today Hillary Clinton is vulnerable; so, therefore, is Bill Clinton. ‘Two for the price of one’ has turned from blessing into curse. (The Independent UK, 1994

America was not impressed with the twofer Presidency. Even less so, are biblically obedient tot he Bible Christians impressed with a twofer pastorate.

Simply put, the Bible forbids women preaching. Church teaching is meant for the men to execute. The leading is to be done by the men.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12).

Elders/overseers/pastors are to be “above reproach”, and “a man”. (Titus 1:5-8).

Installing a “twofer” pastorate, whether both are paid or not, formal or informal, defacto or explicit, is unbiblical.

At a Grace Community Church Q&A a man asked John MacArthur,

“Would you ever allow your wife to preach?” His response was of course, his wife would not want to do that, and the Bible forbids it.

Two pastors for the price of one is a curse, because it is a sin.