I thank God for the voices that help us sort through the confusion about gender that exists not only in our culture, but in our churches and homes. Confusion that results in a redefining of marriage and the family, splits in major denominations, and unisex bathrooms at universities, among other things.
The world has seen too few examples of men and women exercising their complementary gifts and roles, together bringing glory to the triune God who made us in his image. Why mention this on a blog designed for those who lead worship? Because as we embrace God’s ordained order for our lives we bring glory to our Creator and acknowledge the wisdom of his design, both individually and together as men and women.
One of the clearest biblical voices on gender today is the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Their mission is “to help believers and local churches benefit from glorious biblical truths about God’s design of men and women.” A concise statement of their core convictions is found in the Danvers Statement. Here are some excerpts:
Both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood ( Gen 1:26-27Genesis 1:26-27
[26]Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth."
[27]So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
, Gen. 2:18Genesis 2:18
[18]Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
(ESV)
).
Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart ( Gen 2:18, 21-24Genesis 2:18
[18]Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
(ESV)
; 1 Cor 11:7-91 Corinthians 11:7-9
[7]For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is
the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
[8]For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
[9]Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
(ESV)
; 1 Tim 2:12-141 Timothy 2:12-14
[12]I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise
authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
[13]For Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14]and Adam was
not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a
transgressor. (ESV)
).
In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside Biblical criteria for particular ministries ( 1 Tim 2:11-15, 31 Timothy 2:11-15
[11]Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
[12]I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise
authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
[13]For Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14]and Adam was
not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a
transgressor. [15]Yet she will be saved through
childbearing--if they continue in faith and love and
holiness, with self-control. (ESV)
:1-13; Tit 1:5-9Titus 1:5-9
[5]This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might
put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every
town as I directed you-- [6]if anyone is above reproach,
the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and
not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
[7]For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above
reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a
drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, [8]but hospitable,
a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and
disciplined. [9]He must hold firm to the trustworthy word
as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in
sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
(ESV)
). Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God’s will.
With half the world’s population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world ( 1 Cor 12:7-211 Corinthians 12:7-21
[7]To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good. [8]For to one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of
knowledge according to the same Spirit, [9]to another faith
by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one
Spirit, [10]to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between
spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another
the interpretation of tongues. [11]All these are empowered
by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one
individually as he wills.
[12]For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ. [13]For in one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and
all were made to drink of one Spirit.
[14]For the body does not consist of one member but of
many. [15]If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand,
I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any
less a part of the body. [16]And if the ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,"
that would not make it any less a part of the body. [17]If
the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of
hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the
sense of smell? [18]But as it is, God arranged the members
in the body, each one of them, as he chose. [19]If all were
a single member, where would the body be? [20]As it is,
there are many parts, yet one body.
[21]The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of
you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of
you." (ESV)
).
We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.
CBMW has recently updated their website and made it more helpful and much easier to navigate. They offer Recommended Resources, a Gender Blog, Conferences, Audio Messages, and Recommended Products. More specifically, David Prince writes on Family Worship, Randy Stinson and Christopher Cowan give Seven Reasons Why We Cannot Call God “Mother,” and John Piper and Wayne Grudem offer answers to sixteen key questions about biblical masculinity and femininity.
If you’re unclear on how men and women can fulfill their God-given roles for his glory, if you want to sharpen your biblical convictions in this area, or if you’re confused about your own gender, I can’t recommend the CBMW ministry and website highly enough.
Share this post with others.
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm and is filed under
Gender Issues.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
You can
leave a response, or
trackback from your own site.
complementarian,complementarianism,council-on-biblical-manhood-and-womanhood,egalitarian,egalitarianism,gender,gender-roles,men-and-women
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
Entries RSS
We recently did our I am Tim series and I drew the straw for I do not permit a woman to teach a man. To be fair, I read the best evidence of both sides and still ended with the position (as does Alistair Beg) that the normative, doctrinal and directional leader for the church should be male. I walked onto stage with a bullet proof vest on and simply read the passage. There was laughter which lessened the tension. Praise be to God!
The most valuable piece I found were on the site you mention (loving both Grudhem’s and Piper’s stuff as well) was Kostenberger’s Women in the Pauline Mission pdf. The best NT analysis I have seen of both Paul’s doctrine and praxis.
(side note: When we work in some of our missional contexts, we have to weigh the “conflicting commands” to not let a new believer teach. So we have to really reflect if we have only a mature woman believer and brand new male believers. Obviously, we would try to grow the males as quickly as possible to a point of maturity. Just and interesting tension point.)
Comment by jordan fowler — September 27, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
Bob,
I am greatful for the work of the CBMW and highly respect SGM’s commitment to apply these scriptural truths in the life of the Church. I am a young pastor and want to apply complementarity in the function of the worship service. My question, in that regard, is this: is it appropriate for a woman to lead worship in the Church? By leading I am assuming two things: 1. Her voice is the primary voice keeping the congregation on pitch and with the tempo, etc… and 2. She ultimately determines how the music is played and what happens between songs, repeats, etc…
My motivation in asking this question is I have been in this situation. When we started as a church plant we had little talent and gifting in the area of music, but we had a woman who played the piano and sang well. She pretty much led our worship services, but being convicted about manhood and womanhood I didn’t know what to do other than stand there next to her and taking over where I felt appropriate. Would this be being over-reactive or micromanaging? Sometimes I felt like I was worried about nothing, and other times I felt that there could be confusion over roles in the church.
Your thoughts…
Comment by Luke — September 28, 2007 @ 1:00 am
Luke,
Thanks for your question. I attempted an answer in an earlier post. You can find the post and comments here.
To address the specific situation you brought up…Because of the confusion about gender that exists in our culture and in our churches, I think it’s always wise and biblical to have a man who is obviously leading the gatherings of the church. That’s not to say that some women couldn’t do a better job at times. But leadership isn’t simply a matter of gifting, but of obedience. We’re committed to God’s design for order. If women step in to lead, men rarely find reason to grow in their God-given responsibilities.
You said that you stood beside the woman leading the congregation and “took over” where you felt appropriate. This might just be semantics, but maybe not. I wouldn’t use that phrase. My goal is to serve others by leading, teaching, and pastoring. It’s totally appropriate to have a woman lead the musicians while you lead the congregation in the other ways I just mentioned. But rather than viewing it as “trading off,” I’d see it as two different kinds of leadership.
Let me know if that helps.
Comment by Bob Kauflin — September 28, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Jordan,
Thanks for the helpful comments and personal illustration. Yep,a complementarian view isn’t exactly popular these days.
If others are interested in Kostenberger’s article on Women in the Pauline Mission, they can view it by clicking here.
Comment by Bob Kauflin — September 28, 2007 @ 9:57 am
Bob,
Thank you for your response, it is helpful as I struggled with whether or not I was overdoing it. I agree that our cultural confusion requires visible and felt male leadership.
Thank you for your thoughts.
Comment by Luke — September 28, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Bob, I first have to admit that I only skimmed the “Family Worship” article. As I skimmed, however, I got the sense that the article was directed at Fathers without giving a sense of the complementary roles you mention.
My home church has barred women from reading scripture in worship services and some families have pulled their children from Sunday school because women were teaching the children.
All that to say…there doesn’t seem to be much complement there…how would you nuance the discussion on how men and women’s roles are “complementary” within the church context?
-Sam
Comment by eccsam — October 1, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Bob,
This doesn’t belong here…but i didn’t know where else to put it…I was wondering if you could look at the comments left on Justin Taylor’s blog regarding John MacArthur
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2007/09/interview-with-john-piper-and-john.html#comments
If you have time, could you either comment on here via blog on demeanor in worship or direct me to something you might have already written on the subject? (that is, demeanor of individuals in the congregation, not the demeanor of the worship leader/band) If you have time for neither, that’s fine, too.
I’m very thankful for your music. At the DG conference this weekend, they played several Sovereign Grace songs and they were excellent. So…I thank God for everyone at Sovereign Grace Music.
Comment by Don Gale — October 2, 2007 @ 9:17 am