MINNESOTA COUNCIL FOR BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP

I was unable to attend the Minnesota Council for Biblical Leadership (a local offshoot from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) meeting last week because of obligations to another conference, but Joe Smith kindly passed on the notes from the meeting. I am looking forward to the next meeting!

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Pastor’s Summit
August 11, 2005

Hamlet V. opened in prayer.

There is a conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center in January that you encouraged to attend.

The tentative name of our committee is the Minnesota Council for Biblical Leadership. A positive response was received.

Irv W. gave a review of biblical leadership.

Authoritarianism vs. Egalitarianism vs. Complementarianism.
-We are created to help each other.
-Reviewed the chart of three positions of men and women listed on the agenda and in Wayne Grudems’s book.
-Men need help to see what roles they are playing—they may not realize the role they are filling, as it may be unintentional.

How does biblical leadership impact missions? What can leaders do to inculcate biblical leadership into the missionary outreach of the church?
-In the smaller churches, i.e. Oasis, this doesn’t seem to come up
-Do you think that we just ignore the issue?

• It is common that churches will choose not to address controversial issues.

-In missions organizations, and out on the mission field there are many women that are involved in leadership and in dominant roles.
-There is great wisdom in understating the stages of development and maturation of the church around the world. It is easy enough for us to sit around the table and make decisions for our church and come up with ideas about churches around the world, but we don’t know what is going on outside the USA. If there are no men to fill the roles, then bless the women that fill the roles.
-Our commitment to Complementarianism cannot be assumed for people around the world if they do not have the resources that we do.
-How do we differentiate within our own country? What do we do in the United States when there are no men to step up in leadership?

• There is a process always in place to train those that come into the congregation, for example.

• Call a defect a defect and make a point to work on it. It won’t change today, but it has to be on the list to change.

-There needs to be understanding and change to be occurring in order to expose people to the biblical truths of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
-A re-education needs to occur that will challenge the thinking of those being ministered to. Women can be and should be used in these roles.

How Complementarianism affects the “sending” issues of missions?

There should be a responsibility that falls to us as leaders in the church to raise up men to be leaders.

We need to address the issues; to allow them to be on the table.

We are a culture of extremes. Right now we have cultivated a culture of usurper women and wimpy men. Men and women need to be taught the correct biblical roles they should play. Men need to be taught to be men of God and it’ll flush out the system as a whole.

What we export becomes a model (going back to the missions questions). If the church is beginning to raise up Christians in these new areas, we must follow the plan laid out by Paul and the first church in Acts. It is also necessary to follow the model of leaders as laid out in Timothy. It is important to train up men to become leaders, even if women are the ones discipling believers.

Examples of missions organizations that have been led by women but as the disciples rise up, so must men in leadership roles.

What kind of missionaries are we sending? What if they don’t espouse this position? Do we address it or ignore it?
-We must have a standard for our missionaries, church planters, and staff
-What do we do with women missionaries? What message are you sending with a single women missionary to the culture she is being sent to?
-How are we viewing missions vs. church planting?

• Is there any place in scripture that shows a woman that isn’t under headship? Even widows are under headship of the church.

-Somehow God has called up women to be great missionaries to the world. God may somehow recognize being under authority as an attitude. Some women find themselves ordained, called and bless by God to accept a role to bear the good news. They are under that authority—they are not doing it for the exaltation of women or for their own blessing. They are doing it for the glory of God and under His leadership. In spite of whatever understanding we come to in regards to the scripture, God can and does use those that aren’t as far along in our development to his tasks.
-We need to be very cautious to bear in mind that God is well pleased to use women along the way to continue development of the church--- though it may not square with our training.
-God can wonderfully use things that aren’t ideal—all of us! Not always necessarily the model, but God can use all things.

Should we send out single women as missionaries?
-Maybe it isn’t a theological issue, but it is now a wisdom issue.
-There are ways you can send single women to a mission field being wise, by providing them with families or other missionaries in the area.
-We don’t want to promote sending out single ladies knowing what we now know.
-It seems unwise for a church to send them out without some sort of covering or protection.
-In most other cultures, outside of Western culture, the women are not independent.
-A distinction to make—it is wise to make this decision (not sending single women) but it is not the rule.
-We wouldn’t have as big an issue of sending women out as we would a woman becoming an elder or pastor in the mission field or church plant.
-Missionaries that are coming up through training ranks must be trained in Complementarianism.
-If a woman says “God is calling” what right do we have to say that “God is not calling.”

• oAs the church we cannot automatically endorse it. The church has a responsibility to be faithful to their calling.

• The church must affirm the calling and plug her in the safest way possible.

• Then do we pull back from our messages of evangelism when women are around?

• You would not invalidate women; we just wouldn’t encourage a woman to be a “leader.” We would empower women to fill the roles that God has called them to.

When we have the discussions and as this issue becomes more public, we need to be very careful to make it clear that we maintain a belief but we are not trying to put out every fire that we ever see. We stand by our beliefs, but we do not need to make everyone adapt to our beliefs.

If nothing else, these meetings cause us to think and bring things back to the standard.

October 20th @ CEFC, we will talk about Para church agencies, Christian schools and seminaries.

Announcement via Steve G.: November 2, a group is organizing a “Christ in culture” daylong seminar to address the issue of the roles in church regarding the sanctity in marriage. It will be held at Grace Church, Eden Prairie. There will be excellent speakers mobilizing pastors in the role of the voice for the sanctity of marriage. Information will be coming in the mail.

Justin H., CEFC intern, closed in prayer.