JBMW Forum: Q & A on Women's Ministry
Wayne Grudem and Dorothy Kelley Patterson
JBMW: What is the current state of women's ministry among evangelicals? What areas of concern and/or encouragement do you see?
Wayne Grudem: On the positive side, I am encouraged by several groups that have taken a clear stand in favor of a complementarian position, including active steps to promote biblically valid ministries by women. These would in clude the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Evangelical Free Church of America, Sovereign Grace Ministries, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Thousands of independent Bible churches and other independent churches across the United States also fall in this category. Several book publishers (such as Crossway, Moody, Presbyterian and Reformed, and Broadman and Holman) are solidly complementarian, as are a number of seminaries and Christian colleges. These groups have thought through the issues thoroughly and have taken a clear stand. I do not expect them to change in the future, but to see more and more of God's blessing on their ministries as they seek to walk in faithfulness to the Word of God.
On the other hand, I see a number of groups that are sympathetic to an egalitarian position, and they are moving in a progressively more liberal direction. I am saddened to see the Association of Vineyard Churches move in this direction, as well as the Christian Reformed Church, Fuller Seminary, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, InterVarsity Press, and Baker Book House, for example. A number of charismatic or Pentecostal groups are also moving in this direction, and unfortunately the widely-influential magazine Charisma is aggressively promoting an evangelical feminist agenda. I am concerned that the ministry of CBMW has had apparently very little impact among charismatic and pentecostal groups. Their historic tendency to place a somewhat higher emphasis on experience rather than on true doctrine leaves them wide open to being seduced by egalitarian arguments and moving in a much more liberal direction, one step at a time.
My biggest concern is that many of these denominations, after first adopting a feminist position regarding women in ministry, will soon adopt a feminist position regarding the home, and then regarding the Trinity (calling God "Mother" and rejecting the headship of the Father within the Trinity), promoting gender-neutral Bibles such as the NRSV or TNIV, and eventually tolerating and then approving homosexual conduct as well. We see this in denomination after denomination, such as in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which took a large step toward allowing homosexual pastors in August of 2007. I detail many more examples like this in my book Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? (Crossway, 2006).
So we are beginning to see some of the really damaging consequences of evangelical feminism. It results in gender identity confusion among men and women, and increasingly leads churches step after step toward theological liberalism, in which more and more of the teachings of the Bible are rejected. A lot is at stake!
Dorothy Patterson: Women's ministries among evangelicals are not all created equal. I see tremendous diversity in quality and focus, as well as in results. I am encouraged to see an emphasis on the biblical pattern of woman-to-woman teaching and personal ministry. The apostle Paul's positive approach in Titus 2 clearly presents the method by which spiritually mature women teach the women who are new to or young in the faith. The curriculum's emphasis on the home and relationships therein, as well as the reminder of the importance of managing the household fits harmoniously with the creation order in Genesis and the paradigm for biblical womanhood in Proverbs 31, as well as with the household codes found in the New Testament.
On the other hand, I am discouraged and very weary of the shallow and emotionally-driven materials that dominate the resources available. Genuine biblical exposition for women is almost non-existent. Perhaps Christian publishers do not know how to define biblical exposition. Having immersed myself in the world of theological education for women for almost three decades, I never cease to be amazed that products prepared by women with theological training are almost spurned—certainly not received by publishers in the same way as the media personalities they seek. I am disappointed in the veiled put-down of women in the sense that presumably those making decisions on where to put marketing emphasis seem determined to ignore materials that are doctrinally sound and challenging in verse-by-verse exposition and to push materials with more blank space and questions than substantive explanation. Certainly inductive study has a place for every student of Scripture—but not until a clear deductive foundation has been set forth.
