Ok. Let’s take a drive into Genderville. As we head down Main Street better known as “THE WOMEN’S ISSUE” we soon arrive at town square. Gathered at the courthouse is a wide range of fundamentalists and evangelicals. Most of the Protestants stayed home content with their views and practice (after all, Barbara Brown Taylor and Fleming Rutledge know a thing a two about God, Scripture and preaching). There are four streets that border town sqaure–Scripture, church history, faith tradition, and culture. At the center of the town square is a statue rightly named hermeneutics (method of interpretation). Ironically, in Greek mythology Hermes (HERMEneutics) was the Olympian god of boundaries and the travelers who cross them. So there you have it, Genderville is about crossing boundaries and the travelers who cross the streets to get to the courthouse. In Genderville the local theologians are writing editorials in the GENDER HERALD to eliminate the reactionary phrase, “THE WOMENS ISSUE.” They reason that a rich, fully orbed consideration of both canons of Scripture regarding gender is essential. SImply relying on one of two texts in the New Testament to define church belief and practice is biblically and theologically irresponsible and leads to a truncated application of the gospel. Of course, local pastors from a variey of traditions resonate with much of what the theologians advocate, but come down on varying sides depending on church politics and most of all, keeping the peace and members.
Now that I have stopped the car and crossed several streets I would commend the material by John Mark Hicks, professor at David Lipscomb University, Nashville regarding hermeneutics.
John Mark Hicks, Women Serving God: Hermeneutical Considerations.
My own faith tradition loves going to the courthouse and shouting out “The Bible says…” but herein lies the difficulty, it’s not what the Bible says, but how to interpret what the Bible says. Now we are back to our friend Hermes.
Everyone has an agenda when they drive into Genderville. I certainly do. My agenda is to foster a conversation that gets beyond “pet” passages and captures the spirit of God regarding gender.
In my own city, elders of Irving Bible Church spent 18 months studying the question of women in ministry, including whether women should be allowed to preach. Their key conclusions:
•The accounts of creation and the fall (Genesis 1-3) reveal a fundamental equality between men and women.
•Women exercised significant ministry roles of teaching and leading with God’s blessing in both Old and New Testaments.
•Though the role of women was historically limited, the progress of revelation indicates an ethic in progress leading to full freedom for women to exercise their giftedness in the local church.
•Key New Testament passages restricting women’s roles were culturally and historically specific, not universal principles for all time and places.
•Though women are free to use all of their giftedness in teaching and leading in the church, the role of elder seems to be biblically relegated to men.
SOURCE: Irving Bible Church (See complete article:Dallas Morning News). They arrived at some conclusions. I may or may not agree, but at least they are on the table in Genderville.
What do you think?