Part 1: Today’s Tension: Broad Versus Narrow Complementarianism
Part 2: Different Intuitions and Pastoral Burdens
Part 3: How Do We Move Forward? A Biblical Understanding of Authority and Equality
Part 4: How Do We Move Forward? A Biblical Understanding of Abuse and Gender
Part 5: How Do We Move Forward: A Biblical Understanding of Church and Wisdom
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Part 5: Moving Forward: A Better Understanding of Church and Wisdom
WE NEED TO REMEMBER SCRIPTURE IS SUFFICIENT FOR OUR CHURCH AND MINISTRY STRUCTURES
I believe the Bible establishes two offices: elders/pastors/overseers and deacons. I also believe it limits the role of elder to qualified men, while men and women both can serve as deacons (or, if one prefers for women, deaconesses).
What then shall we say a missions committee chairman is? An executive leadership team? A youth pastor who is not an elder? A women’s ministry director? A pastoral search committee member? Do those positions come out of the elder bucket or the deacon bucket?
The trouble, of course, is that many churches don’t have a sharply defined understanding of what an elder or a deacon is. Plus, the Bible says nothing about these other positions. As
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