Month: March 2017

Why I’d submit to an egalitarian, not complementarian, man. And why complementarianism can never truly value women.

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Enough Light

The observations in this post are based on my experience with egalitarian and complementarian men in both face-to-face and online settings. There are exceptions to the following, however the majority of instances fit the pattern.

I have not experienced respect from complementarian men, rather I am patronized by them. My opinions and abilities are not valued or taken seriously. My spouse can attest to this, as he has observed first-hand the condescending treatment. However, egalitarian men have treated me with respect. I’ve actually been overwhelmed by the respect I have been shown. My input has not only been sought out, but valued.

And this got me thinking about an irony. If these egalitarian men believed in unilateral male leadership and female submission (which they don’t), I would actually have no problem submitting to such men and being led by them!

But the complementarian men? Based on their disrespectful and patronizing…

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Stop Assuming Someone Else Will Do It

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Samaritan's Song

Yesterday in church, I was seated about three rows behind an elderly man who is a mainstay in the congregation during morning worship.

He walks with a walker and has mobility issues; aides get him in and out of the sanctuary.  Once he sits, he struggles to get back up again, and he can’t shift or move around very easily.  I’ve always admired that in spite of this, I can set my clock by his regular attendance.

As the service got underway, he dropped a small clipboard over the arm of the pew.  I saw it fall; I watched him look over at it, frustrated, and then slowly begin to maneuver his walker in an attempt to bring the clipboard a little closer so that he could pick it up.  Assuming someone else in one of the rows directly behind him would help, I didn’t stir.

And then, as he…

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Only the Blind Man Could See

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The Millennial Pastor

John 9:1-41

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (Read the whole passage)

Out of the sun and into the mud.

We have been on journey this lent through various familiar places of Jesus ministry. The wilderness of the desert of temptation. The darkness of Nicodemus’s questions by night. The bright noon day heat of the woman at the well and her isolation. Jesus continues on his journey through the lives of unsuspecting people, moving towards their questions, breaking their walls, and today helping them to see.

This Lenten season has shown us the movement of God towards creation. We have seen that God is beginning a new thing in the identity of Christ, despite the tempter’s wondering if Jesus is…

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Unlearning A Perverted Gospel

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Bread for the Bride

There are all kinds of ways to hear the gospel.  We may hear it in a church, from someone speaking on TV or radio, or perhaps by direct conversation with another person.  ‘Faith comes by hearing’ is a maxim drummed in to us from very early in our Christian journey.  We hear, through faith the Spirit enables us to believe, and we cross over that invisible line from unbeliever to believer.  The journey begins.

But what if hearing the gospel and receiving the gospel are not the same thing?  What if the gospel that now makes its way across the airwaves, or is preached from the pulpit, or is conveyed by word of mouth has become so distorted and limited that it bears hardly any resemblance to the pure and measureless gospel delivered by Jesus Christ Himself?

Paul didn’t mince words when challenging the Galatian Christians with this very question.

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