Executive Director's Column

One of the things I am often asked to address is the nature of the ongoing work of CBMW. While these inquirers are usually familiar with the complementarian position, they are often unaware of how we go about achieving our mission. With this in mind I believe it would be helpful to use this issue's column to communicate some of the key elements of our work.

1. Answering Current Challenges to Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

With the broad confusion regarding such basic things as what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, it should be no surprise that much of our work centers on answering the seemingly endless challenges to the biblical presentation. On a regular basis, we are not only dealing with egalitarian challenges to the home and church, but we also are combating multiple attempts to revise the doctrine of God, publish gender-neutral Bible translations, and push the acceptance of homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle. In fact many of the articles in this issue of JBMW highlight our concerns in these areas.

2. Defining the Issue.

One of CBMW's primary contributions has been to define the complementarian position and encourage its acceptance and application. Without this centralized definition, it is likely that numerous variations would have been proposed by now that would have weakened our work.

3. Building Consensus Among Evangelicals.

CBMW regularly participates in evangelical forums and discussions and frequently serves as the evangelical voice for the biblical view of gender to the Christian community. CBMW Council members are involved at various levels in the evangelical community and have assisted representatives in such organizations and denominations as FamilyLife, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Presbyterian Church in America.

4. Persuading Christian Leaders in the Church and Academy.

One of CBMW's goals is to be involved regularly in what we call, "engagement and debate." In order to influence and persuade leaders in the Christian community, we provide access to hundreds of complementarian resources on our website, publish the biannual Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and coordinate the presentation of papers at scholarly meetings. Furthermore, each year, we participate in dozens of radio and print interviews.

5. Contributing to Knowledge and Practice.

One of the ways we believe we can best serve evangelicals is to engage continually in the academic and pastoral responsibilities of promoting the publication of complementarian resources and encouraging the application of the principles of the Danvers Statement. CBMW assists local churches and individuals by annually helping over 500,000 people from 34 different countries who visit our website, by sponsoring conferences, and by serving as a clearing house for complementarian resources.

6. Partnering with Like-minded Ministries.

At CBMW, we believe that like-minded ministries should cooperate and share resources and expertise as much as possible. Each year we partner with many different ministries that affirm the principles of the Danvers Statement.

In my estimate, the need for an organization like CBMW has never been greater primarily because the resistance to the biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood has never been stronger. I am grateful for many who see the significance of this issue and understand the severity of the repercussions resulting from a failure of the church to deal biblically with it.