Why This Brother Fights for Women

My friend Jory Micah wrote something nice today on Facebook about a group of Christian men that have impacted her recently. I was very gratified to have been included on that list.

The thing we did that surprised her so much is that we supported her in her fight for gender equality in the church. She’s very honest about the fact that she didn’t expect that from men, and was hesitant to include us in her target audience. But she said our little group proved her wrong, and  she wrote of us:

I have a tremendous amount of respect for men who support gender equality in the Church and want to see women flourish in Church leadership. At one point I had a bad taste in my mouth concerning Christian men. I thought most of them wanted me to sit down, shut up, and submit. I thought that most Christian men were OK with condescending remarks such as “Women are equal in value, but not authority;” but you guys have changed my mind forever and I just want to honor the guys today and express my heartfelt gratitude for each of you!”

I completely understand why many men haven’t signed on to this endeavor. Many guys look on it as women’s ministry. It’s pretty easy to think that the women can do this for themselves, that us guys should just focus on men’s stuff and let the Lord work it all out.

Besides, someone might ask us for our “man card” if they suspect we’ve been pushing for women preachers and the like. “How about that nice floral arrangement on the piano, brother? Did you pick the flowers?”

The fact is that, despite the kind words of Jory and a few other like-minded sisters, my popularity hasn’t exactly soared since I took up this cause. And that’s OK with me, because I’m not doing it for popularity.

I’m doing it because I want to impact this world for Christ. I’m doing it because I take the Scriptures seriously, and I firmly believe that the hierarchical complementarian interpretation of Scripture is completely wrong and that by embracing it, good people are doing the very work of the devil in the church. My conviction of this truth grows stronger each day.

I’m doing this because our Lord Jesus told us-

The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” – Jesus, in Luke 10:2 NLT

While hierarchical complementarians tell us-

…some contemporary evangelical writers appeal to the ministries of women in the Scriptures to support the notion that there should be no limits on women’s roles in ministry today. They maintain that women and men should have equal access to every ministry function and that any limits on women derive from culture and tradition, not from the Bible, which they believe supports the full inclusion of women in any ministry. – Thomas Schriener in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, page 211

Jesus: “Pray… pray, pray beseech the Lord of the Harvest- send more workers into your harvest!!

Complementarians: “Limits! We believe in limiting a woman’s ministry. Don’t let them do too much! Don’t let them soar too high! It’s not proper! It’s not right!”

Fifty. Percent. Of the church.

Fifty. Percent. Of the church.

Fifty. Percent. Of the church.

And John Piper wants to handcuff them. Wayne Grudem wants to hold them back. Thomas Schreiner wants to limit their ministry.

Are you kidding me?

So let’s think….  what can This Brother do to make the biggest possible impact for the Kingdom of God? Make biscuits at the next Men’s Ministry monthly breakfast?

You decide. I’ll be busy doing what I have to do.