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What do complementarian Christians actually believe about women, preaching, leadership and marriage?
And is complementarianism really about restricting women—or is that a caricature of the position?
In this episode of our Women and the Church series, I’m joined by minister and Bible teacher Stephanie Judd to hear the biblical case for complementarianism.
Steph explains complementarianism as a conviction that men and women are equal image-bearers of God, while also recognising meaningful distinction between them. We talk about how that distinction plays out in marriage, ministry and church leadership—and importantly, how differently complementarian churches can apply the same underlying convictions.
Then we work through some of the major biblical texts behind the debate.
We look at Genesis 1–2 and the creation of male and female, what it means for woman to be created as a “helper”, 1 Corinthians 11 and women praying and prophesying, headship and submission in Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3, and the difficult words of 1 Timothy 2: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.”
Steph also explains why her complementarian convictions mean she does not preach the main Sunday sermon in her own church, while still teaching extensively, contributing to sermon preparation, exercising significant ministry leadership and speaking to mixed audiences outside the gathered local church.
We also address an important question: what happens when teachings about headship and submission are used to justify controlling or abusive behaviour?
As throughout this series, the aim isn't to tell you what conclusion you must reach. It's to hear the position from someone who genuinely holds it, understand the biblical reasoning behind it, and then return to Scripture and do the work yourself.
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