Category: My Gender Role Journey
-
Don’t Blame Complementarianism when Women Leave Church
Last fall, an article was posted on The Gospel Coalition website acknowledging the rapid increase of departures of women from evangelical churches. While Christian researchers have been noticing this phenomenon for several years, a New York Times article pointed to abuse in the church and restrictive gender role theology as possible reasons for these departures.…
-
Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian
Part 7 of My Gender Role Journey Another requirement for the class, “Race, Gender, and the American Church,” was reading the book, Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian, by Michelle Lee-Barnewall. This seemed like a safe entry point to begin my research on gender because it did not advocate for either side but sought to reframe the…
-
Hard Teaching – 1 Timothy 2
Part 6 of My Gender Role Journey How can we understand hard passages in the Bible? I mentioned previously that I was taught that egalitarians didn’t believe in the authority of the Bible, and they just threw out the verses that didn’t align with their viewpoint. As I started hearing from actual egalitarians, I…
-
Does Anyone Here Speak Complementarian?
Part 5 of My Gender Role Journey For my third semester in seminary, I wanted to continue in Theology 2 but was intrigued by a class with Dr. Nicole Martin called “Race, Gender, and the American Church.” During the first 20 weeks of the year at my job, I worked 120 hours of unpaid overtime.…
-
Your Interpretation of the Bible is not Inerrant
Part 4 of My Gender Role Journey Another topic in Theology 1 that impacted my understanding of gender roles was the Doctrine of Scripture. I dove into 350 pages of reading and hours of lectures covering the diverse theories of how God revealed himself in the world and what scripture is. I had always heard…
-
You can’t spell Complementarianism without Arianism!
Part 3 of My Gender Role Journey Enrolling in Theology 1 (TH501) for my second seminary course in Spring of 2021 was intimidating. I knew enough about the New Testament to feel like I could hold my own in that class, but when it came to theology, I thought I’d be out of my depth.…
-
Why Do Complementarians Ignore Phoebe?
Part 2 of My Gender Role Journey For my first seminary class, I chose “Exploring the New Testament.” The course incorporated the historical context of the New Testament world and the intertestamental period. I learned about the origins of Hanukkah, the creation of the Septuagint, and how the rise and fall of four kingdoms fulfilled…
-
My Gender Role Journey
Part 1 of My Gender Role Journey In 2020, I enrolled in seminary because my husband and pastors identified my giftedness and encouraged me to get more theological training. The leadership had just recruited me to join the church staff as Director of Adult Discipleship. Investment in me was to be one of the markers…
-
Ἀδελφοί
I had always been one of those eager students in women’s Bible study who flipped open a concordance after class to see the original words and how they were used in other verses. Unlike some, I enjoyed when preachers shared insights about Greek or Hebrew words. It seemed like they held the key to unlocking…
Lark TheoSis 