Are Women Allowed to Be Deaconesses, Ushers or Bishops in the Church?
1) Direct answer
No. Women are not to serve as bishops or deacons, and “deaconess” as an office over the church is not Scriptural. Ushers are not a Bible office, but the work of keeping order and directing the assembly belongs under the deacons’ oversight and should be handled by qualified men. Sisters may serve in helps that do not place them in authority over men.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man; but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:11–12). Church offices carry authority over men; therefore they are not given to women.
- For a bishop/elder: “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife… one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection” (1 Timothy 3:1–5; Titus 1:5–9). That language fixes the office to a man.
- For deacons: “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1 Timothy 3:8–13). Again, male headship is required.
- The church chose “seven men of honest report” to serve the tables and keep the order of the work (Acts 6:3). That’s the pattern for deacon-type service.
- In the assembly, “Let your women keep silence in the churches” (1 Corinthians 14:34–35). That forbids public authoritative leadership over men in worship.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice: a bishop must be the husband of one wife and must rule his house. How could that be a woman? It cannot.
- A deacon must rule his house and be a husband of one wife. That sets the office to a man.
- Ushers function under the deacons to keep order and direct the congregation. Since Scripture assigns that kind of oversight to men, ushering in the sanctuary ought to be carried by men as part of that deacon-led service.
- This does not make women secondary in value, but it keeps God’s order. Sisters are called to powerful ministry in their God-given sphere: prayer, testimony, music, hospitality, visiting the sick, helping the needy, teaching children, and older women teaching younger women (Titus 2:3–5)—all without exercising authority over men.
4) Reinforcing statement
It’s not culture; it’s Bible order. One God set one pattern: male headship in church offices, with women richly active in every good work that does not place them over men.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Church Ages, part 5: The Pergamean Church Age
60-1207 §33
That was his first miracle, and the beginning of his ministry. There's so much to it. I wouldn't have time, because I want you back tomorrow night, and every night. So I don't want to keep you too long. All right. The next miracle that I chose to speak of tonight ... He was absolutely demolishing heathenism, and he was firmly against the church of Rome. He absolutely disagreed with all of the first church of Rome's bishops. They was getting worldly, and so forth like that. And he withstood them. He certainly was ag...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-78
But see what was happening back there. That false vine was getting a hold and it was teaching that rulership by man was right. It taught that the church had to be governed. It taught a control over the people, but instead of doing it God's way, they simply took authority and vested all the spiritual power in their own hands and came out with a holy priesthood standing between God and the people. They went right back to the old Aaronic system. They became antichrist for they disposed of His mediator-ship and imposed...
Convinced then concerned
62-0118 §97
Now, I read the Old Testament first, and I seen what God was in the Old Testament through those prophets. I come over to the New Testament, and I taken the New Testament. And I found out the same God of the Old Testament was also the same God of the New Testament. Then I took from the New Testament down to the organizing of the early Catholic church, which is about three hundred years, at the Nicea Council when the bishops taken the name of Pope. And the Roman church which took the dogma side, and the Orthodox Cath...
The Queen of the South
58-0613 §31
Well, I can see the little queen then. She begin to think, "Now wait. I'm a pagan. Well now, if I go up there, I'm going to have to go to the state presbyter, or the bishop, or the general overseer, or somebody, and see if they'll permit me to go. After all, you know, we haven't got nothing here but just an old dead set of creeds; they tell us about a God that once lived. But they tell me there's a real God somewhere that's answering. I want to go find out." "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteo...
Hear His Voice
58-1005M §90
...one time by John the Baptist and they wasn't baptized in any name at all. And they were baptized by the same man that baptized Jesus. But Paul, when he met them in Acts 19, told them they had to come and be baptized over again in the name of Jesus Christ or they could not receive the Holy Ghost as yet. When Peter found some that had received the Holy Ghost before they were baptized at all, he commanded them, and stayed with them, till they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. That's true, friend. I know a lot...