“When the standards of Christian leadership are all feminine, the individuals most obviously qualified to be Christian leaders will be women. And so this poses a dilemma — why should we exclude women from leadership when they are so obviously qualified for what we call leadership? At that point we divide, with some calling for …
The Spirit of the Age Stretched Across the Room
“The left-wing anti-Calvinists were the Unitarians, who captured Harvard in 1805. The right-wing anti-Calvinists were the revivalists, typified by leaders such as Charles Finney, who were greatly swelled with a humanistic, democratic spirit which they all thought was the Holy Ghost” (Mother Kirk, pp. 202-203).
Jury-Rigged Women
“The answer is that we do not want feminine leadership; we want more feminine leadership. The men in our pulpits for many years have been simply jury-rigged women; when the request come to bring in the real thing, on what principle will the request be denied? We cannot say that we must have masculinity in …
Conservatives Are Stuck With What They Read
“Often a liberal is far more honest in handling the text than is an evangelical. This is because the evangelical is stuck with the results of his exegesis. The liberal can say that the apostle Paul taught the headship of the man in marriage, and wasn’t that silly? The evangelical, trying to keep up with …
Rabbis in Trousers
“Now of course, Christ was not requiring rabbis to wear trousers (everyone wore robes) any more than He was requiring them to be cranky and sullen in the marketplaces, refusing to return greetings. As mentioned above, the point of His warning was the common temptation to have an undue love of such things. But He …
Rev. On My Good Days?
“But Christ was insistent that the leadership of the Church must never pursue honor through the use of titles. The leaders of the Church are to be distinguished and set apart, but this is to happen through service and self-sacrifice. Pastors have to avoid the common sin of wanting to be known as a servant …
A Grand Mystery
“In short, we should be fully convinced in our own minds concerning those conditions in our own families which would cause us voluntarily to step down, and those conditions in the life and household of another that would justify a fight at presbytery. Whatever we understand Paul to be saying, our standards of application should …
Oceans of Beer
“Thus a man who slept with twenty women before his conversion, but was enough of a jerk not to marry any of them, is thought to be qualified for eldership after his conversion, but a man who married one woman and was divorced from her before his conversion is thought to be automatically disqualified. This …
Not Counting Rocks
“These passages describe required personal attributes and character — they are not a mechanical checklist. Paul and Peter require us to find a certain kind of man. This is important for many reasons, but early among them is that the elders are responsible to replenish their own ranks, and in order to find a certain …
Candidates and Incumbents
“Put another way, the widespread neglect of elder qualifications certainly trivializes an office which the Bible says should be held in honor. But willingness to remove elders too quickly can have the same result. A young woman considering a suitor may legitimately decline his attentions for (comparatively) minor reasons. Those same reasons are not sufficient …