....And the Man Is the Head of a Woman

I know the subject matter of this morning's sermon wasn't a ball-of-fire, dynamic topic. But, as we walk through an important book like 1 Corinthians, it's equally important that we cover all God is saying through these Scriptures. So today's topic was more of a doctrinal statement as I really felt the need to lay a firm foundation for the verses that follow.

All things considered, I rather have been down in the Caribbean, sitting on a beach and letting someone else cover the hard and controversial stuff. Being the preaching Pastor is a two edged sword, I get to preach every week, a huge blessing and a true joy. But, being an expositor, I can't "just skip over" the rougher passages and do the easy ones.

I also realize that this subject has not been addressed from our pulpit in the past. For the sake of clarity and in order to avoid any misunderstanding in the future, it was necessary for a clear and concise statement to be made. I believe, if we are indeed going to be Bereans, that we should be able to boldly speak those truths we mine from our studies of the Bible.

That being said, we should also understand this: there are some areas of Scripture that are not as clear as we would like them to be. I think this is true because God intended from the start to allow flavor and distinction among the churches that call on His name. All you have to do to see that this is true is to take a quick overview of the Church at Corinth, the Church at Ephesus, the Church at Galatia, etc. They were unique, diverse and godly churches who did not always agree on minor points of doctrine, those things apart from the 'Essentials' I talked about today.

That's OK. It's OK to disagree on issues that are not absolutely foundational to our faith. In order to call ourselves Christian churches, we have to be able to agree on the doctrines of: the Trinity, salvation by faith through Christ alone, Biblical innerancy, the Virgin birth, the resurrection, original sin and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. These are the cornerstones of our faith.....the non-negotiables of what we believe as Christians, the things that bind us together as the Body of Christ.

There are plenty of folks who share a belief in the essentials listed above but may have different doctrinal positions on some other issues (the place of women in ministry, the expression of the gifts, how to baptize, when to baptize, Calvinism, Armenianism, etc.). We should be careful not to exclude those folks from being members of the Body of Christ. They are! They are, as well, our brothers and sisters in Christ. They have chosen to interpret certain passages of Scripture differently than we do. A long as we all agree on the non-negotiables, as listed above, we should all be working for the same God with the same goal, His glory and the expansion of his kingdom here on Earth.

As for us at WBF, I said it this morning. For the sake of order in our services, for the sake of going forward in unity, the Elders have to take a stand on passages like 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 or 1 Timothy 2:12-14. Waffling in these areas today can only cause confusion and frustration in the future. Our best interpretation of the Scriptures, after careful study and prayer, is that the office of Elder and Pastor should be occupied by men. I hope to demonstrate over the coming weeks that this should free us up in many other areas for women to use their giftings and talents in service to the Lord and to the congregatoin at WBF.

We're not looking at massive upheaval in the way we do things at WBF. In all actuality, very little will change but all of us will be able to go forward knowing not just what our position is, but why we occupy that position.

I ran across this article on feminism this afternoon. "Confessions of a Recovering Feminist". It's a great read and very timely, considering our topic this morning.