Editorial: A High-Profile Conversion to Egalitarianism

Irving Bible Church (IBC) is a large evangelical congregation in the metro area of Dallas, Texas. Over the years, IBC has been the church home for many professors, administrators, and students of Dallas Theological Seminary and is commonly associated with the constituency of that school. Both the church and the seminary have an historic commitment to the complementarian position.¹

Beginning in 2006, however, the elders of IBC began a year and a half long reconsideration of the church's stance on the gender issue-the results of which were published in the Spring of 2008 on the church's website.² On page two of a 24-page position paper titled "Women and Ministry at IBC," the elders summarize their findings as follows:

1. The accounts of creation and the fall (Genesis 1-3) reveal a fundamental equality between men and women.
2. Women exercised significant ministry roles of teaching and leading with God's blessing in both Old and New Testaments.
3. Though the role of women was historically limited, the progress of revelation indicates an ethic in progress leading to full freedom for women to exercise their giftedness in the local church.
4. Key New Testament passages restricting women's roles were culturally and historically specific, not universal principles for all time and places.
5. Though women are free to use all of their giftedness in teaching and leading in the church, the role of elder seems to be biblically relegated to men.

Several things are clear from these findings. The elders have clearly moved the church to an egalitarian-friendly position, despite their limiting the role of elder to men. 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.

The process that led to these findings included consultations with various professional theologians. The elders write on the IBC website that," we sought godly counsel, and invited three professors from Dallas Theological Seminary . . . [each one] representing different positions on the issue to present their studies and insights to us."³

A testimonial published in the church's newsletter reveals that one of those professors, Dr. Robert Pyne, advocated a thoroughgoing egalitarian position to the elders. The essay is titled "Why I Changed My Mind," and in it Pyne writes,

When I was a theology professor, people frequently asked me about the role of women in ministry. I used to tell them I held to "complementarianism," a word with far too many syllables. The label stands for a belief that, while women and men have equal dignity and value, they occupy distinct roles in church and in the home. Proponents of this position believe the Bible places restrictions on a woman's service in the body of Christ. I no longer believe that, and I now attend a church with a female senior pastor. Clearly something has changed, but it was not my view of biblical authority. My interpretation of the Bible, however, has been recently renovated.

The "renovation" of Pyne's view stems in part from his embrace of a trajectory hermeneutic in his reading of scripture. This fact comes out as he explains his conversion to the egalitarian view vis a vis his reading of certain sections of the Old Testament:

The Law of God was never meant to represent God's ideal....The Law was a transitional ethic for those who had a long way to go on the journey of faith.... If the Law does not fully express God's ideal, might something similar be happening with other ethical passages of Scripture, even in the New Testament?

Pyne answers this last question in the affirmative, arguing that the Bible's commands sometimes represent a "transitional ethic" that should not be applied universally for all times and cultures. He writes,

A transitional ethic acknowledges a move from biblical command to biblical ideal. It embraces the spirit of the law over the letter of the law. It encourages a shift from careful restriction to broad encouragement.... May we all join in the movement toward God's ideal as we celebrate both women and men participating fully in the kingdom of God.

What should we make of the changes at IBC, and why is it a topic worth mentioning in this journal?

First of all, theology has consequences for the pews.⁴ The theology shaping the shift at IBC appears to be coming from a trajectory hermeneutic like the one that William Webb advances in his watershed book Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals.⁵ Points three and four of the elders' findings say that the biblical texts on gender represent an "ethic in progress." The elders say that even though there may be patriarchal affirmations in scripture, those affirmations are "culturally and historically specific, not universal principles for all time and places." It would appear that Webb's book has had a shaping influence on both the conversion of Pyne and the findings of the IBC elders. It is remarkable that Webb's hermeneutic continues to have an impact seven years after the publication of his controversial book. Theology does have consequences, and once again we are reminded that the gender debate has never been a merely academic exercise.

Second, IBC has essentially moved to an egalitarian position. The adoption of the trajectory hermeneutic is the crossing of a theological "Rubicon," as it were. How one reads the relevant biblical texts will have more of a determinative influence in the long run than the vestigial affirmation of a male-only eldership. Even though the office of elder still "seems" to be limited to men, that proscription cannot survive for long. Going forward, it is difficult to imagine how biblical directives about male-only elders can withstand the logic of a trajectory hermeneutic. Eventually, all apparent limitations will be deemed as reflecting a "transitional ethic" that no longer applies to contemporary culture.

Third and finally, the trajectory hermeneutic remains a threat to the functional authority of the Bible in the life of God's people. Wayne Grudem's warning in this regard is still relevant: "Webb's trajectory hermeneutic nullifies in principle the moral authority of the entire New Testament and thus contradicts the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura."⁶ For this reason, we do not view the changes at IBC with indifference. The situation is a matter of grave moral concern because it amounts to a setting aside of the clear teachings of scripture (e.g.,1 Tim 2:12) in favor of misguided hermeneutical criteria. Perhaps more than ever before, it is clear that this debate is unfolding as a contention about the authority of scripture itself.The gender debate is far from over. What we conclude about these matters has profound practical implications for both the church and the home. Even if certain sectors of the larger evangelical culture regard these matters as passé, we do not. There is far too much at stake.