{"id":23231,"date":"2019-06-06T07:43:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T14:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23231"},"modified":"2019-06-06T23:27:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T06:27:23","slug":"rise-in-strength-global-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/rise-in-strength-global-consultation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise in Strength Global Consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I just returned home from the RISE in Strength\u2014Global Consultation for Women in International Christian Leadership, which was sponsored by the World Evangelical Alliance and the Lausanne Conference. Meeting for four days in Amsterdam, sixty women from every continent and many different denominational backgrounds gathered to discuss how to reach the unreached and serve the unserved; to share wisdom, experience, and resources; and to craft a unified statement calling the Church to recognize the need for gender equality.<\/p>\n

This Call to the Church was the topic of long and careful conversations and will be translated into ten or more different languages and distributed among our respective networks. It begins with the statement \u201cRecognizing the changing context in which we find ourselves, we gathered from diverse backgrounds. We were united in our conviction that gender inequality continues to be a barrier that diminishes the effective witness of the Church to the transforming power of the Gospel.\u201d[1]<\/a> The document goes on to highlight areas of gender inequality to which the Church needs to attend and calls the Church to action on several accounts. The concluding statement reads, \u201cWe call on men and women of the global Church to act so that women, men, girls, and boys can all embrace their spiritual gifting to strengthen the work of the Church and Her witness to the glory of God.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Rise Consultation, Dr. Mimi Haddad, Fuller Professor of Historical Theology and the President of Christians for Biblical Equality, presented a pecha kucha on Gender Inequality. She eloquently stated \u201cAdam\u2019s aloneness is the only \u2018not good\u2019 in a perfect world.\u201d[3]<\/a> She explained that when Adam named all of the animals and found no suitable helper among them, \u201cthe strong rescue that Adam needs does not come from a creature that requires human rule.\u201d[4]<\/a> Using the creation story, she highlighted how rank and authority enter the world as a result of sin. I had never noticed it before, but even the fact that Adam named Eve (a way of ruling over her as he had over the animals) comes in Genesis 3:20\u2026after the fall.<\/p>\n

I have deep respect for those who take the time to do honest theological reflection around this and other issues. I believe the Word of God leads us into all Truth. So did every woman at this consultation. They were lovers of Scripture, lovers and respecters of their husbands, fathers, and sons, lovers and advocates for their sisters, daughters and mothers. But above all they love Jesus and long to see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And in heaven, men and women are co-heirs, co-rulers with Christ as their head.<\/p>\n

Martyn Percy, Anglican Priest and Dean of Christ Church Oxford sympathizes with the long path that women have had to walk to take their place alongside of men within the Anglican Church specifically and the Christian Church in general. In commenting on the controversy over female bishops, he cites the French Roman Catholic theologian Yves Conger whose \u201crevolutionary insight was that church leaders ultimately have a responsibility to not<\/em> be too patient. In other words, a moment comes when a decision must be made. Hopeful patience may prove to be wise for some while. But pointless waiting is merely prevarication posturing as discernment.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The reality is, gender inequality is an issue all over the world, with women being among the poorest, least educated, and most vulnerable populations of every country on earth. When women are not valued as equals, they suffer abuse and injustice at the hands of those who devalue them. What we can no longer deny is that patriarchy in the Church is complicit with the problem. In A Call to Action<\/em>, former US President Jimmy Carter writes, \u201c\u201cI have become convinced that the most serious unaddressed worldwide challenge is the deprivation and abuse of women and girls, largely caused by a false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts \u2026In addition to the unconscionable human suffering,\u2026.there is a devastating effect on economic prosperity caused by the loss of contributions of at least half the human beings on earth. This is not just a women\u2019s issue. It is not confined to the poorest countries. It affects all of us.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

I believe that all forms of inequality in the church are a major hindrance to the Gospel. Historically, missionaries have contributed to the problem by propagating patriarchal interpretations of scriptures that failed to communicate the liberating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am convinced that missions and evangelism in the 21st<\/sup> century must be distinctly egalitarian. We can longer side-line the gender issue as \u201csecondary\u201d to the Gospel, for it hits at the heart of the Gospel message, which says that Jesus Christ came to set us free from every form of oppression. He is the one and only Ruler and King. The body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, is made up of two distinctly different but equally valued and purposed sexes.<\/p>\n

The tone of the Rise Consultation was one of hope and reconciliation. There was no desire to see men removed from their service in the Church, only an eager desire for women to participate as full partners. Every word of the Call was scrutinized so as to be sure that men of God would not be shamed or offended; but rather, invited to be reconciled to their sister in Christ for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of the King.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be happy to share with you the Call to all Christians that was written at the Rise in Strength Consultation once it is published. I\u2019d be eager to hear your feedback.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Rise Consultation\u2014Amsterdam June 2019. Call to All Christians.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rise Consultation\u2014Amsterdam June 2019. Dr. Mimi Haddad.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Rise Consultation\u2014Amsterdam June 2019. Dr. Mimi Haddad. Dr. Haddad explained that the Hebrew word \/ezer\/ used to describe Eve comes from two words, one meaning \u201cto be strong\u201d and the other meaning \u201cto rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ian S. Markham and Joshue Daniel, eds., Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em> (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2018), Kindle loc 5653.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Jimmy Carter, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power<\/em>, 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just returned home from the RISE in Strength\u2014Global Consultation for Women in International Christian Leadership, which was sponsored by the World Evangelical Alliance and the Lausanne Conference. Meeting for four days in Amsterdam, sixty women from every continent and many different denominational backgrounds gathered to discuss how to reach the unreached and serve the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23279,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23231\/revisions\/23279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}