Non-Stop Action

It has been a crazy-long and full end-of-week, weekend, new-week stretch.

We are wrapping the inaugural missional training center offerings today. It has been great. Classes began Thursday and except for a day-off on Sunday, we have gone hard for five days. I think everyone is full (and tired).

Sunday was not an off-day for me, however. Just the opposite. We did a power-sprint through passages from 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy relative to women and their role and function in the church. If you are interested in some of the better resources that I interacted with, here is a couple you might consider checking out.

Women's Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis, by N.T. Wright (this is an article that you can read online).

Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry, by Stanley J. Grenz, with Denise Muir Kjesbo.

Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality, by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis.

Finally, my family is split up over the next nine days. Mimi, Mabry, and Annie are with 18 others from the JW community, on their way to Croc, Mexico (outside Monterey), to spend a week building houses and doing educational development alongside YouthFront's team that is in residence year-round. As I blog, I think they are around halfway through their 22 hour journey. Blaise and I are bachelors and living large. Look out.

Comments

[Nikki Alexander]

Hey it's Nikki Alexander. Only visited Jacobs Well once but appreciate your ministry. You and I met a number of years ago through Doug Pagitt. I am over in Lawrence where my husband and I are the directors for a campus ministry called Wesley KU.
Anyhoo.
I attended a conference in 98 called Christians for Biblical Equality. Stan Grenz was one of the speakers - in fact he was the only male speaker at the 3 day conference. He said something that has stuck with me:

He said, "Frankly, it is the people in power who must open the door to those not in power". I find this profound (for social justice in general, but specifically related to the topic at hand) because most of the advocacy for women I have observed has come from other women - often loudly and offensively. Perhaps we feel we have no other choice. And certainly we would never ask for help...

I am not sure of your take on all this. But my hope is that more men interact with these resources and educate themselves on what they can do to promote equality. Maybe then, some doors can be opened from the inside and women won't see the need to try to kick them in by force.

I am thankful to be in a denomination that (despite our blindspots) has given women a voice in ministry, acknowledging them as the leaders and pastors God has called them to be. The UMC has been ordaining women for over 50 years.