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If you’re in a faith community where your egalitarian conviction can struggle to be expressed fully, this is the episode for you!

Don’t miss the end of the episode, where Andrew and Kim share prophetic words about how the church needs to change to better reflect God’s heart for equality.

The Meyers invite us into the dynamics of working in a patriarchal, cross-cultural context while holding an egalitarian conviction. How do they make that work practically? Listen to find out! 

What I am against is the disgusting and deceptive way that some use the Bible to oppress and manipulate faithful, honest church folks. The SBC’s recent “statement on the family,” which faculty members at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary were asked to sign, presents a case in point.

What is biblical equality? It is the belief that all people are equal before God and in Christ. All have equal responsibility to use their gifts and obey their calling to the glory of God. God freely calls believers to roles and ministries without regard to class, gender, or race. 

In the case of our understanding of “head,” an enormous emotional and spiritual significance is attached, as the Bible declares God to be the head of Christ and man to be the head of woman. To declare the Father as “boss, chief, or authority over” is to deny the status of the eternally begotten Son, equal to Father and Holy Spirit in goodness, power, and love.

Christian and Muslim women have faced similar struggles and thus can encourage one another as co-laborers in respectful dialogue.

John C. Nugent argues that "Peter was not, in fact, affirming that women are weaker. Rather, he was asking men to lay aside their cultural advantage and to win over their unbelieving wives in the same Christlike manner that slaves, women, and the wider community were called to non-coercively welcome Gentiles into the chorus of believers who will 'glorify' God when he comes to judge.”

The Scandal of Equality in First Century Christian Teaching 

The partriarchs are coming to church! But what kind of persons would claim such an epithet? In fact, the neopatriarchs who are now coming are those who identify with the ancient, old-order patriarchy. And why are they now arriving on the scene and in our churches? And what is their agenda, hidden or spoken?