Gentle Reader,
Complementarianism: All people in Christ are equal. The members of the church are not all gifted and called in the same way – the Holy Spirit gives and shapes as He wills, for the good and proper functioning of the community – but all are called and qualified to use their gifts in the ministry of the church. Men are gifted specifically in leadership roles, women in supportive roles. In the marriage relationship, husbands are to lead while women are to submit.
Related Concepts and/or Examples
Complementarianism for Dummies – a primer on the term/movement, written by one of the founders of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womahood.
4 Dangers for Complementarians – potential pitfalls
What is Submission? – explains what it means for a woman to submit
Women’s Roles in the Church – an interview of Wayne Grudem
* Had to include this bonus video, a talk given by Jen Wilkin at the Summit Institute. Take an hour and watch/listen. Very worth it, even if you aren’t complementarian. *
For all entries in the 31 Days of Feasting on Theology series, go here.
One body, many gifts
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True. I just wish that complementarians didn’t make the mistake of believing that one gender gets one kind of gift while the other gender gets a different kind. There are far too many exceptions for that to be the rule.
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Thirty years ago, after I toured a Christian school and saw on a blackboard that girls were given the task of being “hostesses” while boys were entrusted with “moving chairs,” I decided then and there that I was not going to expose my children to that kind of narrow, stifling, soul-destroying mindset. Now here we are, in the year of our Lord 2017, and it sickens me that there is still the need in the Christian community to discuss whether or not June Cleaver epitomizes the ideal Christian woman, or to defend the idea that, yes, women and men are equal in the sight of God. Back in 1987, I thought surely to goodness by now we would be further ahead than we are today.
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