Can a Woman Baptize Someone, Make Announcements, or Serve Communion?
Dear Mike,
Can a woman baptize someone,
make announcements, or serve communion?
In normal circumstances men usually do the baptizing, however, there are no instructions in the New Testament about this. The only examples we have are of Apostles and evangelists baptizing repentant believers and so this has carried forward until today. Of course, if this is not possible then a believing female could do it. The key person in all of this is the person being baptized. He or she is required to be a repentant believer coming to baptism in order to receive forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). I suppose this is why the information in the Bible is geared towards that person and not the one assisting in the immersion.
Now, as far as women making announcements or serving the communion, etc. There are good arguments on both sides of this question, however, in my experience, congregations who seek to initiate changes like these usually create either division among the members or begin a movement toward truly non-biblical practices like having women preach to the assembly or seek to serve as elders (I Timothy 2:12). These results are not worth the momentary satisfaction of accommodating a few who wish to experiment with such practices.
