Sovereign Grace Ministries hopes to teach men how to be men according to the Scriptures in a conference to be held early next year.

Sovereign Grace will examine the topic of biblical manhood under the theme "The Quest: A Journey Through Biblical Masculinity" at its regional conference Jan. 11-13 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pa.

Men ages 15 and up throughout the Northeast and Midwest regions of the country will gather to explore the foundations of masculinity, as well as to learn how to defend biblical manhood in a culture that is beset by feminism that denies the biblical standard of manhood. The conference will demonstrate how to apply biblical masculinity in the home, workplace, church, and within relationships.

Speakers will include Sovereign Grace leaders Joshua Harris (who serves as a CBMW council member), Dave Harvey, and Peter Greasely. Bob Kauflin will lead worship. To register, visit www.sovereigngraceministries.org.

Sovereign Grace founder C. J. Mahaney serves as vice-charmain of the board for The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).

Fifteen years ago, complementarian scholars collaborated on a monumental work entitled Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (RBMW) that became the bulwark defense of gender roles in the home and church from a historic evangelical perspective.

Crossway Books re-released RBMW this week complete with a new cover and new preface which was co-written by Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) leaders J. Ligon Duncan and Randy Stinson. RBMW is edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. With its original release, RBMW was named Christianity Today’s Book of the Year for 1993.

In 2006 the work is perhaps more necessary than it was at the time of its original release with egalitarianism and feminism holding sway in many churches, evangelical schools, and homes, Duncan and Stinson assert in the new preface. Duncan serves as chairman of the board for CBMW, and Stinson serves as executive director for the organization.

"While evangelical complementarians have delivered an impressive body of exegetical and theological argument . . . there has been a continuing erosion of commitment to the church’s classic understanding of what the Bible teaches about male-female role relationships," they write.

"An increasing number of evangelical publishers (once bastions of conservatism regarding gender roles) are publishing books from a feminist perspective, and some of them now refuse to print anything that assumes or advances complementarianism. Likewise, well-regarded campus ministries have adopted and implemented functionally egalitarian patterns of ministry, and many evangelical faculties, even in the most conservative of institutions, promote egalitarianism."

The new printing of RBMW includes all of the chapters and materials from the original. The work covers the entire scope of gender issues from the biblical meaning of headship to head coverings and an examination of gender issues in church history.

Essayists include Piper, Grudem, Elisabeth Elliott, Dorothy Patterson, Paige Patterson, John M. Frame, Vern S. Poythress, Thomas R. Schreiner, D.A. Carson, and numerous other evangelical scholars. RBMW is available through the CBMW webstore at http://www.cbmw.org/cgi-bin/store?show|162|Gender_Issues.  The entire text is available online at http://www.cbmw.org/rbmw/.

Acknowledging the importance of family ministry, R. Albert Mohler Jr. has announced the appointment of CBMW's Randy Stinson as the new dean of the School of Leadership and Church Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, said Stinson's experience in family ministry as executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), has uniquely prepared him to be the leadership school's next dean. Mohler also serves as a CBMW council member.

"Randy Stinson is that rare combination of person and professor, minister and teacher who will give superb leadership to this school for the future with thankfulness for all of the leadership that we have had for so many years, building on what [former deans] Dennis Williams, Brad Waggoner and others have done," he said.

"Stinson will bring a new dimension by focusing on family ministry as the touchstone structure for educational ministry in the church. We think this is the direction that our churches really need and want, and there is a great vacuum in evangelical theological education for such a program."

Russell Moore, vice president of academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern, agreed that Stinson’s background in family-related ministry, as well as his character and commitment to the local church make him the natural choice for the position.

"I am excited about Randy Stinson’s emphasis on family-integrated ministry, his commitment to local church ministry, his leadership experience and his insight into the crucial issues facing Southern Baptists," Moore said.

"On a personal level, Randy Stinson is like a brother to me. I've been able to see, up close, the kind of visionary, godly leader he is in his home, in his church, and in the world. I look forward to serving with him at Southern Seminary as he builds on the outstanding legacy of this school."

Stinson described the appointment as the "opportunity of a lifetime," and said he looks forward to helping prepare students for local church ministry.

"This position fits with my call as a minister of the gospel, and it fits with my personal commitments to marriage, family, children's ministry, and youth ministry," he said.

"I am primarily excited about the opportunity to have an impact on the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention at the educational level because I think we can impact the way ministry is done in these churches. I think we can have an influence on the students who will come through this school on their road of ministry."

"I have already met with the faculty of the leadership school as a group and several individually and I am really excited about building on the foundation that Brad Waggoner left," he said. "The leadership school at Southern Seminary has the opportunity to help change the way various family ministries are done in Southern Baptist churches."

Having wise mentors, observing Christian families, and leading CBMW have all impacted Stinson and will shape his service as dean of the school of leadership, he said.

"I have had a lot of good mentors and pastors, and at the same time some real heartbreaking observations that I have noticed in Christian families everywhere I have been," he said.

"Those things have impacted my vigilance with my own family and have given me a heavy burden for Christian families in general. My experiences in leading CBMW have also heightened my commitment for the need to reach men with the gospel and provide biblical outlets for women's ministry."

Stinson began serving as executive director of CBMW in 2001 and said that he will continue to oversee the directional leadership of the organization. However, Stinson said a person will be appointed in the near future to carry out the daily administrative responsibilities of the position.

Mohler said the warm welcome Stinson has already received as dean points to the impact he can have in the school of leadership.

"The enthusiastic support this appointment has received from faculty and students from that school already is one sign, I think, of the potential that lies before Stinson as dean of the school of leadership," he said.

"Stinson’s experience as executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, his extensive teaching and writing . . . all of this puts him in an incredible position to give this school the leadership it needs."

Delegates to the annual meeting of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC or "4’Cs") last month in Minneapolis narrowly defeated a statement that warned its churches of the vagaries of "gender-neutral" translations of the English Bible.

The statement reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture and affirmed the traditional, "word-for-word" method of translation. The statement lost 78-72.

The document’s framers said such a statement was necessary because of the proliferation of English translations that are "being published with increasing regularity and with significantly different philosophies."

While the statement did not condemn particular translations, it warned against the "functional equivalent" method of Scripture interpretation taken by the translations such as the New International Version and the New Living Translation.

In addition to encouraging pastors and teachers "to become familiar with and to instruct their congregations in the strengths and weaknesses of the various translations and translation philosophies," the statement recommended that the congregations of the 4’Cs use only those translations that are faithful to the original languages in their representation of gender.

That section of the document reads:

"Believing that God providentially prepared and ordained the Hebrew and Greek languages for the communication of His Word, and thus the ways in which these languages deal with gender are part of the teaching of Scripture and should be preserved, we recommend the use of translations which do not omit male-oriented details of meaning that are present in the original languages or which make changes in person and number in order to avoid a generic masculine pronoun."

The 4’Cs website describes the organization as a theologically conservative denomination believing strongly in the autonomy of the local church. It is made up of churches that are Congregational, Christian, and Evangelical and Reformed in their background, as well as independent Community churches. It is solidly committed to the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, but allows for diversity in those areas where Christians have tended to disagree."

At its 2004 meeting, the 4’Cs adopted a resolution opposing gay marriage. The statement called the legitimization of same-sex unions tantamount to rewarding evil. (See previous Gender-News story at http://www.gender-news.com/article.php?id=31.

Is it possible for a Christian to affirm monogamous heterosexual marriage as the biblical pattern and simultaneously argue that a monogamous, gay union is "authentic sexuality?"

Fuller Theological Seminary professors Jack O. Balswick and Judith K. Balswick by their teaching and writing at least insinuate that it is possible.

The husband and wife tandem teaches courses in gender and sexuality at Fuller and offer their view of these issues in a book published by InterVarsity Press (IVP) entitled Authentic Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach. The work was published in 1999.

WORLD magazine founder and columnist Joel Belz reported on the Balswicks’ relativistic approach to sexuality in a column ("Relativism at Fuller") in the July 1/8 edition of WORLD. In that article, Belz showed how the professors confused students during a class on gender and sexuality by affirming homosexual couples while at the same time upholding a biblical view of marriage that views homosexuality as sinful.

Belz details the experience of one Fuller student named Kim who took the Baswicks’ class and heard the couple affirm that homosexuality is sinful, but also "go out of their way to defend and show understanding toward those who want to go on living a homosexual lifestyle." Kim told Belz that the Balswicks often provided practicing homosexuals with a platform in various classes.

"One guest lecturer derided heterosexism as a social construct rather than a historical or biblical norm," Belz reported.

"Using the story of the prodigal son, he likened the older brother to heterosexual Christians in their unjust treatment of homosexuals, whom he likened to the younger brother. The guest told students, however, that ‘I don’t do theological debate;’ no feedback or discussion was permitted."

The Balswicks’ relativistic approach to sexuality also bleeds through in Authentic Human Sexuality. Though they apparently see heterosexual marriage as the biblical norm, "compassion," the Balswicks assert, drives them to affirm gay couples.

"We acknowledge that some gay Christians may choose to commit themselves to a lifelong, monogamous, homosexual union, believing that it is God’s best for them," the authors write. "They believe that this reflects an authentic sexuality that is congruent for them and their view of Scripture. Even though we hold to the model of a heterosexual, lifelong, monogamous union, our compassion brings us to support all persons as they move in the direction of God’s ideal for their lives."

Gender-News contacted IVP for its response to the above paragraph from the Balswicks’ book. The publisher released an official statement that stopped short of critiquing the incongruity of their affirmation of both heterosexual and homosexual marriage:

"We have published many books on a biblical understanding of homosexuality. All of them, including the Balswicks affirm that homosexual practice is sinful and that the biblical standard is that all sexual relations should be within the blessing of a heterosexual monogamous marriage union."