City Church, a strategic Reformed congregation located in San Francisco, whose leaders announced last summer that the church was leaving the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) because its elders had embraced an egalitarian view of women in ministry, has found a new denominational home.

The moderate Reformed Church in America (RCA) last month announced that City Church has officially become a member of its denomination. The Central California Classis of the RCA accepted a transfer request from City Church and three of its ordained pastors at its fall meeting.

According to senior pastor Fred Harrell, City Church's biblical convictions regarding women in ministry became incompatible with remaining in the conservative PCA, a denomination that does not ordain women. The elders at City Church disagree with chapters 8 and 9 of the PCA’s Book of Church Order (BCO) that limit the role of deacon and elder to men.

The leaders of City Church were "careful and exhaustive in their search for a new denomination," Harrell said in a RCA press release.

"We had three major guidelines," he said. "We sought a denomination that was missionally engaged, theologically rooted in the Reformed tradition, and one that built bridges instead of walls to other Christians."

City Church is a 10-year-old congregation that includes some 250 members and attracts approximately 700 worshipers each Sunday.

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.

The Revs. Mike Hays and Scot Sherman, also part of the City Church staff, come with Harrell to the RCA, the denomination announced. Harrell said that the pastors and congregation remain in good relationships with their former presbytery in northern California.

"These brothers and sisters have been very good to us in our short, ten-year history," Harrell said.

The RCA's missions and church planting emphasis, its tradition of theological reflection, and its work in Christian unity were telling factors in the decision, Harrell said.

"We are thankful to be part of the RCA and look forward to its continued renewal and growth."

Gender-News first reported on this development last spring.

Where does Azusa Pacific University’s Haggard Graduate School of Theology stand on the issue of women in ministry?

The university gave a clear answer to this question with an advertisement in the January/February issue of Worldwide Challenge, the bimonthly magazine published by Campus Crusade for Christ.

Azusa Pacific’s ad on page 26 of the magazine touts female senior pastor Elizabeth Talbot as a 2006 graduate of the institution and as the first female senior pastor in her denomination, which is not specified.

Randy Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, says potential students of institutions such as the Haggard School of Theology at Azusa Pacific should be aware that an embrace of egalitarian views is often merely one large step along the path to further theological error.

"One by one, theological institutions around the country are accommodating culture and undermining biblical authority by advocating and teaching an unbiblical view of manhood and womanhood," he said.

"Those considering financial support of these institutions, or those considering enrollment in these institutions should be reminded that there will be many other theological aberrations to follow."

Regarding Worldwide Challenge’s publication of the ad, editor in chief Judy Nelson said it probably should not have appeared in the magazine since Campus Crusade does not formally take a position on the issue of women in ministry. In the screening process, the ad simply slipped by editors, she said. Typically, Worldwide Challenge does not promote issues on which Campus Crusade does not take a formal stance, she said.

"Our policy as a mission is not to take a side one way or another, and I understand that by allowing an ad in Campus Crusade's magazine, we are guilty of suggesting we have a public position on this issue," she said in an e-mail to Gender-News.

Nelson said the magazine will not likely print a retraction or clarification in an upcoming issue of Worldwide Challenge because Campus Crusade neither wants to draw attention to the ad nor desires to be unkind to Azusa Pacific.

While Stinson said Worldwide Challenge is to be commended for admitting the oversight, he fears the editors’ decision not to address the ad in a future issue will mislead readers. Also, Campus Crusade’s "non policy" on the gender issue really amounts to a policy de facto, Stinson said.

"It is certainly understandable that mistakes can and will be made when there are dozens of ads to be sorted and strict deadlines to be met," he said. "I am grateful for Campus Crusade’s acknowledgement of their oversight. However, it seems then that there would be some attempt at clarifying their mistake.

"Being nice to Azusa Pacific is one thing, but it is unclear to me why potentially misleading thousands of people regarding your position on women in ministry would not heavily outweigh this concern. Collegiality should not trump biblical and theological commitments.

"Claiming to have no position on this issue, never really works. It almost always eventually leads to a clear egalitarianism in practice. Most of the time those claiming to hold no position usually have a clear position, they just don't want to tip their hand."

Many Christian men do not know how to exercise biblical leadership in their homes and in practice deny the Scripture’s demands that call men to lead, protect and provide for their families, Randy Stinson, leader of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) told students Wednesday at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Stinson, who serves as CBMW’s executive director and as dean of the School of Leadership and Church Ministry at Southern Seminary, said many evangelical homes inadvertently ignore the teaching of God’s Word regarding gender roles.

"Way too many evangelical homes do exactly what James (the New Testament author) says people who are self-deceived do: they are hearers of the Word of God and not doers," Stinson said.

"I am very concerned that most evangelical Christian men don’t know what leadership in the home should look like."

A Christian husband is not leading his home simply by providing the "tie-breaking vote" on difficult decisions, Stinson said. Instead, Stinson argued that leadership in the home requires intentional, sacrificial—and often difficult—effort if a man is to lead his family in the manner that God has called him.

Stinson pointed out that some egalitarians insist that there is no such thing as a complementarian home because most Christian homes function in an egalitarian manner with both the husband and wife leading in turn.

The egalitarian assertion is precisely the opposite of reality, Stinson said, because when two people are put together in a relationship, one of them will ultimately lead.

"Frankly, I would argue that there is no such thing as an egalitarian home," Stinson said. "They (Christian homes) are all complementarian, it’s just that some of them are in reverse. If you put two people in a room for any amount of time and somebody is going to emerge as the leader, sometimes in a way that is smooth and sometimes in a way that is not so smooth."

A biblical arrangement of the home is undermined typically in two ways, Stinson said. First, egalitarian Christians argue that the Bible does not teach male headship. They go to great, and often creative lengths to explain away passages such as Ephesians 5, Stinson said.

Second, and perhaps more troubling, Stinson said, some well-meaning Christians who believe that Scripture calls for male headship deny the teaching in practice by failing to lead their families, he said.

Stinson identified nine areas in which husbands/fathers are called to initiate godly leadership. These include:

Vision. A Christian man is called to cast the vision for his family’s future in myriad areas, Stinson said. "We have to answer questions like, ‘what do we want our children to be like in 10 years and where do we want to be as a family in 10 years?’" he said. "We might ask what we want our homes to be characterized by. Maybe we want our homes to be characterized by forgiveness, respect, love, responsibility and hard work. The husband is the keeper of the vision…He is not merely supposed to show up at the house."

Direction. The man is supposed to shepherd the family with regards to the specific steps it will take in accomplishing the vision, Stinson said.

Instruction. Stinson said a Christian man must give his family members clear and specific strategies to meet the daily challenges each of them will face. The man must also model the things he wants to accomplish in the home.

Imitation. Fathers and husbands must set gracious, godly examples for their children, Stinson said. This may well include fathers apologizing to their wife and children when their behavior does not square with Scripture, he pointed out. "It is not a sign of weakness to apologize to our wives and kids," he said. "When we do this we are still saying ‘watch me,’ in the same way Paul said ‘inasmuch as I imitate Christ, imitate me.’"

Inspiration. Christian men are responsible for maintaining positive morale in the home by encouraging family members with words such as "isn’t this a great family?" Stinson said. "It is the leader’s responsibility to tell the family that this (family) is a great thing," he said.

Affirmation. Christian men must regularly tell each family member that he or she is doing well in carrying out their roles in the home, he said.

Evaluation. Men must answer regularly answer the question, "how are we doing?" Stinson said. A man is called to lead his family by serving them, but Stinson pointed out that this is by no means the father/husband is to be passive. The leader of the home must assess his family’s progress in many areas and make adjustments regularly to keep the family on a godly, biblical course, he said.

Correction. Men are called to correct problems that become evident through evaluation, Stinson said.

Protection and provision. Christian men must remind their wives and children often that they are committed to the family for a lifetime and that they are going to take care of the family’s needs. "This is a sentiment we must say with full humility and in the full knowledge that we can’t protect our family from every possible harm," he said. "But we must tell them often ‘I’m not leaving you,’ and ‘I’m going to take care of you.’"

Ultimately, Christian homes must paint a clear and accurate picture of the Gospel in accord with Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 5, Stinson said. When the husband and wife are faithfully filling their God-ordained roles in obedience to Scripture, the broader culture will catch a clear glimpse of Christ’s love for His church, he noted.

"Our home says something about the Gospel that is either true or false," he said. "If we are using headship as an excuse to lord it over our families, then we are giving a false picture of the Gospel. But when the husband and wife are carrying out their roles as God has called them, then their homes are showing something that is true about Christ and the Gospel."

When the apostle Paul prayed that the false teachers troubling the church at Galatia would emasculate themselves, he surely did not envision the disturbing fulfillment of such an entreaty as reported in the latest edition of Newsweek.

Under the headline "Gender and the Pulpit," the newsweekly bemoans the "workplace quandary" facing ministers who have surgically altered their gender. The article examines the obvious and even ironic difficulties facing a minister who suffers from "permanent gender ambiguity."

The author quotes numerous "transgender ministers" who attended a gathering this past weekend held at Pacific School of Religion, the first "Transgender Religious Summit."

Pacific, an ultra left-wing ecumenical seminary in Berkeley, Calif., prepares students for ordination in Protestant denominations that include United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Disciples of Christ. At its website, Pacific articulates its purpose as "Equipping historic and emerging faith communities for ministries of compassion and justice."

The article offers an uncontested platform for "transgender ministers" to air their grievances about conservative religious ideologies that have kept them "in the closet" with regard to their true sexual identity. The story does not include an evangelical response.

"Transgendered people are beginning to find their public voice with more advocates and opportunities for protection," explains Justin Tanis, an ordained minister who helped put together the summit—and who was born female.

Ministers quoted in the article accuse conservative Christians of twisting Scripture out of context in order to treat "transsexuals and other people with ambiguous gender as having psychological defects that can be cured with psychotherapy."

Ironically, one female minister, formerly a man, then quotes Isaiah 56:1-5—a passage that begins with a command of God to "do righteousness," a portion of the verse that is left out of the article— and says she uses it to locate evidence "of God’s love for her unique case."

Sadly, one "transgender minister" finds ultimate vindication, not in the gospel of God in Christ, but in the government; Tanis expresses hope that the Democrat party’s recently gained majority in Congress will create a political climate in Washington such that transgender activists will "finally be heard…on the issue of workplace rights."

The entire article may be viewed at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16774861/site/newsweek/from/ET/