City Church, a strategic Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation in San Francisco is leaving the denomination because its leadership has embraced an egalitarian view of female elders, the North California Presbytery announced last week.

The North California granted City Church’s request to leave the PCA during a special called meeting on June 10 in San Ramon. City Church has petitioned the more moderate Reformed Church in America (RCA) for membership.

The church is leaving the conservative PCA because its elders have come to disagree with chapters 8 and 9 of the denomination’s Book of Church Order (BCO) which limit the role of deacon and elder to males only.

The congregation and its pastors told presbytery officials, "The elders of this church find themselves out of accord with BCO chapters 8 and 9, which assume the role of deacon and elder are for qualified males only. We have changed our views and believe that the ecclesiastical offices of the church are open to both men and women, and can no longer with good conscience prohibit women from these offices."

Though it is still technically a part of the PCA until the RCA affirms its membership, City Church has wasted no time in appointing a woman to a major leadership position in the church. On June 10, pastor Fred Harrell announced on the church website the hire of Frances Nelson as Director of Congregational Care.

While no mention was made of making Nelson an elder, Harrell recounts a discussion during a recent pastoral staff lunch in which he asked fellow pastors for the name of a person who would be right to bring on the staff to "pastor our community groups and increase congregational care." One pastor suggested Nelson as the perfect person for this pastoral position, the letter says.

The RCA was born in 1628 in a small colonial town named New Amsterdam. In 1970, it became one of the first Reformed denominations to officially sanction the ordination of women to the office of elder. In 1979, the RCA’s General Synod approved the ordination of women as "ministers of Word and Sacrament." Today, the denomination includes 21 ordained female pastors.

Since the late-1970s, the RCA has also wrangled with the biblical propriety of homosexuality. While the RCA continues to affirm heterosexual marriage as the biblical teaching, the denomination reinitiated "an honest and intentional dialogue on homosexuality." The RCA website admits that "deep divisions" exist within the denomination over homosexuality.

Will the functional roles of the genders remain when Christ comes and fully inaugurates the New Jerusalem?

Are the daughters of Philip among the prophets as set forth by Luke in Acts 21:9?

Does the Greek conjunction gar found in 1 Timothy 2:13 support an egalitarian or complementarian reading of that key text?

These are among the issues the essayists seek to answer in the new edition of the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW), a biannual journal of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

Mark David Walton, senior pastor of Glenwood Baptist Church in Oak Ridge, Tenn., argues in his article "Relationships and Roles in the New Creation" that the genders will continue in complementary relationships in the eschaton.

Walton interacts with egalitarian interpretations of the "not yet" aspects of eschatology and seeks to show their fundamental flaws in arguing that gender will no longer hold significance in the New Jerusalem.

"Although Scripture does not speak directly to the question of the effect gender will have on the lives of resurrected believers in the new creation, it does offer sufficient evidence to affirm that gender will continue to be a significant aspect of our lives in the eschaton," he writes.

In his piece, "Are the Daughters of Philip Among the Prophets of Acts?" Jeffrey T. Riddle sets forth the three most common evangelical views of Acts 21:9 in which the four virgin daughters of Philip at Caesarea prophesy. Riddle is the pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va.

Riddle interacts with the egalitarian contention that the daughters of Philip functioned as ordained prophets in a local assembly and seeks to show the difference between the New Testament act of prophesying—an act open to any believer of the day—and the office of prophet, which Scripture limits to men.

"It must be acknowledged, for example, that Luke does not depict women as serving in leadership roles in which they exercise doctrinal or teaching authority over men," Riddle writes. "Women to not preach or teach in Acts."

David K. Huttar, professor emeritus at Nyack College in Nyack, N.Y., examines the conjunction gar (typically translated "for" or "because") located in 1 Timothy 2:13 in light of egalitarian scholar Linda Belleville’s claim that the conjuction must not be translated as a causal conjunction ("because") which supports a complementarian reading of the text.

Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in his essay "A Journey to the Interior of the Family: The Family’s Core," suggests five essential ingredients that constitute the core of the family. Patterson argues that the family, in turn, "serves as the core of every social order in the world."

The five ingredients include the home as: the plan of God, the essential school, the world’s finest court of justice and mercy, the only appropriate venue for sexual intimacy, and the triumphal arch of love.

The new journal also includes essays by Russell D. Moore, Robert Sagers, and Albert Wolters.

Moore assesses the Christological confusion of evangelical feminism, Sagers examines Donald Miller’s troubling ode to growing up fatherless in To Own a Dragon, and Wolters offers a semantical study of the Greek term authentes ("to exercise authority over"; 1 Tim 2:12) and its derivatives.

Moore serves as dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., Sagers is Moore’s research assistant, and Wolters is professor of religion and theology, and classical studies at Redeemer University College in Ontario, Canada.

To obtain a copy of the new JBMW or to subscribe, please see http://www.cbmw.org/journal/ or call (888) 560-8210.

It was a careful study of the Scriptures that led Alice Linsley to see the light of a complementarian view of gender roles after 18 years as an ordained priest in the liberal Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA).

The revelation led Linsley to recently renounce her orders.

In an interview with Virtue Online, Linsley said the ECUSA’s 2003 consecration of Eugene Robinson as the first openly homosexual bishop began to raise grave doubts in her mind as to the overall direction of her denomination. Linsley resigned as rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Lexington, Ky. the Sunday after Robinson’s ordination.

From there, her close study of Scripture led her to see that texts which seemed to limit the office of bishop or elder to males are not "culturally bound" as she had been taught two decades ago during ordination.

"Throughout my 18 years as a priest in the Episcopal Church USA I have had nagging and periodic doubts about women and the priesthood," she said. "I never felt free to discuss my doubts openly because dialogue in ECUSA on questions of gender and catholic orders has been difficult and unfruitful.

"I began to reconsider the question of gender and the Episcopal Church's claim to have ‘catholic orders’ after the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, the first partnered homosexual to become bishop in the United States.

"It was apparent that ECUSA is not catholic because it has departed from the most fundamental principles of the historic catholic faith. Of the 3 churches that stand in the catholic tradition: Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, only the Episcopal Church USA ordains women and homosexuals to the priesthood."

Linsley said the issue regarding gender roles and the priesthood came down to God’s design for men and women in the church as revealed in Scripture and not whether or not a woman had the ability to skillfully carry out the office.

"So the issue for me is not the ability of women, but rather God's design for the sexes and how, as a faithful Christian, I am to understand that design and its boundaries," she said.

Linsley said a closer, more careful study of the first book of the Bible led her to rethink Paul’s teaching on gender distinctions. She began to realize that Paul, in his writing on gender roles, was merely articulating the permanent gender distinctions found in the Hebrew Scriptures in general and the book of Genesis in particular.

Linsley said her own embrace of female ministers arose out of the failure of men to lead in her own family and congregation. She sees much irony in the views of evangelicals who give lip service to the authority of Scripture but undermine it by allowing culture to interpret the Bible.

Not only has Linsley rejected the ordination of women, but she also sees the ECUSA’s embrace of homosexuality as sinful and outside the pale of historic Christianity.

"…Today, after 25 years of research on Genesis, I have come to a different conclusion. Paul's thoughts on gender are formed by his biblical Tradition. He recognized that the Hebrew Scriptures teach a permanent binary distinction between men and women. This binary distinction is fixed by God as much as the distinctions of east and west, night and day, and hot and cold.

"When we ignore the binary distinctions established by the Creator for our benefit, there is disorder in our thoughts and actions, and humans become lost. This suggests strongly that Paul's teaching on gender was not merely to address a social problem limited to that time and place.

"Paul wanted gender roles in the Church to reflect God's order in creation as a way of honoring the Sovereign Creator. After all, does mankind have the power to change night to day, or east to west? Choosing to have sexual relations with a same sex partner is defiance of God's sovereign order of creation. It is not a new thing. It is as old as the first rebellion."

The expansion of "gay marriage" in the United States would create clashes between church and state that might restrict the religious freedom of Americans who oppose such unions, legal scholars predict.

The legalization of "gay marriage," it was forecast, could impact, for example, the housing and employment policies of religious schools and other institutions and even the tax-exempt status of churches and parachurch organizations.

The disclosure of such predictions came as the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to a man and a woman. Senators are scheduled to begin debating the Marriage Protection Amendment, S.J. Res. 1, June 5, with a vote expected June 6 or 7.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other conservative religious organizations have been promoting a federal amendment as the only solution for efforts in the courts to legalize "gay marriage." Though Massachusetts is the only state to have legalized "gay marriage," high courts in New Jersey, New York and Washington could legitimize same-sex unions before the end of the year.

It appears proponents of the MPA may be fighting to protect not only marriage but religious liberty as well.

"Legal redefinition of marriage will be an engine for religious freedom litigation for years to come," said Anthony Picarello, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "Wherever ‘same-sex marriage’ is part of the law, government will be requiring equal treatment of ‘same-sex marriage,’ and that is something most religious groups cannot abide. And that means church-state conflict."

Recognizing the potential for conflict, the Becket Fund convened a private conference of nine legal scholars last December to examine the implications for religious liberty of legalized "gay marriage" and to produce papers on the topic. The Becket Fund, which is well known for defending religious adherents of all types, selected lawyers from across the political spectrum, from Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum, a leading advocate for homosexual rights, to conservative Pepperdine University law professor Doug Kmiec.

Despite their differences, the scholars all agreed -- the legalization of "gay marriage" will produce widespread clashes between church and state.

It will be a "very dangerous train wreck," one of the panelists, Marc Stern, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, told columnist Maggie Gallagher in the May 15 issue of The Weekly Standard.

And it will or should, depending on the viewpoint, infringe religious freedom, some of the scholars said.

"This increased judicial approval of ‘same-sex marriage’ will metastasize into the larger culture," Kmiec wrote in a May 26 column for the Chicago Tribune. "Indeed, an insidious, but less recognized, consequence will be a push to demonize -- and then punish -- faith communities that refuse to bless homosexual unions."

When religious liberty and sexual liberty clash, Feldblum told Gallagher, "Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that’s the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner."

One of the reasons for the widespread conflict is marriage’s pervasiveness in the law, Picarello told Baptist Press.

"Marriage is everywhere in the [legal] code, and so there are going to be as many conflicts as there are places where marriage exists in the code," he said. "The thing about changing the definition of marriage is it just brings the scope of conflict to a whole new level."

It appears there will be two categories of cases in this conflict, Picarello said. In one, the state will seek to compel directly churches and religious organizations "to treat same-sex and different-sex couples equally on threat of liability." In the other, churches may win a legal challenge of the state’s action on First Amendment grounds, but the government might punish them by withdrawing benefits or accommodations it would normally provide.

The cases could involve everything from student housing at a religious university to a plot in a cemetery operated by a church or religious organization, and "hundreds of things" in between, Picarello said.

He offered the following scenarios as examples of what is likely under a "gay marriage" regime:

- A homosexual couple with a marriage license could request married student housing even at a college that bars same-sex couples for religious reasons.

- Religious institutions could be required to provide "homosexual spouses" with benefits.

- Religious employers could be prohibited from firing employees who enter "gay marriages."

- A person could seek access to his "same-sex spouse’s" family plot in a religiously owned cemetery.

Catholic Charities of Boston already has pulled out of the adoption business because Massachusetts refused to make an exception for its decision not to place children with homosexual couples.

If a church or religious organization refuses to bow to the state and wins in court, the government may do what some cities have done to the Boy Scouts of America. Though the BSA won in the Supreme Court the right to bar homosexual leaders, some local governments have pulled benefits from the Boy Scouts that they previously enjoyed.

The "Big Kahuna" when it comes to government action against churches and religious organizations is tax exemption, Picarello told BP. "Many churches fear that more than they fear God Himself."

The withdrawal of tax-exempt status at the federal level for resistance to "gay marriage" appears unlikely for now, he said. "It could happen; it’s just not going to happen soon," he said.

The states are a "different matter," Picarello said. "Essentially, I wouldn’t want to be a religious institution relying on my tax exemption in a state like Massachusetts."

Picarello also said he doesn’t believe a pastor will be required to perform a "gay marriage" nor does he foresee a preacher being barred from speaking against such unions.

A state could, however, do what Massachusetts has done with justices of the peace, he said. The state has not permitted an exception for a justice who refuses to marry same-sex couples because it would conflict with his conscience.

"What the government may say [to ministers] is, ‘You can perform all the religious marriages you want, but if you want them to have legal effect, you’re going to need to provide that service" to everyone, Picarello said.

Fathers, do you want to raise your sons to grow into God-honoring men who embrace robust, authentic biblical manhood?

Robert Lewis and Dennis Rainey have teamed up to publish a new resource to help fathers with the noble pursuit of raising modern-day knights. Expanding on Lewis’s 1997 book Raising a Modern-Day Knight: A Father’s Role in Guiding His Son to Authentic Manhood (Focus on the Family), Lewis and Rainey offer a series of seven DVDs of instruction on raising sons entitled, like the book, "Raising a Modern-Day Knight."

The package is essentially a six-week video study for fathers wanting to raise their sons to be masculine "according to the Scriptures." The package, available at www.RMDK.com and includes a copy of Lewis’s book, a RMDK training guide—which includes dad’s workout program for his son, and the course on six DVDs.

The videos are broken up into "adventures" and begin with helping fathers to "size themselves up," and also include "Shaping Up as a Dad," "A Son’s Defining Moment: the Call to Manhood," "The Power of Ceremonies," and "Putting it all Together." RMDK also includes a "Legacy Album" that allows fathers to mark milestones their sons reach along the journey to authentic manhood.

The video series aims to help fathers:

• Discover how to connect with their sons in life-giving and life-changing ways.
• Understand the critical issues they face in becoming effect and strategic fathers.
• Learn what they need to know to lead their sons into authentic biblical manhood.

Lewis is teaching pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark., and Rainey is host of the daily radio program "FamilyLife Today." Both serve as board of reference members for The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). For more information or to order, visit www.RMDK.com.