Don't be Scared: Be Sensitive

I've had the idea for this post brewing in the back of my mind for while now. Following on from the posts "Where Next" and "Gender: Whither Now", my own journey of thought process has moved on in the area of gender and leadership. I'd wondered when I'd get around to writing this post. I still echo what I wrote in "Whither" regarding eldership - but aside from that biblical title, I believe that both men and women can and should (where their character and gifting permit, and where they are genuinely called) excercise all rolse of leadership within the Church. I still hold to a more complementarian view of relationships in marriage: that the husband is the head of the household only insofar as Christ is the head of the church, dying to self for the benefit of his bride. For more on this, look at what I've wrote on a pertinent passage, Ephesians 5, in "Mind the Gap".

Yesterday well known Christian blogger Adrian Warnock published a post "Gender Roles - a Complementarian and Egalitarian Spectrum", following on from similar articles he has done on the Arminian/Calvinist spectrum and the charismatic scale, among others. I thought his post was a reasonably fair, plain-speaking one - but some disagreed. Arguably Adrian could have been clearer in stating that people who don't agree with him on gender roles can still love and follow Jesus. It is very easy, in any of these debates among Christians, to end up pointing a finger prematurely about an issue, making something small into something very large. An interesting conversation on Twitter ensued, as two egalitarians challenged Adrian about what he meant, and I sort of watched, occasionally asking questions.

Fundamentally, any discussion about gender roles and the church must begin with the fundamentals. For me, the fundamental starting place is Scripture, and in order to then have a discussion about how to interpret it, agreement on pertinent terms must be reached. It is all too easy to disagree on the meaning of a word - for example the slippery 'equality' - and for that to make the conversation untenable. Whilst I have my own views, I honestly believe, nay know that there are faithful, Jesus-loving Christians on both sides of the debate. Too often it is polarised, and opponents demonised, in a way that does not reflect well on Christ or his Church.

To have a debate about something is important - and to do so we have to understand what we mean by a word, or words, that are relevant. The recent debates about marriage - which until recently was understood fairly consistently - demonstrate this very well.

The discussion about gender roles, particularly in relation to Church leadership, is not going to go away any time soon. And it isn't going to be solved by fear-based, reactive discussion. This is why I titled my post "Don't be Scared: Be Sensitive". As with many issues around morality and identity, the Church in general needs to be aware that in some cases we need to repent of what we have done to people. Where we have used the Bible to beat people (like women) down instead of building them up and releasing them for the good of the kingdom. Where we have allowed our personal preferences to rise above God's clearly revealed will.

We need to not be scared of people with strong views - as long as they are seasoned.

We need to not be scared of people with something to say - because every person is made in the image of God.

We need to be sensitive (and I as a man need to be in particular) of those the Church has squashed, such as gifted women.

We need to be sensitive to the strongly held beliefs of people faithfully ministering in the Gospel of Jesus.

I'm grateful for Adrian Warnock's blogging and writing - and I'm grateful for Dave Warnock's challenging voice on Twitter. The kingdom of God needs people who will speak out against injustice. And it needs people who will listen. When we listen in humility we can grow into what God is calling us to be. If we ignore his words, the Word, then we can easily lose the plot and be inneffective. As a conservative evangelical (excpect arguably in this one area), I know it can be very easy to be scared of sliding into liberalism (bad thing) in the quest for what God actually wants (good thing). And in that, I'm learning to be sensitive to the experiences of many wonderful people who have seen God do amazing things. Across the denominations. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you can join me in trying to not be scared, but be sensitive. I'd welcome your comments!

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If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in one I wrote quite recently, "Do It Yourself Heresy", where I examined what it might mean for evangelicals to listen to church history, in the context of thinking about the dangers of an over-individualistic faith. On a similar note, if you are interested in the area of women and leadership, one book that helped me to come to my position was "How I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership".