Well, we just baptised our first man from Worcester. It was a good baptism although he has a long way to go. I think he'll do well.Tomorrow he stays at home while the other men trek off to a leader's meeting. Sounds cruel? He'll be getting some leadership training of his own. In our church we hold to the basic teaching that men carry authority in a church household. Now, in reality, authority is won by the respect given to and the conviction of the person who holds it, whether they be male or female, but there is great significance in men learning to lead from the front. So tomorrow, as we leave for the meeting, this young disciple will be charged with leading the prayer time before the day's main meal. A small responsibility perhaps, but when you've never done anything like that before, and when there are several other mature sisters there, with far greater clout (in Christ) than you, it is an awesome and humbling thing to do. And it is a great initiation into the reality that as a man you will always be relied upon to look after and speak out for others - this is why it is so important for shy men to learn to lead from the front in humility.
I am told it is also "a means of grace" from the sisters to the brother - they hand over their right to be self autonomous to the brother and so he learns that he has to be responsible for others. The sisters don't have to do that, but in doing so they are bringing great strength and encouragement to him.
The elders meeting itself should be good tomorrow, it being the start of a new year. There will be opportunity to review our journey with God over the past twelve months and hear His Spirit for the time ahead, an important time of consecration I imagine.
Photo by Phil H of flickr.com
"In our church we hold to the basic teaching that men carry authority in a church household"
ReplyDeletePut it basically forget the waffle you practice gender discrimination which is just as abhorrent as racism or slavery is it not ? No matter how many fancy words or bible quotes you like to quote to justify a vile pratice.
http://www.ccel.us/place.ch1.html
If you change the emphasis to make it something it is not then you can make it sound as evil as you wish... but unfortunately that is seeing a problem where there is none. In our church women carry authority too; still, we emphasise the role of men because Jesus did (through his choice of apostles)and so did the church he founded.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
HI Jean - as one of the 'mature sisters' in the household I find it very thrilling when young men come round and start to take responsibility and lead. Gender distinction is very different from gender discrimination and something very beautiful. I find a lot of freedom to express my life in Christ and my own spiritual authority as a woman and enjoy seeing our young brothers grow into their God appointed authority
ReplyDeleteas men. Everything about us - physically and in our souls shouts that men and women are made differently - if we believe that God created us then lets celebrate the differences He made
Jean is right. Jesus used males because there was nowhere a woman could speak in his world. It may not be a matter of discrimination as such but equity, pace in your household women are responsible for the domestic tasks (that is not to say they do not whip men into doing the washing up at times). It still remains a question of power and who wields it.
ReplyDeleteNo it's not a question of power - because (human) power is the opposite of love. As Christians we seek to love which means we cast off all notions, conscious or otherwise, of who is in charge and we seek to serve. Jesus told us that whoever wants to be great must be a servant. You have not seen this from Jesus' perspective, who himself became the servant of all. Therefore in our house everyone serves and everyone is equal and everyone is loved. The common idea that everything must be the same for people to be equal is ridiculous, only by giving up what rights you have can you make someone else of equal, no, of greater value than you.
ReplyDeleteUntil society realises this it will never achieve an order of love, there will always be inequity and the abhorrent will always be with you.
While I do not dispute your comments, Tschaka, why is it always the masculine gender which must be in leadership? I still maintain that it is a question of power. I do not believe that any deity has a gender, a concept the Greeks took to a point of ridicule with their gods' behaviour thrown in. Believers in Jehovah, Jews, Christians, Moslems, all have wanted to make Eli, Allah, Jah, a masculine entity, and from that concept men insist that women must take second place. Thus the authority of the wimpiest of men is established, and regretably there are very few who view the situation as you do, perhaps because so few appreciate the concept of love as you do, Tschaka.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that, and we must be careful not to ignore the feminine aspects of God:
ReplyDelete"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."
The difficulty here is that we're not talking about paid posts of leadership - if leadership is a job with specific duties then a woman can do it as well as a man (that's why the Anglican church is in trouble). Spiritual leadership (the leadership of souls) is more organic (like that of a marriage or family) and both men and women have a role, but in this particular aspect a man would not follow a woman continually and I wouldn't expect him to do so. However, it is to be expected that both men and women be leaders among their peers, and I would encourage any woman with ambition to lead to go for it and test her mettle. If she succeeds she will influence both women and men - I speak from my own experience and admiration of the women who have influenced me.
(NB. I'm not sure how this argument tallies with the fact that you can also find female tribal leaders, including in the bible. We are foolish if we pretend that women are of little significance. Quite the opposite, they are of great worth. As General Booth said: "Some of my best men are women.")
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