I suggest that the testimony of the whole body of Scripture encouraged woment in positions of leadership, but that the role of women in leadership must take into account cultural limitations.
From an interpretation of I Timothy 2: 12, and 1 Corinthians 14:35, we have two options. Either we require that women never teach men and totally keep silent in every educational situation, or we understand the passage as a restriction of particular first-century women in their cultural setting. If women are to remain silent in churches, then we should exclude women from the choir, congregational singing, and from the nursery. If God intended that women never teach men, as a universal ethical moral principle, then we would expect the rest of Scripture to support the restriction. Yet we find many examples of women teaching men. The prophetess Huldah proclaimed the word of God to the king Josiah and the High Priest Hilkiah, while her husband was in charge of the wardrobe (2 Chronicles 34:22). It is quite possible that the apostle Paul was taught by the four unmarried daughters of Philip (Acts 21: 9). Moses was taught by the prophetess Miriam (Exodus 15:20). Deborah was not only a prophetess but a judge and she commanded an army general (Judges 4:4). Jesus chose women to be the first to proclaim the Good News of the resurrection to the apostles. There are many more examples.
There are not only biblical reasons to encourage women to take a stronger role in leadership, there are also theological reasons. The royal priesthood of all believers includes women. Women have direct access to God, and God communicates directly with women who then have the obligation to communicate with others. Spiritual gifts are given to all believers, and there is no indication that some of the gifts are masculine and others feminine.
Biblical leadership is never dictatorial control over people. Even the God of creation gives people free will. Leaders are not dictators but influencers. Leaders take initiative to use their spiritual gifts to influence the Body of Christ, and the world. In this important sense of the word leadership, all Christian women are expected to be leaders.
Thus to make 1 Timothy 2: 12 a universal moral principle, one is forced to deny the plenary (or whole) inspiration of Scripture. If we hold a plenary view of the inspiration of Scripture we must not limit the role of women, or men, in leadership except for reasons of cultural appropriateness.
But, cultural relativity is not absolute relativity. There are absolute biblical principles of graciousness and cultural sensitivity that make it inappropriate for men or women to teach or assert authority in some cultural situations. If I were to write a book on Muslim ministry, I might write, "it is not good for men to hold Bible studies in the homes of Muslim women." I should not feel that my personhood as a male is being violated just because there are times when it is not appropriate for me to use my spiritual gifts of Bible teaching. There may be some cultural situations where women should graciously decline to use their God-given gifts in teaching for the sake of the gospel. Our strategy in using men and women must be sensitive to cultural expectations.
Forces within evangelical Christian education today attempt to polarize us. Some are trying to unbiblically and inappropriately limit the role of women in Christian education. If these forces gain influence the Body of Christ will suffer. Other forces demand that women play a dominant role no matter what the cultural expectations. The use of gifts by men and women is not the ultimate purpose of ministry. Spiritual gifts for women and men are only a means for edifying the Church.
We must have a unqualified commitment to all of Scripture. Where Scripture is clear we must be dogmatic, but where Scripture is unclear, we are unbiblical to be dogmatic. The role of women in teaching and leadership is not without possibility of several interpretations. We need patience with people who argue on either side of the debate as long as they argue from a high view of Scripture. We must continue the conversation with a love for the Word, and a love for one another even while we disagree.
The Body of Christ is under attack. I fear that we are not using all our God-given resources. Let us put the whole armor of God on the whole Body of Christ. We must grow toward Christlikeness as the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament. We can only build up the body of Christ as each part does its work in love.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Serving With Eyes Wide Open
Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence.
David A. Livermore. Baker Books, P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287. 2006, 188 pages, $12.99.
Reviewed for EMQ by James E. Plueddemann, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL.
“The world is crawling with foreigners,” exclaimed a student in one of my cross-cultural communication classes. Cultural intelligence is often missing in the 4 million Americans who travel abroad each year to do short-term mission work. While there are several good resources to help short-term missionaries know how to apply for a passport and where to get yellow-fever shots, Serving with Eyes Wide Open is based on solid research and fills an important gap in the literature. It is a most readable book with many examples to help short-termers understand cultural pitfalls and gain cultural intelligence.
David Livermore begins with a succinct overview of the world and the global Church. It is important for short-term missionaries to realize that the Church outside of the United States is growing rapidly, often faces persecution, recognizes spiritual warfare and is becoming a major sending force. Such an overview may help overcome the “here I am you lucky people” complex.
The next section looks at the motivation for short-term missions. I am impressed with the balance in this section. From his own experience, Livermore points out the shallow motivation that drives many short-term missionaries. He gives sad but humorous examples of what pastors from the United States thought they were teaching and compares it to what the national pastors actually thought of the teaching. He describes misunderstandings between short-termers and host people in the use of time, the urgency of the task and oversimplification of complex situations. He is concerned that too often short-termers parachute into what they perceive as a backward culture, distribute goods and then retreat.
“Open your eyes!” is the continual challenge of this book. Readers will find practical steps for gaining cultural understanding in four areas. Short-term missionaries need to gain knowledge of basic cultural differences. Then using this knowledge they can interpret cues about what is really going on in the other culture. Livermore encourages perseverance as short-termers deal with confusing situations, and gives practical advice on how to behave while applying the above three principles in another culture.
Livermore concludes with a powerful chapter on “The Heart of the Matter,” doing missions out of a genuine love for people and for God. If short-term missionaries can love the people to whom they minister they will treat them with dignity and respect. If they serve because of their love for the Lord, they will avoid a self-serving motivation and focus on genuine service.
Finally I have an accessible book on short-term missions that I can use as a textbook and also give to our youth director as she prepares a group from our church to spend two weeks in Brazil. The book is grounded in research by respected theorists such as Geert Hofstede, Robert Levine, Edward T. Hall and Robert Kohls, yet the book is written for the layperson with compelling examples and insights from practical experience. Many books on short-term missions are either descriptions of the “nuts and bolts” of how to lead a team, or are naïf propaganda extolling the virtues of the so called “next paradigm in world missions.” Serving with Eyes Wide Open is written with a perceptive understanding of the dangers and problems of short-term missions. It also gives a sense of hope by encouraging godly motivation and cultural intelligence.
Other valuable resources for short-term missions:
David Mays of ACMC has put together a valuable CD called, Trip Stuff: Stuff You Need To Know About Doing Mission Trips In Your Church. (April 2006) Contact him at www.davidmays.org.
Elmer, Duane. 2006. Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility. IVP Books.
Judge, Cindy, 2000. Before You Pack Your Bag, Prepare Your Heart: 12 Bible Studies for Short-Term Mission Preparation. Wheaton: Campfire Resources.
David A. Livermore. Baker Books, P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287. 2006, 188 pages, $12.99.
Reviewed for EMQ by James E. Plueddemann, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL.
“The world is crawling with foreigners,” exclaimed a student in one of my cross-cultural communication classes. Cultural intelligence is often missing in the 4 million Americans who travel abroad each year to do short-term mission work. While there are several good resources to help short-term missionaries know how to apply for a passport and where to get yellow-fever shots, Serving with Eyes Wide Open is based on solid research and fills an important gap in the literature. It is a most readable book with many examples to help short-termers understand cultural pitfalls and gain cultural intelligence.
David Livermore begins with a succinct overview of the world and the global Church. It is important for short-term missionaries to realize that the Church outside of the United States is growing rapidly, often faces persecution, recognizes spiritual warfare and is becoming a major sending force. Such an overview may help overcome the “here I am you lucky people” complex.
The next section looks at the motivation for short-term missions. I am impressed with the balance in this section. From his own experience, Livermore points out the shallow motivation that drives many short-term missionaries. He gives sad but humorous examples of what pastors from the United States thought they were teaching and compares it to what the national pastors actually thought of the teaching. He describes misunderstandings between short-termers and host people in the use of time, the urgency of the task and oversimplification of complex situations. He is concerned that too often short-termers parachute into what they perceive as a backward culture, distribute goods and then retreat.
“Open your eyes!” is the continual challenge of this book. Readers will find practical steps for gaining cultural understanding in four areas. Short-term missionaries need to gain knowledge of basic cultural differences. Then using this knowledge they can interpret cues about what is really going on in the other culture. Livermore encourages perseverance as short-termers deal with confusing situations, and gives practical advice on how to behave while applying the above three principles in another culture.
Livermore concludes with a powerful chapter on “The Heart of the Matter,” doing missions out of a genuine love for people and for God. If short-term missionaries can love the people to whom they minister they will treat them with dignity and respect. If they serve because of their love for the Lord, they will avoid a self-serving motivation and focus on genuine service.
Finally I have an accessible book on short-term missions that I can use as a textbook and also give to our youth director as she prepares a group from our church to spend two weeks in Brazil. The book is grounded in research by respected theorists such as Geert Hofstede, Robert Levine, Edward T. Hall and Robert Kohls, yet the book is written for the layperson with compelling examples and insights from practical experience. Many books on short-term missions are either descriptions of the “nuts and bolts” of how to lead a team, or are naïf propaganda extolling the virtues of the so called “next paradigm in world missions.” Serving with Eyes Wide Open is written with a perceptive understanding of the dangers and problems of short-term missions. It also gives a sense of hope by encouraging godly motivation and cultural intelligence.
Other valuable resources for short-term missions:
David Mays of ACMC has put together a valuable CD called, Trip Stuff: Stuff You Need To Know About Doing Mission Trips In Your Church. (April 2006) Contact him at www.davidmays.org.
Elmer, Duane. 2006. Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility. IVP Books.
Judge, Cindy, 2000. Before You Pack Your Bag, Prepare Your Heart: 12 Bible Studies for Short-Term Mission Preparation. Wheaton: Campfire Resources.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Spiritual Formation and Missions
Spiritual formation is the driving force for world missions. Cross-cultural missions is the task of helping people in other cultures come to Christ and be formed into His image. The task of the missionary is teaching people to obey all Jesus commanded. The missionary Paul did not claim to have finished his task until the whole body attained to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ; until Christ was formed in His Church. The on-going task of cross-cultural spiritual formation includes justification, sanctification and glorification, and will not be finished in this world.
Spiritual formation is also the driving force for all aspects of human development. People who are not being formed into the image of Christ are not fully human, and thus in an important sense they are lacking in cognitive, social, physical and moral development. There should be no tension then, between spiritual formation, cognitive development, social development and community development. All God-ordained development is included in spiritual formation.
Spiritual formation is far more than mere behavioral change. People can memorize Bible verses, attend church five times a week, pray for an hour a day, fast weekly and still make no progress in spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is much more than observing spiritual disciplines. Of course outward behavior is important, but only as a genuine indication and outworking of inner heart development. While we praise the Lord for the growth of churches around the world, numerical church growth is not necessarily an indicator of spiritual formation. Neither is spiritual formation the mere transmission of Biblical or theological information. People with advanced degrees in theology have not necessarily made any progress in spiritual formation.
Spiritual formation is a process that takes place on the inside of a person and is not something that can be quantified, controlled or predicted. Spiritual formation is a life-long process and is not a precise task which will be finished by the year 2000 or even 3000 AD.
A Plea for a Paradigm Shift in World Missions
The dominant paradigm for missions is that of an efficient machine. Spiritual formation is neglected because it does not easily fit the assembly line paradigm. The factory paradigm encourages missionaries to set objectives for mere outward behavior. It is primarily interested in quantities. How big is the church? What is the rate of growth? How many unreached people groups can we identify?
The factory paradigm just doesn’t fit the real world. Can you imagine the absurdity of a family trying to raise children with an assembly line world-view? Parents feeding the baby would be challenged to promote the most weight gain with the least amount of food. Child-rearing experts would challenge parents to set growth objectives for the child to grow six inches in the next 18 months. Efficiency experts would suggest a ten year plan to produce as many babies as possible with the least amount of cost. They might do computer projections on “baby growth” to the year 2020 and beyond. Spiritual development is not produced in a factory.
The mechanistic paradigm makes an idol of efficiency, control, predictability and measurement. Success is measured by how many people come forward, by the number of those who complete a discipleship booklet or by how many join a church. While all these things are good, they don’t measure inner growth. Too often mission agencies, missiologists and local church missions committees have unthinkingly accepted an ungodly missiology.
The mechanistic paradigm has contributed to the theologically anemic and lukewarm churches on so many mission fields. Mechanistic missiologists would count countries like Congo, Liberia and Rwanda as already “reached” because a certain percentage of people claim to be Christian. Could it be that a faulty paradigm is partly helps explain for the massacres in these countries? Without a paradigm shift we are merely going into all the world to make converts. Jesus’ command was to make disciples. By aiming only for what can be predicted we are by definition aiming at something temporal. Eternal, inward results cannot be predicted or easily measured.
I’m convinced that we would do a better job of world evangelism if we could better understand the process of cross-cultural spiritual formation. The plea for a paradigm shift in missions does not come from a desire to de-emphasize evangelism. I pray daily that we will win the world for Christ in this generation, but if we neglect spiritual formation we will be forced to re-evangelize the world in every generation.
Facilitating Spiritual Formation
Spiritual formation comes by grace and is a mysterious process. The farmer in Mark 4:26 has a responsibility to scatter the seed faithfully and harvest it at the right time. But night and day, whether he is asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows. He doesn’t know how this happens. Just as the farmer can’t force growth by pulling on a stem of wheat, so spiritual formation cannot be forced.
Spiritual formation is a battle between evil forces and godly forces. Prayer is a powerful force for spiritual formation. By prayer the Spirit helps us to see the relationship between the problems in our own lives and solutions from the Word of God. Prayer unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to obey everything Jesus commanded.
The best way to facilitate spiritual formation is to make available the means of grace that God uses to promote the process of maturity. The primary means of grace are 1) the Word of God, 2) the Spirit of God, and 3) the people of God. The Holy Spirit helps individuals to understand and obey the Word of God as they are taught by people with spiritual gifts.
As Christ is being formed in people, they will progressively evidence the fruit of the Spirit, have a burden for the lost, and a passion for world missions. The goal of missions is to foster the life-long process of spiritual formation among every tribe, people and language so that together we may sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Worship is both the motivation and the goal of spiritual formation in world missions.
Spiritual formation is also the driving force for all aspects of human development. People who are not being formed into the image of Christ are not fully human, and thus in an important sense they are lacking in cognitive, social, physical and moral development. There should be no tension then, between spiritual formation, cognitive development, social development and community development. All God-ordained development is included in spiritual formation.
Spiritual formation is far more than mere behavioral change. People can memorize Bible verses, attend church five times a week, pray for an hour a day, fast weekly and still make no progress in spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is much more than observing spiritual disciplines. Of course outward behavior is important, but only as a genuine indication and outworking of inner heart development. While we praise the Lord for the growth of churches around the world, numerical church growth is not necessarily an indicator of spiritual formation. Neither is spiritual formation the mere transmission of Biblical or theological information. People with advanced degrees in theology have not necessarily made any progress in spiritual formation.
Spiritual formation is a process that takes place on the inside of a person and is not something that can be quantified, controlled or predicted. Spiritual formation is a life-long process and is not a precise task which will be finished by the year 2000 or even 3000 AD.
A Plea for a Paradigm Shift in World Missions
The dominant paradigm for missions is that of an efficient machine. Spiritual formation is neglected because it does not easily fit the assembly line paradigm. The factory paradigm encourages missionaries to set objectives for mere outward behavior. It is primarily interested in quantities. How big is the church? What is the rate of growth? How many unreached people groups can we identify?
The factory paradigm just doesn’t fit the real world. Can you imagine the absurdity of a family trying to raise children with an assembly line world-view? Parents feeding the baby would be challenged to promote the most weight gain with the least amount of food. Child-rearing experts would challenge parents to set growth objectives for the child to grow six inches in the next 18 months. Efficiency experts would suggest a ten year plan to produce as many babies as possible with the least amount of cost. They might do computer projections on “baby growth” to the year 2020 and beyond. Spiritual development is not produced in a factory.
The mechanistic paradigm makes an idol of efficiency, control, predictability and measurement. Success is measured by how many people come forward, by the number of those who complete a discipleship booklet or by how many join a church. While all these things are good, they don’t measure inner growth. Too often mission agencies, missiologists and local church missions committees have unthinkingly accepted an ungodly missiology.
The mechanistic paradigm has contributed to the theologically anemic and lukewarm churches on so many mission fields. Mechanistic missiologists would count countries like Congo, Liberia and Rwanda as already “reached” because a certain percentage of people claim to be Christian. Could it be that a faulty paradigm is partly helps explain for the massacres in these countries? Without a paradigm shift we are merely going into all the world to make converts. Jesus’ command was to make disciples. By aiming only for what can be predicted we are by definition aiming at something temporal. Eternal, inward results cannot be predicted or easily measured.
I’m convinced that we would do a better job of world evangelism if we could better understand the process of cross-cultural spiritual formation. The plea for a paradigm shift in missions does not come from a desire to de-emphasize evangelism. I pray daily that we will win the world for Christ in this generation, but if we neglect spiritual formation we will be forced to re-evangelize the world in every generation.
Facilitating Spiritual Formation
Spiritual formation comes by grace and is a mysterious process. The farmer in Mark 4:26 has a responsibility to scatter the seed faithfully and harvest it at the right time. But night and day, whether he is asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows. He doesn’t know how this happens. Just as the farmer can’t force growth by pulling on a stem of wheat, so spiritual formation cannot be forced.
Spiritual formation is a battle between evil forces and godly forces. Prayer is a powerful force for spiritual formation. By prayer the Spirit helps us to see the relationship between the problems in our own lives and solutions from the Word of God. Prayer unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to obey everything Jesus commanded.
The best way to facilitate spiritual formation is to make available the means of grace that God uses to promote the process of maturity. The primary means of grace are 1) the Word of God, 2) the Spirit of God, and 3) the people of God. The Holy Spirit helps individuals to understand and obey the Word of God as they are taught by people with spiritual gifts.
As Christ is being formed in people, they will progressively evidence the fruit of the Spirit, have a burden for the lost, and a passion for world missions. The goal of missions is to foster the life-long process of spiritual formation among every tribe, people and language so that together we may sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Worship is both the motivation and the goal of spiritual formation in world missions.
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