Greetings, friends! Here are a few fabulous posts from around the blogosphere this week advocating for mutuality in marriage and ministry for men and women. Enjoy!
Look Up (Why I Hated Women’s Ministry), by Kate Conner
“I am tired of hearing about Christian womanhood. I want to hear about God.
There are of course issues that are women’s issues. Womanhood is a sisterhood, and I don’t need my femininity to be ignored; I need it to be seen and addressed and esteemed. But women’s issues are so, so secondary to gospel issues, because womanhood is so, so secondary to PERSONHOOD.”
How I Became an Advocate for Women in Ministry, by Jeremiah Gibbs
“Here was a woman that had more theological education that most of our staff, two years of an incomplete seminary degree. She taught Hebrew to high school students on Tuesday nights and participated in women’s groups on Saturday. She was mature and discerning. But she was cast aside with a poorly written constitution as an excuse. That was the day that I became an advocate for women’s leadership in the church.”
5 Questions About Adam’s Role in Genesis 2 and 3, by Marg Mowczko
“The narrative in Genesis 2 and 3 does not answer all the questions we would like to ask, and there is a danger in filling in the blanks with our own ideas. We need to be careful that we remain objective and look at what the text actually says. This is hard to do, and we are all guilty of adding our own embellishments to the story, and having our own extra-biblical theories. There is simply nothing in the narrative before the Fall, however, which implies that the man and woman had different roles or responsibilities.”
“We need Jesus. We are seeking deep spirituality. We are seeking fellow travelers. We are hungry for true community, a place to tell our stories and listen to another, to love well. But above all, point me to Jesus–not to the sale at the mall.”
This Week on the Scroll
Beliefs Known by Praxis, by Scot McKnight
“What I’m getting at is this: though 1 Timothy 3 assumed both elders and deacons were males, this text definitively proves that women could be deacons too. Which means this: our assumptions that only males could be deacons are wrong. Paul’s rhetoric seems to offer a set of beliefs that indicate women could not be deacons, when the praxis shows they were deacons.”
Hunting Oppression and Abuse Throughout the Summer, by Mimi Haddad
“Day by day, their appearance began to change—their backs straightened, the color returned to their cheeks, and their step quickened. God was restoring their strength so that they might serve as Christ’s hands and feet. Before the summer was out, I would watch God Christians battling abuse again—at CBE’s conference in Colombia—our first conference in Spanish.”
*Note: Linking to these posts is not a CBE endorsement of previous or future written work or statements made by the authors.
