2009 Annual Conference “Altered States” Session 1: Gifts, Generations & Genders

1. 2009 Annual Conference“Altered States”Session 1: Gifts, Generations & Genders

2. The Three Gs • A right-wing cult, or some things we need to adjust? • Not “God, Guns & Guts”, but “Gifts, Genders & Generations”

3. Some observations from the past 8 years • Getting a “lens” on where we came from, who we have become and what we need to do to glorify God

4. Where We Come From • The fertile and eclectic 70s – new approaches to community and discipleship • Campus Crusade, Jesus Movement, Grace Haven, ARC church plants • Common Concerns & Common Understandings

5. Who We Are • “Settled” churches • More international – Brazil, Poland, Mexico • Still in the battle

6. What We Need to Do to Glorify God • Regain a missional posture • Make adjustments to “by all means win some” • Rediscover the heart of Jesus

7. Two Crucial Perspectives • The Imago Dei (the Image of God) • The Missio Dei (the Mission of God)

8. The Imago Dei • Who God is in His Tri-Personhood and how He’s made us as male & female to reflect His glory within all creation • The Creation Mandate (Genesis 1:26-28) – “26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.“ 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

9. The Missio Dei • The ongoing expression of God and His people to live out and express the glory of God in time & eternity. • The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) – “18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

10. The Missio Dei • The ongoing expression of God and His people to live out and express the glory of God in time & eternity. • Preamble to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1-16) – 1Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.  2And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:  3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

11. The Missio Dei • The ongoing expression of God and His people to live out and express the glory of God in time & eternity. • Preamble to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1-16) –8"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

12. The Missio Dei • The ongoing expression of God and His people to live out and express the glory of God in time & eternity. • Preamble to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1-16) –13"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.  14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

13. Genesis 1-2 • How God made us • Who we are as male & female • What we are to be about

14. Genesis 3 • The entrance of sin and the divine adjustment • Noah • Abraham – faith / peoplehood / mission • David – the supreme example of one who expressed the Image & Mission to the delight of God

15. John 17 • The divine Son praying to the Father for the preservation and fruitfulness of the Image and Mission

16. Gifts in the Image & Mission of God Ephesians 4:1-16 – “1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it says,    "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."

17. Gifts in the Image & Mission of God Ephesians 4:1-16 – “9( In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

18. Gifts in the Image & Mission of God • Verses 1-3: The Beatitudes, Image • Verses 4-6: The seven “Ones”, Image • Verse 7: the measure of Christ’s gift • Verses 8-10: to fill all things, Mission

19. Gifts in the Image & Mission of God • Verse 11-16: Five equipping gifts • Apostle – foundational oversight and counsel • Prophet – clarifying and proclaiming the specific Word of God • Evangelist – mobilizing God’s people into the world and mission • Pastor – caring for the body of Christ • Teaching – laying the Word of God into the body of Christ

20. The Objectives • Unity of the faith • Knowledge of the Person of Jesus • Mature manhood

21. The Objectives • The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. • What’s that? The same expressions that Jesus lived out. • Love for the Father • Love for the people of God • Love for the world • Through all 5 expressions of the equipping gifts

22. The Objectives • Stability • Growth to maturity through speaking the truth in love • Into the head • Joining of the whole body • Proper working of each part • Increasing growth through increasing love

23. The Objectives • These 5 equipping gifts are necessary for maturity of the Image and fruitfulness of the Mission. • The local pastor/teacher combination is insufficient and will often lead to stuck places, aberrations of emphasis and terminal immaturity. • We need seasonal connection to trans-local giftings.

24. Question What kind of approach are you presently engaging to include these giftings into the mix of your local assembly?

25. Recommendations • Assess the present “stuck places” in your local assembly • Who are the “gifts” that can bring counsel and impartation? • Build local relationships and seek to draw from the strengths and gifts of these relationships • Commit to pray and fast as a leadership team for God’s help as the Spirit makes the need and the resources clear

26. Genders in the Image & Mission of God Genesis 2:18-25 – “18Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." 19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

27. Genders in the Image & Mission of God Genesis 2:18-25 – “21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,   "This at last is bone of my bones   and flesh of my flesh;she shall be called Woman,   because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

28. Genders in the Image & Mission of God • Imago Dei – unity and complimentarity • Mission Dei – fruitfulness, filling creation with the Image • The egalitarian/complementarian debate • Locating you (personally) and your church and the ARC • Both theology and practice

30. Genders in the Image & Mission of God • Handouts • Overcoming our mild/moderate orthopractic schizophrenia • What do we do with the prohibitive Scriptures (I Tim 2, I Cor 14)? • What do we do with Marva Dawn, Leanne Payne, Anne Graham Lott, Beth Moore, Deborah, Priscilla, Euodia & Syntyche?

31. Genders in the Image & Mission of God • Overcoming our mild/moderate orthopractic schizophrenia • Were we out of order in allowing Sue Berube to speak in two of our conferences and multiple marriage retreats? • What about Sunday mornings?

32. My personal adjustments over the past 2 years • Conviction regarding how the church and home ought to be mutually supportive & reflective • Reflecting on how Sue and I raised 6 children and ran an incredibly busy household • Reading widely and connecting with John Stott’s “Our Social and Sexual Revolution” • Visiting Virginia (Doug Fike/GDI) • Including women with leadership gifts in our leadership meetings, periodically • Doing Adrienne’s Bible study

33. A bit of John Stott “A Jewish man was forbidden to talk to a woman on the street, even if she was his wife, daughter or sister. It was also regarded as impious to teach a woman the law; it would be better for the words of the law to be burned, said the Talmud, than that they should be entrusted to a woman.”

34. A bit of John Stott “The truth is that submission does not imply inferiority and that distinct sexual identities and roles are not incompatible with equality of worth.”

35. A bit of John Stott “If we may reject Paul’s teaching on men and women on the ground that it is culture-bound, may we not on the same ground also reject his teaching on marriage, divorce and homosexual relationships, indeed on God, Christ and salvation? If the teaching of the apostles was binding only on their own generation, then none of it has any necessary relevance to us or authority over us. But we leave no liberty to engage in cultural rejection (i.e. repudiating God’s revelation because of its first-century cultural clothing); our task is rather that of cultural transposition (i.e. guarding God’s revelation and translating it into an appropriate modern idiom).”

36. A bit of John Stott “The husband’s headship of his wife, therefore, is a headship more of care than of control, more of responsibility than of authority. This distinction is of far-reaching importance. It takes our vision of the husband’s role away from questions of domination and decision making into the sphere of service and nurture. I am glad that John Piper and Wayne Grudem, in their massive symposium “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” have opted for the word responsibility: ‘At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for and protect women…’.

37. A bit of John Stott Similarly, Roy McCloughry in “Men and Masculinity” subtitled “Power to Love”, lays his emphasis on Christ’s call to self-sacrifice. While conceding that there is a “plurality of masculinities”, each shaped by its own culture, yet at all times and in all places masculinity has been associated with power – physical, professional, political and financial. Yet when we see Jesus Christ as “the key to the understanding of what it means to be a man”, then masculinity becomes “laying down power to express self-giving love”.

38. A bit of John Stott “My tentative answer to my own two questions is the affirmative. I believe that there are situations in which it is entirely proper for women to teach, and to teach men, provided that in so doing they are not usurping any improper authority over them. First the content. Secondly, there is the context of teaching. The third condition of acceptable teaching by women concerns its style.”

39. A bit of John Stott “It remains my view that the best way to reconcile women’s ministry with masculine headship is to ordain women for ministry in a local team situation. Then they have ample opportunity to exercise their God-given gifts, while at the same time recognizing masculine headship.”

40. A bit of John Stott “If then our fundamental vision of church leadership is neither the priest of Catholic tradition, nor the presbyter of Reformed tradition, but the servant described by Jesus, why should women be disqualified?”

41. A bit of John Stott “Our Christian struggle, in the midst of and indeed against the prevailing secularism, is to bear witness to the twin biblical principles of sexual equality and male headship, in Church and society as well as in the home, even as we continue to debate how this can best and most appropriately be done. Dr. J.I. Packer has expressed this tension well. Scripture continues to convince him, he writes, “that the man-woman relationship is intrinsically non-reversible…This is part of the reality of creation, a given fact that nothing will change. Certainly, redemption will not change it, for grace restores nature, not abolishes it.”

42. A bit of John Stott We need, therefore, to “theologize reciprocity, spiritual equality, freedom for ministry, and mutual submission and respect between men and women within this framework of non-reversibility…It is important that the cause of not imposing on women restrictions that Scripture does not impose should not be confused with the quite different goals of minimizing the distinctness of the sexes as created and of diminishing the male’s inalienable responsibilities in man-woman relationships as such.

43. A bit of John Stott I conclude with some central simplicities. If God endows women with spiritual gifts (which he does), and thereby calls them to exercise their gifts for the common good (which he does), then the Church must recognize God’s gifts and calling, must make appropriate spheres of service available to women and should “ordain” (that is, commission and authorize) them to exercise their God-given ministry, at least in team situations. Our Christian doctrines of Creation and Redemption tell us that God wants his gifted people to be fulfilled not frustrated, and his Church to be enriched by their service.

44. Question What is your present practice of women’s gifts in the mission of God through your church, particularly regarding leadership dimensions and teaching?

45. Recommendations • To be more inclusive of women on leadership teams without abandoning male eldership and the need for each of the genders to have separate meetings. • To NOT ordain women as elders and therein support the call for men to be the head of their wives and the leader of life in the home • To use women’s gifts of teaching publicly and to support that with the explicit affirmation of the male eldership • To be more intentional regarding making space for women’s gifts to be expressed

46. Generations in the Image & Mission of God • Assessing our cultural segmentation and disintegration • The curse of divorce and fatherlessness • The multiplying sub-cultures and the yearning for identity and community among the younger generations

47. What is the Imago Dei here? Acts 2:16-18 “16But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:17 "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,   and your young men shall see visions,   and your old men shall dream dreams;18even on my male servants and female servants   in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

48. What is the Imago Dei here? John 17:20-23 20"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

49. Our story at CCC • Repentance regarding our lack of evangelism • Intercession for the “lost tier” • Malachi 4:5-6 – 5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." – turned hearts

50. Our story at CCC I Cor. 9:19-23 – “19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” – a heart to “become” and “win”