I love the TGC (The Gospel Coalition). I appreciate all of the theological discussion they provoke— the good and the bad. My aim is not in any way to offend or slander the brethren who serve on its Council, my aim is to challenge an obvious trend that I have detected as of late. That has to do with women’s role on TGC site. Recently I noticed the percentage of male and female bloggers on the home page; it was 50/50. Half of the articles were written by men and have the articles were written by
women. I wonder if this is purposeful. I also recently saw a more disturbing post where a woman blogged about homiletical issues—giving pastors advice on preaching sensitive biblical material.
The simple question for us should be whether or not Scripture leads us in this direction— women guiding pastors on preaching? I think the answer coming back to us is one of caution and trajectory.
If TGC is going to set the trend for future theological ministries on-line then we must ask if TGC is taking us down a healthy trajectory with so much of their theology being written by women? This is a challenging issue because all of the men that serve on the TGC Council to whatever capacity as far as I can tell are committed to complementarianism and biblical manhood and womanhood in the tradition of Piper/Grudem— which of course the council includes Piper. The point is simple, should women have equal theological input on websites like TGC? I think this has the potential to become a harmful effect on the church. On a pastoral level, what happens in the practice of a para-church ministry like TGC can quickly seek application in the context of the local church. We have a blog on our church website, should the elders permit women to assist in the theological discipleship of the entire church by posting on doctrinal issues, even dealing with homiletics? I do not foresee this ever happening at our church. In his book, Evangelical Feminism, A New Path to Liberalism? Wayne Grudem sets forth some very helpful principles for para-church organizations in order to avoid slipping into Egalitarian trajectories. Grudem suggests that if you are engaged in church-like activities you should stick as close as you can to the guidelines of Scripture for the church (see esp. Ch. 11). I would simply suggest caution and courage for the men that serve on the TGC council. Caution because Egalitarianism rarely begins by a “cold turkey” doctrinal shift, but by subtle nuances in practice over time. Courage because that is precisely what it may take to purify the ministry. It may mean one day “pulling back” the ecclesiastical reins on the scope of women’s ministry, even for an on-line ministry like TGC. Courage to speak the truth in love. Courage to change course if necessary; possibly making women bloggers specific to women’s issues (Tit. 2). I realize that many may take offense even at the suggestion that this could be wrong for the church. If that is the case, then courage may need to begin here.
rani
May 22, 2019 at 2:34 amwhat is the impact Egalitarianism and The Gospel Coalition?