Dr. Denny Burk has joined the CBMW team as the editor for the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood starting with the Spring 2008 issue. He also serves as an Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. He brings a scholar’s mind and a pastor’s heart to the task of educating believers about the biblical roles of men and women. Both aspects were evident on his blog recently as he answered a series of questions on key gender issues. We have included an excerpt here:

What practical difference does this “Comp. vs. Ega.” thing make to a church member?

It makes all the difference in the world. When Jesus calls people to be His disciples, He’s not calling them as androgynous creatures. He calls them as male and female. A man’s role as a Christian husband is different than a woman’s role as a believing wife (Ephesians 5:21-33). A Christian husband will lead his family as Christ leads and “heads” His church, or else the husband is a disobedient disciple. A Christian wife will follow her husband’s leadership as the church follows Christ’s, or else she is a disobedient disciple. These two biblical principles alone have massive practical implications for the ordering of family life, for the raising of children, and for the continued health of marriages. Within the church, Complementarianism has enormous practical implications. It means that a church that wants to obey the Bible will only call qualified men to be pastors. It means that churches will be aiming to open up appropriate avenues of ministry for all of its members, including women. The practical outworking of Complementarianism is too large to list here. There’s just no getting around the fact that the gender question has massive implications for the life of the disciple in nearly every aspect of his life.

If you have ever pondered questions like this, then see the entire blog post by JBMW editor Denny Burk.

[One of the joys of serving as executive director at CBMW is being able to connect with Christians who come from radically different backgrounds but who are united by an intense love of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through this blog, we want to introduce you over time to many of these Bible-saturated people who hold a complementarian understanding of God’s design for men and women.

Below you will find an extended post by Courtney Tarter, a dear friend of CBMW. She is a single woman who is wise beyond her years and who deeply loves the Savior. (You can find more of her outstanding observations on her blog In View of God’s Mercy) - David Kotter]

When we think of a feminist we can all probably think of a person we know, or know of, who typifies the feminist ideology. There are all types of fixtures of feminism ranging from Presidential candidates to evangelical scholars to college students—and I am one of them. Prior to conversion I was the stereotypical Generation Y feminist—anti-marriage, anti-child rearing, and corporate ladder hopeful. After conversion I sang a slightly different tune, although held onto many of my previous ideals regarding marriage and settling down. I simply masked it with a missions/ministry focus, content to be the single girl on a mission to save a third-world country for Christ. What I did not want, or think I needed, was the idea that my changed life meant changed priorities. It was not that I needed to find a husband or chuck any career aspirations, the problem was that I thought feminism was an outside of the church issue, at least the conservative church that I belonged too. I had no notion that my heart, at its core, was fighting against the authority of God in the Scriptures, and still does have a lot of change left to be done to it.

I may have moved out of the militant feminist camp, but I most certainly have been a part of one too many male bashing conversations in a dorm room and coffee shop with my girl friends. What we must understand about feminism is that it did not originate in the wake of the women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s. And the mother of feminism is far older than Ms. Magazine and her friends. Feminism started in a garden in the Middle East thousands of years ago. Feminism is at the very heart of our fallen nature, and manifests itself in many different forms.

Recovering from feminism must first start with an embracing of the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Only then will we see the roots severed because we will be clothed in the humility of Christ, who willingly submitted himself to the Father on our behalf. For older women it will mean embracing and modeling femininity, motherhood, and marriage in a Titus 2 way. For younger women it will mean knowing the godly women in our congregations better than we know the celebrities on late night television.

Feminist ideology is not simply relegated to the brash Gloria Steinem types, or even the female executive with the corner office. Rather, feminism rises up in ordinary women in our congregations, homes, and in the least obvious place, the mirror. Feminism is in the core of our hearts apart from the saving work of the shed blood of Christ, and not simply because we are militant against male authority, but primarily because we are opposed to the greatest authority of all—our Creator. The feminist is not some abstract “out there” woman. She is staring right at us every morning when we put on our make-up.

If we are going to make any headway in the gender discussion, we must first admit that our problem lies much deeper than a woman filling the pulpit on Sunday morning, or stay-at-home dads. Our problem lies in the fact that there is no one righteous and we are all opposed to God—we are all feminists at heart. And we can’t wake up one day and decide to be a Proverbs 31 woman any more than a man can decide to lead like Christ. Instead of seeing our gender differences as mere cultural constructions we must first admit that there was something far greater going on in the Garden than we now realize, and when Creation fell, it was distorted. In creating man and woman differently, God was pointing to the beauty of the Trinitarian relationship, and the relationship between Christ and His Church. The fact that we fight against it reveals our depravity even more.

Many times we are so busy looking for the woman with the hyphenated name that we miss the woman who scoffs at a man for opening the door for her. Both of these actions are products of our feminist heart. My “recovery” from feminism is not about learning how to bake pies or a decision to be more feminine (though these are important and helpful things), it is about repentance. Repentance of my desire to be in control and to raise my fist against God’s created order. Only through repentance and faith in Christ am I, or any one for that matter, able to renounce rebellion and submit to the Lordship of Christ. It also means truly believing that God’s Word regarding gender, and everything else for that matter, is true. Recovery for many of us will mean a reversal of the way we approach women in our congregations. It is no wonder why so many young women don’t desire motherhood when what they often hear from older women is to “get your degree first and live your life,” acting as if marriage and children was the final stamp on the end of your life as you know it.

And when I still feel the judgment rising up in me when I see a young woman joyfully choosing marriage and a family over a college degree, I realize that I have a long way to go before this feminist is fully recovered. As I grow in my walk, there is a great hope in the Holy Spirit’s promise to complete the work that Christ began (Phil. 1:6). From the time the first feminist (Eve) came on the scene, until now, we have been in a cosmic battle against the flesh and Satan because he hates the image of Christ and His Church. We await the final consummation of the good work that was started by King Jesus on Calvary. With the curse came the promise. Feminism was, and will finally be, defeated when the Seed crushes the Serpent (Gen. 3:15). And that’s good news for recovering feminists like you and me.

In a recent interview, Leonard Sax asserts that boys in the United States are not doing well at all.

He is concerned that young men today are very often characterized by lack of motivation and underachievement. This is seen in their classroom performance, preoccupation with video games, delayed commitment to higher levels of responsibility (mainly marriage and vocation), and a prolonged dependence upon parents. 

While the interview discusses many possible causes, I suspect that there is a more fundamental reason. Cultural confusion over gender roles has left us with the inability to articulate a clear and compelling vision of manhood. If there are no role differences, then it is difficult to say anything meaningful at all about the responsibilities men should and must embrace.

Sadly, the church has been deeply influenced by this cultural confusion and in many places seems to have lost the content of the biblical vision for manhood, or has lost the courage to proclaim it. CBMW exists because there is much more at stake in the gender debate other than who might be authorized to preach on Sunday mornings. The health of the home and the church are at risk and we can help give biblical admonition in this area.

There is no more extreme example of gender discrimination than pre-selection before birth. Sadly, delegates to the 14^th World Congress on In Vitro Fertilization were informed that gender pre-selection for non-medical reasons is increasing around the world as a result of new developments in reproductive technology.

Joseph Schenker, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, noted that societies have favored the birth of boys over girls. He suggested that pre-implantation genetic screening to choose a child's sex is an acceptable alternative to female infanticide in India or abortion of female babies in China.

The most reliable method of gender selection involves creating several embryos through in vitro fertilization and examining them genetically to determine the gender. Then an embryo of the desired gender is chosen and transferred to the mother’s uterus. The leftover embryos are either destroyed, frozen or donated.

At CBMW we are grieved to see unbiblical discrimination between men and women who are fearfully and wonderfully made from the womb (Psalms 139:13-14) and who have equal access to salvation in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Pre-selection before birth is the worst form of discrimination against women, and it is inherently sinful to artificially favor the birth of boys over girls. Do not let the sterile techniques of reproductive technology that “destroy embryos” obscure the fact that these sinful desires lead to the murder of women who bear the image of God (Genesis 9:6).

Photo from by IVF.com, Atlanta, GA, USA. Copyright 2005.

John Piper recently honored Chuck & Carol Steddom and Sam & Vicki Crabtree for their contribution to Bethlehem Baptist church over the past ten years. The following excerpt from his comments captures the essence of pastoral ministry at this complementarian church:

1. Both (Chuck and Sam) bring masculine force to their work.

You meet it on the basketball court: Sam simply doesn’t miss shots, and Chuck is a gorilla on the boards. But I mean the masculine force in worship and administrative motion. It is no secret I want the leadership of Bethlehem to have a vibrant, strong, wise, tender, gutsy, masculine feel to it. There are too many effeminate churches—especially in worship services—and it is killing the church for men who think this is too silky for them. And it is killing the church for their women who wish they were there growing strong in grace. Praise God for two men who give to the leadership at Bethlehem a humble, strong, and naturally masculine feel. They don’t need to work at it. They embody it.

2. Both of these men married superbly strong partners in ministry (Carol and Vicki), especially at the piano.

Whether it is worship services, weddings, funerals, or other gatherings, Carol and Vicki are models of undistracting excellence. That is, they do their work so well they are almost invisible. There is no distracting flare. There is rock-solid strength in the genre at hand, and I never lose a moment’s peace worrying about their competence or their appropriateness.

Reflecting on their partnership in the gospel, Pastor John rejoiced, “The Lord is my chosen portion and cup, you hold my lot, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:5-6).