"When half the church holds back--whether by choice or because we have no choice--everybody loses and our mission suffers setbacks. Tragically, we are squandering the opportunity to display to an embattled world a gospel that causes both men and women to flourish and unites us in a Blessed Alliance that only the presence of Jesus can explain.
-Half the ChurchWe are living in a time when women have unprecedented opportunity--but men and women are still trying to figure out how to work together best in their homes, in their workplace...and especially in the church. Perhaps, like me, you will read Half the Church and come to believe that the gospel transcends the roles and categories with which we like to define ourselves.
God's Kingdom is advancing. The question is, are men and women cooperating in a fashion in which the body of Christ will simply limp along...or will we come together to do battle, presenting the whole gospel to the whole world?
Your turn. Biblically speaking, what do you believe is God's primary mission for women in His Kingdom?
Come back next Wednesday, April 6, to win a copy of Half the Church. (valued at $18.99)
I'm looking forward to reading your review, and this book! I just read The Blue Parakeet, and Scot McKnight makes some similar points. (I hope to have the review posted soon.)
ReplyDeleteBut as to your final question, I'm to the point where my answer has to be this: His primary mission for women is the same as His primary mission for men: to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as we love self (Luke 10); and as a function of that love, to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28).
How could it be otherwise?
What Pam said.
ReplyDelete@PamandErin Exactly! Those are the New Testament purposes given to us by Jesus, the one who sets all things right again.
ReplyDeleteThe background is that in the Genesis account, God gives Adam and Eve a mandate to a) be fruitful and multiply and b) rule and subdue the earth. As you'll see in the book review, we can be fruitful whether we bear children or not and we (man and woman) are responsible for caretaking, stewarding, and being creative (as God is creative) in all of our endeavors.
We do this together, man and woman. We are God's A-team.
And BTW, the Blue Parakeet was extremely helpful to me in understanding what women did in the Bible accounts.
Amen and amen!! I am so looking forward to reading this book. (Read faster, Pam!)
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