The nationally syndicated Revive Our Hearts radio program, founded by Nancy Leigh DeMoss in 1997, is now sponsoring the True Woman 08 Conference. The purpose of the True Woman ‘08, DeMoss says is for women to:

• Discover and embrace God's created design and mission for their lives.
• Reflect the beauty and heart of Christ to our world.
• Be intentional about passing the baton of Truth on to the next generation.
• Pray earnestly for an outpouring of God's Spirit in our families, churches, nation, and world.

"True Woman '08 is a call to join thousands of other women who are saying, ‘Yes, Lord! I want to be Your woman. I surrender my life to be used for Your Kingdom purposes. May my life display Your glory to this generation and the next,'" DeMoss writes on the True Woman blog.  "True Woman '08 is an opportunity to link hearts and hands with other women who are hearing His call. Plan to be stimulated, challenged, and inspired. Expect your soul to be deeply stirred. Look forward to connecting to God's heart, His purposes, and His people in a personal and powerful way."

CBMW has been asked to co-sponsor a pre-conference for women's ministry leaders.  Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt will be discussing biblical and practical foundations for women's ministry in the local church.  Pre-conference attendees will receive a copy of their book on this topic and the current issue of the Journal on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Carolyn McCulley's new book Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World. If you will be attending the conference, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood will sponsor a booth at the conference, so please come and visit us. Susan Hunt will be signing her books at the table.

If you're not in the area, you are not left out. TW08 has made it available for women to benefit from the incredible array of speakers set for the event: John Piper, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Mary Kassian, Karen Loritts, Joni Eareckson Tada, Janet Parshall and Fern Nichols, with daily worship led by Keith and Kristin Getty. The conference sold out in a few weeks time, much sooner than organizers expected, so now they are making the live video feed available for women who want to benefit from the conference. Women who missed registration can sign up here to receive a live video feed of the entire conference which will take place Oct. 9-11 in Chicago.  The video is free, but must be set up in advance.

We are so encouraged at the outpouring of woman eager to attend our pre-conference and TW08. In an age where so many women are confused about womanhood, Revive our Hearts is faithful to counter the cultural trend towards feminism, and encourage women to embrace their God-given femininity. We are thankful for their vision and courage to proclaim God's glorious design for women.

For more conference information, see the TWC08 website.

The media is swirling with opinions and breathless news about Sarah Palin potentially being the Vice President — or even under some dark scenarios the President —of the United States of America.  The role of Gender Blog is not to provide a voter's guide, but to help Christians to think biblically about a female vice presidential candidate.  It is times like these that underscore the importance of looking to the Word of God as our guide in sorting through ever changing cultural and political situations.

From the outset we must remember that on November 4 the voters will not elect a national minister or pastor in chief.  A president is not held to the same moral standards as an elder of a church.  While it is a blessing from God to have ethical or even Christian political leaders, the Bible places no such requirements on secular governments.  Even though the Bible reserves final authority in the church for men, this does not apply in the kingdom of this world.

Therefore we must be careful to not go beyond the teaching of the Bible.  The Bible calls women to specific roles in the church and home, but does not prohibit them from exercising leadership in secular political fields.  Rather, the Queen of Sheba is presented in 1 Kings 10:1-13 in a positive light in her interaction with King Solomon.  Queen Esther offers an even better example of a woman who appropriately exerted influence for the good of her people without holding the highest position of national authority (Esther 2:17).  In this light, we cannot categorically say that it was sinful for Queen Victoria to lead England as a single woman strictly because of her gender, nor can we condemn Governor Palin or any other woman for seeking the office of Vice President.

Women should not be held back from an office that is not strictly forbidden in the Bible.  Nevertheless, the question remains whether or not it is wise for a specific woman in a particular season of life to seek such an office — and the same would apply to any man.  In evaluating individual cases, a spouse and a local church pastor would be a crucial source of counsel and a means of grace from God.  Because of cultural voices to the contrary, we must remind ourselves of the unbelievably high calling of being a wife and mother, and that faithful service in the home is just as pleasing to God as national leadership.

So a female vice president, or even a female president, doesn't necessarily pose a dilemma for complementarians.  It is inevitable in God's providence that a gifted woman will lead the United States, just as women have led England, Germany, India and many other countries around the world.  We are looking forward to learning more about Governor Palin from her convention address this evening, and are grateful that the election is more than two months away.  In the meantime, we will be praying for Todd and Sarah Palin as they face challenging decisions under the bright light of public scrutiny.

Christians never outgrow their need for the Gospel: all believers, whether male or female, need the Gospel for their sanctification. That is a foundational principle from which Gender Blog seeks to draw out the implications of biblical manhood and womanhood daily in its posts.

Our friend and Council member, John Piper recently completed an exposition of Romans, a sermon series that took the better part of a decade to complete. In one of the final messages, from Rom 16: 25-27, he examined the rock-ribbed strength that men and women are to draw from rehearsing the Gospel to themselves daily. Below is a transcript excerpt from that sermon. We pray that our readers will find it edifying, and that it would please God to use His Word to strengthen both men and women in their pursuit of holiness.

Strength for Women in the Gospel

It's not a strength that the world knows or gives. Women, teenage girls, what do you think of when you think of being a strong woman? Or little girls, when you think of growing up to be a strong woman what do you dream? Getting this clear is important because God wants you to be strong, and both the Bible and experience tell you that in one sense you are the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7)-95% of the adult males in the world are physically stronger than 95% of the adult females. When you dream about being a strong woman what should you dream?

The world will tell you three ways to pursue your strength: One is by being sexy, dressing sexy, acting sexy, because men are such suckers, you can get power over them that way. Another is by being assertive, forceful, aggressive, self-confident. And third, be smart and move through all the channels of influence into positions of power. None of those is the strength Paul is talking about when he says, "Now unto him who is able to strengthen you . . . ."

Paul has in mind the inner strength that Peter mentioned for women in 1 Peter 3:6 where Peter tells the women to be like Sarah and the holy women of old: "You are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening." And the kind of strength that Proverbs 31:25 is talking about when it says, "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come."

In other words, women, young girls, dream of being so confident in God, and who you are in God as the daughter of the king of the universe, and what he has done for you and promises to do for you and be for you in Jesus Christ, that you fear nothing but God and laugh at the time to come-no matter what it holds. Sexiness (I promise you will lose it) and the man you get with it is not the kind of man you want. Assertiveness-you will alienate the very kind of people you want to be around. Halls of power, they are like grass: The wind passes over it and it is gone. But the strength that God gives through the gospel abides forever. "Now unto him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel . . . be glory forevermore."

Strength for Men in the Gospel

Men, boys, what about you? What do you dream of when you dream of being strong? That you can someday hold an Altoids tin and look "curiously strong"? Or to be the best player in a sport? Or to be the most shrewd stock broker and wield the power of money? Or to be educated and read Atlantic Monthly and listen to NPR and drop obscure names in cocktail conversations?

No. Only a fool wants fading power. Only a fool wants power that gives out just when you need it most. I'll tell you the kind of power God is able to give you through the gospel. It's the power to lead your wife and family in devotions; the power to say a simple word of truth when highly educated, secular, elitist complexity is all around you; the power to stand your ground and say no to a sinful behavior when everyone else is calling you weak; the power to press on against all obstacles in a cause of justice and mercy and truth when you feel that you have no more motivation.

Strength for All in the Gospel

God is able to strengthen all of you-men and women-with a kind of inner strength of soul through faith in Christ that makes you stronger in a wheelchair than ten thousand moral jellyfish drifting on two legs with the current of modern culture. What we want is the kind of strength that will be here when we are paralyzed and can only answer questions with our eyelids. And we know where it comes from: "Now to him who is able to strengthen you . . . be glory forevermore."

For the first time in its 40-year-history, last Sunday Irving Bible Church (IBC) in Irving, Texas, had a woman to fill its pulpit on the Lord's Day. Jackie Roese, the church's teaching pastor to women preached at all three services, addressing more than 3,500 attendees.

The action has sparked no small controversy among evangelicals in North Texas and beyond. Tom Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church told the Dallas Morning News that the congregation is on "dangerous ground" for violating the clear teaching of Scripture: "If the Bible is not true and authoritative on the roles of men and women, then maybe the Bible will not be finally true on premarital sex, the homosexual issue, adultery or any other moral issue. I believe this issue is the carrier of a virus by which liberalism will enter the evangelical church.

As one of the larger evangelical congregations in the Dallas metro area, IBC has served as the home for professors, administrators and students of Dallas Theological Seminary for many years. Mark Bailey, who serves as president of DTS, has removed himself from a team of regular guest preachers at the church due to its move toward egalitarianism. Bailey cited "personal convictions and professional reasons" for his decision to amicably distance himself from the church.

Inside the church, the controversy seems to be more limited as few members have left over the issue. The church's elders produced a 24-page position paper on the issue which argues, in essence, that Bible verses restricting women's role in the church "were culturally and historically specific, not universal principles for all times and places..." and that the Bible presents "an ethic in progress leading to full freedom for women to exercise their giftedness in the local church."  Elders also concluded that the office of pastor or elder "seems to be biblically relegated to men." Church leaders have said Roese preached "under the authority of an elder board that will continue to be all male," according to the Dallas Morning-News report.

Denny Burk, editor of the Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, said the view expressed in the elders' position paper represents a marked shift toward egalitarianism.

"The elders have clearly moved the church to an egalitarian-friendly position, despite their limiting the role of elder to men," Burk writes in an upcoming editorial in the JBMW. "That the office of elder only ‘seems' to be limited to men suggests that the elders are less than certain about their conclusion on this point. What is perhaps most significant here is the fact that the elders have adopted a trajectory hermeneutic in their understanding of the relevant biblical texts."

Burk further argues that the so-called "trajectory hermeneutic" popularized by William Webb in his 2001 IVP book Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis, undermines the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura ("Scripture alone"), and thus, undermines biblical authority. This aberrant view is behind IBC's capitulation on the issue of female preachers, Burk asserts.

What bears noting are two observations: first, just because something in the Bible is clearly conditioned by the culture in which the author wrote, does not thereby nullify that truth or make it reversible for another culture.  And second, whether one believes that women should exert elder authority in the local church by preaching a sermon is ultimately a much larger question than merely that of church order.  It is a question of whether we deny or affirm the plain teachings of God's holy Word. The authority of Scripture is at stake in this matter.  May we give these questions the gravity they deserve.

"I am tired of having my rights violated and being treated as a second-class citizen." 

The sentiment captured in this quote echoes a universal cry resonating in the hearts of all people.  Being created in the image of God instills inalienable rights and should guarantee fundamental equality for everyone regardless of gender.  By God's grace over the last century, men and women have responded to this cry and have put an end to many egregious injustices.  We can celebrate today the fact that women in this country now have the freedom to vote, own property, and pursue higher education.  This is pleasing to God, and the impetus to correct evils should not cease as long as gender discrimination like selective abortion, female infanticide, or sexual slavery exist anywhere in the world.

Yet we must be sure that we are guided in this quest by the truth of Scripture rather than a self-defined sense of injustice.  If we replace the sinful pride behind male domination with the sinful pride inherent in radical female liberation, there is no advance in godliness.  Further, the societal tools that have been used to give rights to women are now being unleashed in unintended ways.

For example, the above quote is not from a woman, but a man who recently filed a lawsuit against Columbia University for offering courses in "women's studies" without a comparable program in "men's studies."  The plaintiff, Roy Den Hollander, considers this an intolerable situation that must be remedied by the courts.

His class-action suit accuses Columbia of using government aid to preach a "religionist belief system called feminism" which is discriminatory toward men.  In Mr. Den Hollander's suit, he called women's studies "a bastion of bigotry against men" and said its women's studies program "demonizes men and exalts women in order to justify discrimination against men based on collective guilt."  Such academic programs at Columbia and at universities nationwide, he said, are "spreading prejudice and fostering animosity and distrust toward men with the result of the wholesale violation of men's rights due to ignorance, falsehoods and malice."

Broadening his egalitarian crusade, Mr. den Hollander is also seeking class-action status in federal court for a lawsuit against restaurants and nightclubs, alleging that "Ladies night" —which offer discounted or free beverages to women —illegally discriminates against men.  One of the defendants in this case described the lawsuit as "pathetic."

Unfortunately the courts system will never be able to completely end gender-based discrimination, because it is a spiritual problem of the heart.  While governments are instituted by God to reward those who do good and punish those who do evil, in many cases the court system can only bring equality in the same way that a lawnmower makes a yard egalitarian:  the tall grass is cut down to size. 

The gospel, on the other hand, is like fertilizer on a lawn.  Jesus Christ lifts up the downtrodden and brings a different type of equality at the foot of the cross, where both male and female sinners can find forgiveness.  Only through the transforming power of the gospel will men see women as equal heirs of salvation and honor them accordingly.  Only through sanctification will enable women to assume a complementary role in the home and church and stand against the temptation to conquer. 

Without the gospel, there will never be an end to the court battles seeking to level out unequal rights.