Why Redeemed Family of Ministers Advocates Complementarianism

TG4 leaders Mark Dever, J. Ligon Duncan III, Albert Mohler Jr. and C.J. Mahaney all are committed complementarians. The statement below was written by J. Ligon Duncan, giving T4G's rationale for embracing complementarianism. To which we say "AMEN!"

One, the denial of complementarianism undermines the church's practical embrace of the authority of Scripture (thus eventually and inevitably harming the church's witness to the Gospel). The gymnastics required to get from "I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man," in the Bible, to "I do allow a woman to teach and to exercise authority over a man" in the actual practice of the local church, are devastating to the functional authority of the Scripture in the life of the people of God.


Two, and following on the first point, the church's confidence in the clarity of Scripture is undermined, because if you can get egalitarianism from the Bible, you can get anything from the Bible. Paul may be excruciating to read aloud and hear read in a dominant feminist culture, but he's not obscure in his position! In 1 Tim 2:11-12 he says, "A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." Elsewhere, in 1 Cor 14:34-35, we find the confirming parallel to this previous pronouncement: "The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church." These verses (and many others) are uncomfortably clear and certainly politically incorrect, and though some of us may be consoled by "exegesis" that shows that they don't really mean that women can't preach, teach, rule in the church, yet there remains this nagging feeling that such interpretive moves are the victory of present opinion over clear but unpopular biblical teaching. Cultural cooption of the church's reading of the Bible robs the church's ability to speak prophetically to the culture and to live distinctively in the culture, which in turns undermines the church's Gospel witness.


Three, because the very ideal of equality championed by egalitarianism (whether secular or Christian) is a permutation of a particular strand of Enlightenment thought, and because this particular ideal of equality is actually alien to the biblical anthropology and ethic, whenever and wherever it is read into the text of Scripture and its principles are worked out consistently, there is a competition with a biblical view of manhood and womanhood. For instance, try to find this view of equality in Genesis 1-it's just not there. Consequently, commitment to evangelical egalitarianism opens the door for two competing but incompatible ethical norms and ideals within the individual, family and church. If the egalitarian impulse wins out, the church is compromised precisely at the point where paganism is assaulting the church today. For, as Peter Jones has brilliantly demonstrated, paganism wants to get rid of Christian monotheism by getting rid of the Creator-creature distinction. And one way paganism likes to do that is through gender confusion-hence, the bi-sexual shaman, the sacred feminine, goddess worship, etc. Paganism understands that one of the best ways to prepare the way for pagan polytheistic monism over against the transcendent Creator God of the Bible is to undermine that God's image in the distinctiveness of male and female, and in the picture of Christ and the church in marital role distinctions, and in the male eldership of the church. Egalitarianism is just not equipped for that fight, and in fact simply capitulates to it.


Four, when the biblical distinctions of maleness and femaleness are denied, Christian discipleship is seriously damaged because there can be no talk of cultivating distinctively masculine Christian virtue or feminine Christian virtue. Yes, there are many Christian ethical norms that are equally directed and applicable to male and female disciples, but there are also many ethical directives in the NT enjoined distinctly upon Christian men as men and Christian women as women. Furthermore, the NT (and the Bible as a whole) recognizes that men and women are uniquely vulnerable to different kinds of temptations, and thus need gender-specific encouragement in battling against them in the course of Christian discipleship. Evangelical egalitarianism, fearful as it is that any acknowledged difference between men and women could set the stage for inequality of role or status, is utterly unprepared to help the believer with these distinctive commands or temptations.
Egalitarian discipleship of Christian men and women has, then, an inherent androgynous bias. But that is not how God made us. He made us male and female. Thus, Paul warns Christian men against the soul-peril of "effeminacy" without in any way criticizing (and, indeed, admiring and encouraging) the "femininity" of women.

We need masculine male Christians and feminine female Christians, and that kind of discipleship requires an understanding of and commitment to complementarianism. Hence, denial of complementarianism compromises Gospel discipleship.


For these reasons and more, I think we were right to "deny that any church can confuse these issues without damaging its witness to the Gospel."

http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Why-Together-for-the-Gospel-Embraces-Complementarianism?

Unhealthy Church Environments

Many authors and researchers have attempted to describe unhealthy church patterns and the leaders who create them. One of the major points for concern involves the critical issue of honest communication.

Charactered leaders advocate open, transparent and straight forward communication throughout the ministry.They promote a culture of accountability by inviting any and all questions relating to personal, ministerial and leadership integrity. These will be responded to with "straight up" answers while purposefully affirming the congregants asking the questions. Anything less than this should give every member pause about the health of the church and the trustworthiness of it's leadership.

Therefore, after reviewing several of the more prominent writings on the subject, I have extracted their substantive comments on the subject.

[rgh]

>Communications are ambiguous, events
are "spun" the way the leadership wants to present them. Pertinent information is
hidden from members. Straight answers are not given; different people may be told
different things.

Finances may be kept secret, with misleading financial statements that hide where
the money really goes.

Frankly, there is so much dishonesty in unhealthy... churches that people may not
even know they are being dishonest. The ability to "spin" things to make the system
look better or to get people to conform becomes a second language....

>People who identify problems are viewed as a threat. They are marginalized,
stigmatized and cast out of the system.


>Thought Control....simple answers to complex questions, and using "loaded language"
to shunt the thinking process.

> Their communication is not straight. Their speech becomes especially vague and
confusing when they are defending themselves.

>Information Control- information enables people to make decisions; hiding
information prevents sound decision making and leads to manipulation.

>Secretive- When you see people...being secretive-- watch out. People don't hide
what is appropriate; they hide what is inappropriate

Who Tithes These Days?

Scott McKnight shares,"You might be surprised what the numbers tell us about who and who doesn't tithe. In "What Americans Really Believe" we get a pretty full disclosure of some significant facts about tithing."

Fact #1: poor people are more likely to tithe and give a higher percent of their income that wealthy people. Thus, Americans who make 10,000 or less give 11.2% of their income, while those who make 150,000+ give 2.7% of their income. There is a basic descent of percent of income given from the poor to the wealthy.

Fact #2: denominationally, the spectrum moves from Catholics (2.2%) to Lib Prots (3.0) to Cons Prots (5.5) to Black Prots (5.7) to Mormons (7.1) in percent of income given to the church. The percent giving a tithe goes like this: RCC (2.5), Libs (5.9), Cons (14.4), Black Prots (13.5) to Mormons (34.0).

Fact #3: those who tithe or who give more correlate with such things as church attendance.

After the jump, two more interesting facts:

Fact: widows and widowers are the most likely to tithe: 20.1% widows vs. 16.7 widowers tithe.

Fact: older people are more likely to tithe. The average age of an American tither is 54.1 yrs.


Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2010/06/who-tithes-these-days.html#ixzz0qTumS7EC

Many Ministers- Few Churches

Wow! Ministry Today Magazine reveals that Protestant Ministers are having a difficult time with opportunities in local church service. Seems there are approximately two ministers for every congregation.

I personally think this dilemma could be greatly reduced through the formation of missional church palnting teams.

RGH

"There are more than 600,000 ministers in the United States, but only 338,000 churches, according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. This is causing a glut of qualified but unemployed pastors, especially as church attendance in many mainline denominations continues to slide.

Smaller congregations are being hit particularly hard because they typically have more trouble finding funds during bad economic times. Many are now unable to afford a full-time minister. With the average church attendance in the United States at 75 people, these small churches are now being forced to either pay their minister less or use part-time clergy.

"There's lots of really good pastors out there who are having a terrible time," Phil Leftwich, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee, told The Tennessean. Among Presbyterians, there are four pastors looking for work for every one job opening."

http://www.ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-news/65-news-main/18927-tough-job-market-for-protestant-pastors