Tag Archives: Gender Roles

A Shared Frustration

One of the most common frustrations I hear from egalitarian women who want to be in vocational ministry is that they want to be in a place where they can use their gifts. I understand this frustration because I share it, and I believe that all who desire to be in vocational ministry but currently aren’t also share in this.
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Unspoken Words and Lessons Taught

Gender roles has been an apparent explosive hot button over the past three years in the blogosphere and on Twitter. And Facebook. And the gender role war has probably even gone back in time to affect MySpace and Xanga, too. Here’s the thing I don’t get though, for all of the talk about women not being pastors and not having authority over men, we seem to forget that women do teach. And they often teach men, without even realizing it. Maybe not always verbally or from a position of authority (which I think was the main point of the NT), but they do teach. They serve the Church best when they are invested in their brothers’ lives and walks with Christ, even if they aren’t articulating Theology. At least, that’s been my experience, and I want to share some of that with you here. In part to bring something more productive to the conversation than what has already been said, but also to honor these women for their courage to invest and be open with their thoughts.

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Beauty, Gender Roles, and Freedom

So, I have this friend who has recently lost a lot of weight. When I commented on how good she looks now, she said she didn’t see it. Being the loving, encouraging friend that I am, I told her to go look in the mirror. Then she said that her whole life her mom told her that “there’s always something to make better.” Now, I don’t think that her mom was being cruel or malicious in any way. I think that, as a cosmetologist, she just had a hard time leaving work at work. She gets paid to help people look their best, and it’s hard to shut that off when you go home. I mean, it’s hard for all of us to leave work at work. I spent most of my life doing technical support where I pointed out problems and offered solutions. That’s great at work, but sometimes it can be very annoying around my friends and family. However, I think this illustrates a concept that has been so driven into our culture that we barely even notice what it does to us anymore.

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Gladly Complementarian: in which I open a can of worms

Recently, I read one of Preston’s posts at A Deeper Story. One of his posts was the first post I read at A Deeper Story, and I quickly began following both Preston’s blog and A Deeper Story. In this post, Preston writes about the tension he feels in his life when it comes to gender roles. I am absolutely grateful for thoughtful, deep posts about important topics, and am incredibly thankful that the grace and mercy the cross allows for different and incomplete (or non-concrete) views on important topics. I began typing up a response, and it quickly grew too long to post as a comment, so I decided to post it here instead.
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Family Shepherds

Darrin Patrick has said that there is a “man crisis” in today’s church. One could argue that this is a consistent theme among God’s people, and humanity in general, beginning with Adam. Mark Driscoll has said that in becoming a Christian, particularly for men, we must put forth an effort to be like Jesus and not like our earthly father Adam. While both of these statements ring true, it has left me with a question of how men are to step up and do what we can to resolve this “man crisis” by being more like Jesus and less like Adam. This is why I am incredibly grateful for Pastor Voddie Baucham’s latest book, Family Shepherds: Calling and Equipping Men to Lead Their Homes, which Crossway books was kind enough to send me as part of their book review program.
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