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 3: The Ephesian Church Age
60-1205 §39
Christianity at Ephesus was where the Jews lived at Ephesus, and it was founded about A.D. 53 or 55. Christianity was planted there by St. Paul. Later St. Paul spent three years at Ephesus. Paul's teaching bore great influence to the believers at Ephesus. Next, Timothy was the first bishop of the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. In Paul's time it was a great church. Ephesus means ... the very name Ephesus means "Let go. Relax. Backslidden." Called by God, "The backslidden church." God acknowl...
The Queen of Sheba
58-0503 §29
And this little queen hearing this, she said, "Oh, I wonder if that really is true?" So finally, she made up in her mind that she'd go and see for herself. I like that: just don't take somebody else's word about it; come, find out for yourself, like Nathanael did last evening in our message. So as the enthusiasm begin to draw her closer, the time come when she set that she was going. Now, remember, she had a lot of opposition against her. She was a pagan. And what do you think the bishop of her pagan church would s...
Hebrews, Chapter 1
57-0821 §41
But look at the humble and meek. There's your resurrection again. Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. There you are. Notice: ...he ... made him heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; [Who made the worlds? Christ. Christ made the worlds? Yes, sir!] Let's go just a little further: Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His presence, [The brightness of whose glory? God's glory. The expressed image of whose presence? God's! Oh, I love this.] or the expressed image of his person,...
Church Ages, part 1: Revelation Chapter 1
60-1204M §78
That's that church carnal we'll get into this week---church spiritual, church carnal. They're all drifting right back to the mammy church, as the Bible said in Revelation 17 they would do it. They're returning back right now, all of them---acting like it, organizing. "Boy, we're a certain ... we organize. We're this, and we're that." It wasn't so at the beginning---taking all the power out of the church, and putting it on a bishop, or a pope. God's in his church, among his people, manifesting Himself, through the l...
Church Ages, part 5: The Pergamean Church Age
60-1207 §102
Now. Now, of course, when they set up a church like that, what happened? Now, listen closely, my children. What happened? Why, of course, that took the Holy Ghost right out of the church. No wonder none of their bishops raised the dead, or done the miracles. And them talking about some of these saints being in their church! They protested the thing, but they claim them. Look at Joan of Arc, that young girl. I ask you Catholic people, or you Protestants, any of you. Joan of Arc... In her day wasn't nothing in France...