always an adventure...

i've said it many times, but this summer i have learned so much through reconciliation and living out the call of the gospel together with others. one of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is this idea of losing my life for the sake of Christ. i've wanted this and heard it talked about for a while, but now i'm actually seeing this happen in my life and in so many people around me. i'm seeing my friends and family actually give up things (time, money, school, approval of parents, etc.) in order to be obedient to God's calling in their lives....its ridiculous, but so exciting.

i read a blog yesterday titled "adventures in church planting." here's a quote from it:

The church that I've been privileged to help plant, Grace, is approaching the two year mark in September. It's been a journey of ups and downs, despair and joy, setbacks and progress. I've learned more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses than any Keirsey report could ever show. My idolatries of being successful or important are constantly exposed by the tossing waves of weekly attendance or offerings. Yet in the midst of this cauldron of insecurities and challenges, I feel more alive than ever.

Church planting is epic. By that I mean that church planting is a series of adventurous and heroic acts over a long period of time. It's not like a two-hour movie where everything is resolved conveniently in time for dinner. This is an epic marked with miraculous provision, lives being transformed before your very eyes, and twists and turns that you could never have imagined. In short, it's the adventure of a lifetime.

i can attest to the fact that this summer has been quite the adventure...ups, downs, setbacks, breakthroughs, changes, and transformations. i have been blessed to be a part of it. i feel like God is just beginning to take me on this grand adventure that he has in store for me as i lose my life for the sake of the gospel.

take last night for example. i met with several church leaders from some new church plants in salem. we shared the stories of how God has worked to create these communities of Christ-followers that he's letting us lead. as i was listening, i saw lives that had given up better jobs, careers, comfortability, time, and preference all for the sake of Christ. one lady that just helped start a church for the homeless said, "my life is crazy right now. i can't believe i'm actually living this." others had given up jobs, chosen to move somewhere they didn't really want to be, or put themselves in a position of financial uncertainty...because of Jesus.

man, nothing makes you more bold than seeing others actually live out what the pages of the Bible say. that's how transformation happens so often...seeing someone just lose himself for Christ and experience the deep joy that comes from that. at the end of our time last night, one person read habakkuk 1:5 - "look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." at first, i heard that and was a bit skeptical...like, "oh, that's a cool verse to read...quaint and inspiring but not really true." then, i began to think about my life these past several months...couple years...and think about if someone told me this is where i'd be at right now a few years ago, i would have definitely have told them, "yeah right..."

God is moving. he always is. he's always beckoning us to himself and inviting us to join in his glorious plan for the redemption of humanity. its a privilege, not a gulit-ridden duty, to be a part of this. i'm excited (and slightly scared) about the adventure that he's taking me on...

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glor in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
ephesians 3:20-21

reflections on summer so far

this summer has been one of the best summers of my life.

at the beginning of may, six of us moved into this house on 15th street with a vision to live out community and reach out to the neighborhood around us. shortly thereafter, 10 people came together to launch a house church - reconciliation. the vision for this quickly expanded beyond what i ever could have imagined.

i can't explain the incredible feeling of living with purpose alongside brothers and sisters. yes, there have been many difficult things this summer...including conflict, discouragement, depression, apathy, and exhaustion. but, wow, its been so worth it.

you wouldn't think that using your free time to do yardwork for your neighbors on a weekly basis or hang out with people that you wouldn't normally hang out with would be the most fun...but i have found that it really is. i can't explain it, but when you do things selflessly and forget about what you'd like to do, you find that it is the most satisfying thing in the world.

the reason this summer has been so great isn't because we've done all these incredible things or anything....it is because of the relationships that have such depth to them. for example, we've been doing yardwork at cindy newman's house all summer, and i value the relationships with her and savannah so much. we're family, and we look out for each other, laugh with each other, and get to experience Jesus together. or take relationships in the church - the depth of my relationships with carter, jesse, brad, brent, randy, elliot, my dad, ian, dan, david, addie, sam, juli, maig, marianne, sarah, brianna....ah. there's nothing like it. seriously. it is so cool to be able to come together with people around a common vision and see God work to accomplish it. these are my brothers and sisters, and i'm blessed so much by them.

obviously we've got a long ways to go. we don't know how to really live in community or reach out together. we all need more boldness. we're not sure how to show the gospel to a community....but, God is moving. things are happening. i look back upon this summer so far and see the many ways that God has moved to mature us and make us more like him.

so, i just am sitting here this morning after going on a walk amazed at God's faithfulness this summer. i want more of him. i want for him to take all of us...he's so great!

the idol of ministry

this summer is flying by...so fast that i've hardly had many chances to write anything. i have been consumed with things at the house and with the church. i have been pouring my energy into preparing sermons and dreaming of what things could be.

tonight is a sabbath rest of sorts. i have been doing my best to take time away from doing things and trying to simply be in God's presence and rest in the knowledge that his work will go on even if i am not busying myself to the point of exhaustion. however, i am still not very good at this...i feel like i have rested a good amount, and yet i know that tonight i am in need of more rest. this weekend was pretty chaotic - birthday celebrations with family and friends, as well as more hours than usual at work. and, in the midst of going through life, somehow my attention was turned away from the gospel (yet again...i'm sensing a pattern) and inward toward myself. an overwhelming wave of depression of discouragement overtook me and i began to see all the trees in my life that are not bearing fruit, conveniently overlooking every evidence of the grace of God in my life. i felt justified in my discouragement and frustration, and, while hanging out with addie today, i finally lost it. praise God for her and the truth that she was able to speak to me, reminding me that the weight of the world actually is not on my shoulders. what God is doing in this city is God's work and not mine...i need to rest in that.

so often i make ministry into an idol, something that actually obstructs my view of the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. at the church planting conference i went to, one of the speakers said, "ministry is the only acceptable idol in the church." how true this is. if someone is "doing ministry," often they are actually encouraged to sacrifice relationships with their family, ignore the broken world around them, and even forsake time with the Lord. i have definitely encouraged someone in their pursuit of this idol before...

the gospel becomes distorted like this when i replace Jesus with the idol of ministry: instead of being justified by Christ's work on the cross and resting in his finished work, walking in good works in view of God's grace, i forget Christ and try and justify myself through ministry. i try to contribute to my salvation. i forget God's grace and work for it rather than working out of it.

i can't name how many times i have made ministry into an idol and felt justified because of the great work that i was doing, meanwhile looking down on those that weren't quite as "committed" as i was. how stupid am i?! how sinful is this flesh! and yet i continue to return to the idol of ministry...even this weekend.

its a tough balance for me to try to find out how to walk in good works without making ministry an idol. on the other hand, its hard to rest in God's work without being lazy and unfocused. we're all trying to find that balance, and by God's grace with the help of the Spirit, we can walk in the grace of Jesus Christ.

that's what i'm praying for tonight.

pray - a letter to the church.

Brothers and Sisters,

i don't know about you, but so much of my personal relationship with Jesus has been interwoven with all of you and this whole church thing that we're trying this summer. every time i come to God, i can't help but pray for all of you and ask God not only what he wants me to do, but also what he is calling all of us to do as well.

this morning i have been spending time with God in prayer, and i've been very frustrated. honestly, i feel like we're losing the vision that God has given us. i feel like we've been attacked with the small beginnings of disunity. i feel like i have no clue how to live out what God has called us to. i look at what we are doing right now, and i see some cool stuff. yet when i look at the word of God and the kind of life that it calls us to be living, i see so much more. i have spent the morning searching my heart and realizing how many areas i have fallen short in leading all of you as well as just in my personal relationship with Jesus.

already, although we've only been doing this for a month and a half, there have been numerous times where thoughts have come into my head of giving up. at times i have felt attacked, burdened, and alone - and i've told God that this is too much to handle. yet every time these questions come into my mind of quitting this, God seems to quickly answer.

i'm convinced that, although things aren't ideal at this point, God is behind what we're doing. if it weren't for him in the first place, we'd be done for by now. i see many evidences of his grace in our meetings and in things surrounding what we're doing. yet i know there's more. there's got to be so much more that God's calling us to. i read this verse as i was on the plane flying back from chicago: "For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." 1 Cor. 1:21 as i read this, the idea of worldly wisdom stuck out to me as so stupid. we cannot know God through our own wisdom, and i feel like God is also telling me that we cannot know God's will for this church through our own wisdom either.

this morning, as i've been praying, i have been asking God for his wisdom for what we're doing. i flat out asked him, "what do you want us to do?" because i'm kinda clueless at this point honestly. i felt impressed upon my heart one word: pray.

honestly, i don't want to pray. i'd rather start doing stuff and seeing people come to know Jesus. i feel like for years the church as i know it has used prayer as an excuse for inaction. and yet, i feel like God is calling us to pray - because its not by our wisdom or effort that anything will be accomplished in this city. it's not our strength. it's god's. God's power for God's work. and i feel like if we set aside what we think we should be doing and begin to fast and pray for God to move in our hearts and in this city, this would be the best way of giving God the glory. i trust him when he says that whatever we ask for in his name he will give to us. and when we ask for things to be shaken in the city of salem, i believe that God will hear us.

therefore, pray. when you find yourselves with one another, take a moment to pray for the church in salem and for God to bring people out of darkness and into light. pray for each other. pray for God's spirit to move. sit and wait in God's presence. listen to him. we can't do this with our own strength. it's got to be him.

this week, i will be at the house of prayer every night from 10pm to 11pm praying for all of you and for this city. if you can, please come and join me. let us pray in the belief that God can and will do something great within this city.

blessings,

collin

my journey to where i'm at right now

since school has been out, things have been pretty crazy. i’ve been out of town a lot, and i moved into a house with five other guys. but the thing that has been the craziest is this church that we started. let me tell you a little bit of the story…

i have known for a while that i wanted to be a pastor, but just over the past year, god has been giving me more direction with that. especially over the break, i began to feel more and more of a call toward church planting. so, by God's blessing i was able to go up to seattle in march for the Acts 29 Bootcamp (church planting conference). being up there gave me more of an affirmation on my call toward this, and talking with other church planters was one of the coolest things to do. in my mind i was thinking that planting a church would be a long way down the road. during a Q and A session with some of the planters, one person asked, "what is your advice for a person who wants to plant a church, but doesn't think they will be planting for a few years?" that was me, and i listened intently as they advised me to get plugged into a healthy church and intern there for a bit. so, once i got back, i began attending an Acts29 church in monmouth (which has been awesome). my plan was just to get involved and learn from the pastor over the coure of a couple years...

after the conference, i just continued to try and follow Jesus and reach out to the people at Corban and in Salem. i remember many a conversation that i would have with one of my brothers in the dorm, jesse, that ended with him saying, "man, we should just start a church..." i continued to think that we couldn't do this for a few years.

then, through addie i heard that some people that went to college outside of salem but would be coming back for the summer were frustrated with the fact that they only had about three months to try and get plugged into a church in town...and by that time, they would have to leave. so, i just heard little whispers from sam, addie, and juli about starting something this summer.

the more i thought of this, the more i realized that i would try and do this in the summer even if we didn't call it "church." i have been wrestling with the question of what makes a church a church for some time now, and one of the things that i am convinced of is that church is full of people who have this purposeful relationship. what sets apart a church service from chapel at corban? or a prayer night? there are several things, but i think one of the biggest ones is the relational factor.

thinking about this as well as reading in the bible about how the church really did live in community convinced me that even if we weren't going to call it a church or whatever, i would still be trying to do something similar.

after talking with God, some pastors, and many friends i decided that we should just give it a try - try living out this deep community on mission to salem this summer. my conviction from the beginning was that i wanted for us to do something - not to just sit and talk about Jesus, but to really be Jesus to salem...meeting needs, seeing people's lives transformed by the gospel, and living by faith. so, one day i was sitting there thinking about some stuff and i wrote a date down on the calendar, invited some friends, and began to think about the vision for this thing.

as i thought and prayed about the vision for our church, the words just came to me. literally i was praying for a bit, and then i picked up my pen and wrote this out:

Reconciliation is a missional community sharing, showing and living out the gospel.


i feel like this vision was given to me from God. and the further we get into this thing, the more i see the evidence of the grace of God and his work in creating this.

last thursday night, we kicked things off with an amazing group of 13 people sitting in our living room. as i was in the act of explaining the vision and answering people's questions, the weight of everything began to hit me. we are actually starting a church...what am i doing? i'm 19 years old. this is not how they said to do it at the conference. and now we are almost a week and a half into it. already so much has happened. 

i don't feel at all equipped to lead this. i don't know what i'm doing. i wake up in the morning and just know that i need to pray and read my bible...i need God's wisdom to lead this. i don't feel old enough. i don't feel experienced enough. we don't have any money. we don't have a building. we don't have a church backing us. not very many people even know about this...

but we're going for it. 

we're trying to live this thing out. see, for too long i have been too timid to challenge the norm. i haven't been willing to question things, and instead i have decided to comfortably sit and do things as everyone says they should be done. yet, when i look at the bible, i see church as so much different than we seem to do it...they loved each other so deeply that people couldn't help but want to join in. their lives were transformed by the gospel, and they gave everything they had for it. service, evangelism, giving, etc. wasn't an obligation that the pastor's guilted people into - it was something that they wanted to do because they were so overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. people didn't go to church - they were the church...and they gathered together for celebration and encouragement on a weekly basis. and...people were coming to know Jesus all the time. 

this is some of what i see in the bible, and i want that. i want to live in a community that sacrificially serves each other and that reaches out to the lost together. i want to be surrounded by people that are head over heels in love with Jesus and excited to obey him- not just apathetic. i want to really live in the freedom and joy that is inherent in the gospel.

so, our church (Reconciliation - taken from 2 Corinthians 5:18-21) is going to try to take God at his word and give this thing a try. i realize that we're not doing this right according to the world's standards or according to the christian community's standards - but i think that that is just the reason why God might use us to bring change to this city. the verse that has been playing over and over again in my mind is, "God uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong." our weakness is his strength. i believe that God can use some young, clumsy, bold lovers of Christ to magnify his name in the city of Salem. again, his strength perfected in our weakness.

so, we'll see what God does. its his story, and it is a privilege to be a part of what he's doing. 

vision for summer church

here's the mission statement for "Reconciliation"

Reconciliation is a missional community sharing, showing, and living out the gospel.

and an explanation...

Missional Community – Two elements to this thing. We are a community of redeemed people, which means so much. Community has been insightfully defined as the place where the person you least want to live always lives. Yancy says, “Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community.” As the community of Christ, we love and serve one another sacrificially. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples” (Jn. 13:34). This is the love that the people of God are called to – loving like Christ loved. This means that we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in the church – literally loving them as if they were our own family. This will be difficult, but I believe that by the Holy Spirit’s power, God can form a deep, loving, and authentic community of people in Reconciliation.
The second aspect of this – missional – is inherent both in the nature of the God and the nature of community. To be missional means that we view our context (where we live, play, work, etc.) from a missionary standpoint, embracing the Great Commission of Jesus and obeying his command to be sent into the world (Jn. 20:21). “God is a missionary God, and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people,” writes Tim Chester. We see God reaching out as a missionary to humanity first through Israel – a community. Now, we see God reaching out through the church. And this is what Jesus said, as mentioned above – “By this [your love for one another, i.e. community] all men will know that you are my disciples.” The community God creates in the church is a missional community – it must be. Therefore, we don’t have community for community’s sake. We must share this community with others, and our focus has to be on carrying to message and love of God to all the places that we go.

Sharing – We share the gospel through proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to those we come in contact with. This goes hand in hand with showing the gospel, but it is more important. If we really love those like Jesus did, we will be concerned with both their physical needs and their spiritual needs. Since spiritual needs are more important and last forever, sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus is of utmost importance. Sharing the gospel means making disciples, not just converts. It is in obedience to the Great Commission Jesus gave just before he ascended to heaven – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20).

Showing – We show the gospel through our actions – how we serve and reach out to those in need. Not only does Jesus die for our sins, he also heals the sick and reaches out to the poor, providing for physical needs as well as spiritual. Over and over again God commands us in his Word to care for the poor, orphaned, widowed, needy, and helpless. Showing the gospel means bringing physical and tangible healing into places of brokenness. Reconciliation Church will seek to show the gospel to the city of Salem, making it so that the city and the neighborhood are improved because of the work we do.

Living out – We live out the gospel by growing in holiness – walking in our identity as redeemed children of God. Christ has died for us so that we might live for him and become conformed to his image. Therefore, the Reconciliation community will grow in obedience and live out a life marked by the gospel of Jesus. Instead of having to obey God out of compulsion because of religion, we get to obey God out of joy because of grace. We grow up in our spiritual walk to become conformed to the image of Christ, taking on the perfect characteristics of the Jesus that we follow.

The Gospel – Simply put, the gospel is Jesus Christ. Gospel literally means “good news,” and this is the entire theme of the Bible. At its most basic level, the gospel message is that though we as humans are enemies with God, God sent Jesus to die on our behalf. In Jesus’ death, he took upon himself all of our sin and he gave us his righteousness. We gave him our sin and failure; he gave us his righteousness and perfection. This is unmerited grace. Through Jesus, the way was opened for us to come to Jesus by grace through faith, and just as Jesus was resurrected, so we also have the hope that we will one day be resurrected to find ourselves united with Christ. This gospel, Jesus, is the motivation for why we live, the message we proclaim, and the means by which we can actually live out God’s commandments.

"summer church"

for those of you that are going to be in salem this summer, a few of us are going to start up a "church." we honestly have no clue what is going to happen, but this could be quite an exciting and bumpy ride. I wrote out sort of the vision for the church. you'll find that below. also, we are thinking of calling the church "reconcilation" ("recon" for short)...the idea in this comes from 2 Corinthians 5 - that God reconciled the world to himself through Jesus, making it possible for us to know God. he has also entrusted to us the message of reconciliaton to bring to a hurting world. that's the idea behind the group of people that we'll get together this summer.

basic vision i wrote up:

Here’s the idea. We’ll get a small group of committed people together to live life together this summer with “gospel intentionality." This will be our “church.” We are the church, and we will meet weekly to exalt Christ through hearing the Word of God, praising Christ in music, praying together, taking communion, and encouraging one another. Apart from the weekly meeting, we will simply be living life together – hanging out with each other, serving with each other, caring for each other, and looking to spread the gospel in word and deed with our unsaved friends/other people we meet.

Goals for the summer:
- Glorify God and experience his awesome love
- Grow in our love for Christ and for each other.
- See our group grow from 10 to 25 at Sunday meeting
- Have opportunities to share the gospel and, by God’s grace, see some friends/coworkers come to know Christ
- Serve the poor, hurting, and wounded in the city in a real way.
- Send each other out at the end of the summer and continue to pray/encourage each other through the next year

Core Values: Gospel Focus, Community, Disciple-Making, Service




currently I am not sure when or where we will meet weekly, but that isn't really all that important. the more i look at church in the Bible, the more i think that the emphasis have to come away from events and services and return to loving relationships in the rhythms of daily life.

and, i said gospel a lot in the vision stuff. what is the gospel? it is the good news of Jesus Christ entering into our broken world and redeeming us - realizing that even though we are weak and frail, God chose to love us anyways and has made it possible for all men to come to him. therefore, the gospel is for us, but it is inherently for other people and focused on them. read this article if you're still confused: what's in a name?

please don't mistake this for some cool new thing. its probably not going to be all that cool. but, i'm praying that God will use our foolishness and our often misplaced desire to please him this summer and just do something incredible to affect the city of salem with the gospel. i pray that God will use us weak, ignorant, inexperienced people for some great work of God this summer...and i have faith that he will. he loves to use the weak things in this world to bring glory to his name...

feel free to leave comments/questions/ideas/etc. this is only in its very beginning stages.

women in ministry paper

so i've been writing lots of papers this week...and this one honestly has sparked a lot of conversation. i have written a brief overview of common beliefs on women in the church. i realize that this is in no way comprehensive. thus, i would love to have some discussion on this issue. feel free to leave your comments.

In an era of feminism and political correctness, one of the questions that continues to confront the church is what to do with feminine leadership. For a long time, tension has been very hot on this subject. Pastor John Coleman, in response to the question of if a woman should be a pastor, writes, “No Female Pastors!  No!  No!  No!  Never!  Never! Never!  Does this offend you, (sic) guess who does not care about how you feel.  Get a life in God and all of your problems will dissipate.”[1] Women have reacted to such attitudes, not surprisingly, with their own beliefs and practices. Recently, the United Methodist Church, the second largest denomination in the United States, “will start a campaign to get more woman pastors to lead large churches.”[2] One camp vehemently supports women pastors, and the other fiercely denies them a voice in church. Who is right? What does the Bible have to say about this subject? In this paper, we will look at the biblical evidence concerning female church leadership. Three main views emerge, and I will argue the following: according to the order established at creation, women, as well as most men, are biblically unqualified to be elders. Although they may not be qualified for biblical eldership, women are commanded to and should be involved in nearly all areas of ministry.            The first view that some scholars subscribe to is called “traditionalism.” The basic idea of traditionalism is completely patriarchal. Women are not allowed to be pastors, teach or exercise any authority over man. This includes any form of speaking at church, such as praying or giving announcements. They should literally remain “silent,” and these people cite 1 Corinthians 14:34 for their support, which says, “The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.”^[3]

The biggest problems with a traditional view of a woman’s role in the church come from Paul’s commands given to women. The silence that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians should not be taken as absolute silence. Keener writes, “…[Paul] cannot mean complete silence, because earlier in the same letter he allowed women to pray and prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5).”[4] If one were to look at the whole of the Bible, he would see that women take roles as prophets, apostles, and “fellow workers.” They were even involved in ministry on a verbal level (Priscilla taught and Philip’s daughters prophesied). Hamilton says that women are given examples, authorizations, and commands to participate in some sort of teaching ministry.[5] Therefore, according to biblical evidence, women should not remain completely and absolutely silent.

            A second view called egalitarianism is gaining more and more strength as a reaction to traditionalism and with the feminist movement. This view holds that there are no differences between men and women. Although in the past, males were only allowed to be priests and were the only ones in leadership roles, “there is no male and female,” as Galatians 3:28 says, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”^[6] Another argument presented is that “…if we can accept women as prophets and other ministers, there is no reason to exclude women from the pastoral office.”[7]

            Unfortunately, the egalitarians fail in their interpretation of Galatians 3:28 and write off other commands of Paul as being culturally bound. When Paul speaks of us being “one in Christ,” he is referring to standing in salvation as opposed to a universal indicative. This verse, therefore, has nothing to do with a woman’s role in the church. Also, we cannot write off 1 Timothy 2:11-12 as being culturally bound because Paul appeals to creation order established from the beginning of humanity to support his command (verse 13). So, an egalitarian position on women in ministry must be ruled out.

            The last major view, and the one that I hold to, is called the “male leadership position,” or complementarianism – that men and women have different and complementary roles in church and life. This view recognizes the commands of Paul prohibiting women from teaching (see 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2) as applicable today. It also takes into account the fact that women in the Bible were undoubtedly involved in ministry – even in verbal ministry. In light of this, complementarians believe that women can and should be involved in ministry but not as elders or pastors.

Three main lines of argument are taken. First, Jesus’ example is worthy of noting. He chose twelve men as his apostles and leaders of his church. His apostles followed his example by continuing to appoint male leadership to the churches they established.[8] It seems logical to follow the example of Jesus in appointing only males as elders and leaders of the church.

Secondly, the idea of male headship presented in the Bible points to male eldership. It is clear from Scripture that God designed men to lead their households, and this principle should have some carry-over into the issue of church leadership. Alexander Strauch says, “Since the family is the basic social unit and the man is the established family leader, we should not be surprised that men would be the elders or fathers of the larger, local church family.”[9]

Last, and most convincing, no clear examples of women in church leadership offices are given in the New Testament. Susan Foh writes, “Obviously women had an active role in the spread of the gospel, and it included verbal help…Yet, the New Testament gives no examples of female apostles, evangelists or elders. There are no examples of women teaching in public. The primary figures in the advance of the gospel were men.”[10]

In light of the biblical evidence, it seems most appropriate to limit the eldership to only men – but we must keep in mind that not all men are qualified for eldership either. This is not a misogynistic or chauvinistic biblical concept. It is important to remember that men and women are equal in the image of God and have equal access to the Father through Christ. Moreover, women are to follow the example of Christ in this issue of male headship: Christ was subordinate to the Father as the woman is subordinate to man. This is how God has decided for his Bride to function, and we will find fulfillment and satisfaction in following all that he has commanded us. We must also realize that there are many scholars who disagree on this issue, and we should therefore approach this with humility and an open ear to the arguments of those who do not hold a similar view.

---

[1] See http://www.johnecoleman.org/FemalePastor.htm

[2] See http://www.churchsolutionsmag.com/hotnews/methodists-launch-female-pastors-initiative.html

^[3]1 Corinthians 14:34

[4] James R. Beck and Craig L. Blomberg, ed. Two Views on Women in Ministry, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 50.

[5] Husbands, Mark and Timothy Larsen, ed. Women, Ministry and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007), 37.

^[6] Galatians 3:28

[7] Beck and Blomberg, 46.

[8] Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, (Littleton: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 1995), 52-54.

[9] Ibid., 58.

[10] Bonnidell Clouse and Robert G. Clouse, ed. Women in Ministry: Four Views, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 79.