Aimee Byrd speaks regularly at churches, conferences, and retreats, and has written five books, including her latest from Zondervan, entitled “Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose.” Aimee is married to Matt, and they have three children.
Key Questions for Aimee Byrd
-You new book is titled, “Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.” Why would someone need to recover from something that is “biblical”?
-How did the view of Jesus as subordinate to God impact your theology on the roles of men and women?
-Do you still see erroneous teachings on gender roles in churches now?
-What do we miss when we separate men and women during activities such as studying God’s word?
Key Quotes from Aimee Byrd
“As I grew in my Christian walk and my marriage and I went back to [Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood], I realized there are some real errors in there, including even maybe the premise in the title.”
“We need to take into account that the Son, the incarnate Son has two wills, a divine will and a human will. So when we speak of his submission then, we need to be very careful to ascribe that to his human will, or as mediator, that he shares the same divine will with the Father. This is very important.”
“[Complementarians] also talk about woman being created second, and that since we are created second, that means that we are subordinate, and so there’s this hierarchy in our very ontology. And you know, I began to see the error in that and that maybe we’re looking at this whole creation thing wrong.”
“When Adam looks at woman, he sees what he is to become. And that’s a very glorious thing.”
“What makes a masculine male and feminine female? What are “feminine” and “masculine” virtues? Are they different? Is biblical manhood and womanhood our aim in discipleship? Are there different approaches to discipleship, then, between men and women?”
“Women are becoming frustrated as disciples. These women in a lot of these churches, they’re not trying to subvert leadership roles in the church, but they’re finding that they’re not being invested in as disciples the same as the men are.”
“Our whole idea about men and women in relationship in the church as brothers and sisters needed to be addressed.”
“I do not identify with the complementarian movement because of all the troubling teaching I find attached to it.”
“Some of my critiques of the egalitarian movement is that while they want to include women in the life of the church, I often can’t find where they find the woman’s contribution specifically valued and needed…what does the woman have to offer that’s different than the man?”