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Women in Ministry: What’s at Stake?

Ever been in a discussion and felt that there was another dialogue taking place just below the surface?

At times our debates are not really about the issue we are discussing, are they?

We are not purely rational creatures. And that’s ok, good in fact, so long as we take that part of who we are into account. Because it is difficult, if not impossible, to have a totally detached and rational discussion of any issue.

We all bring baggage, subconscious motivations and biases.

Our families, our culture, the books we’ve chosen to read, the church we attend, our favorite movies; all the factors that have shaped our identity, it is all is on the table whether we realize it or not.

So the woman sitting through your sermon about submission to men in the church is feeling a tension with her life outside those walls, where she is respected as an equal. Vocations and sacred texts shape us, and so her perception of her value and identity becomes deeply wrapped up in this conversation. Who is she? Why does she feel called to something she isn’t supposed to do?

The man living in a world that is no longer sure what masculinity should look like has found answers in the teachings of Driscoll or Piper. Now you’re telling him that you think those conclusions are wrong, even destructive, and he’s left asking again who he is as a man. What does it even look like for a man to be a husband, or father, or friend in this day and age?

Even our perceptions of biblical faithfulness are not as cut and dry as “the text says”. For every complementation who senses in this debate a paradigm shift that may threaten the stability of her faith, there is an egalitarian who fears our unwillingness to reexamine the text will ultimately damage the church and people that he loves. If we compromise here where next? If we don’t see we’ve misread the text, will we be bound to an unjust reading just because it’s traditional?

The text matters, but we don’t approach that text as detached actors. We have a stake in the answers that goes deeper than we realize, down to our very identity.

What else to you think people have at stake in this conversation?

What do you have at stake?

And, how should that re-shape our approach to the text and each other?