What is this "Comp. vs. Ega." Thing all about?
September 26, 2007
Dr. Denny Burk has joined the CBMW team as the editor for the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood starting with the Spring 2008 issue. He also serves as an Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. He brings a scholar’s mind and a pastor’s heart to the task of educating believers about the biblical roles of men and women. Both aspects were evident on his blog recently as he answered a series of questions on key gender issues. We have included an excerpt here:
What practical difference does this “Comp. vs. Ega.” thing make to a church member?
It makes all the difference in the world. When Jesus calls people to be His disciples, He?s not calling them as androgynous creatures. He calls them as male and female. A man’s role as a Christian husband is different than a woman’s role as a believing wife (Ephesians 5:21-33). A Christian husband will lead his family as Christ leads and “heads” His church, or else the husband is a disobedient disciple. A Christian wife will follow her husband’s leadership as the church follows Christ’s, or else she is a disobedient disciple. These two biblical principles alone have massive practical implications for the ordering of family life, for the raising of children, and for the continued health of marriages. Within the church, Complementarianism has enormous practical implications. It means that a church that wants to obey the Bible will only call qualified men to be pastors. It means that churches will be aiming to open up appropriate avenues of ministry for all of its members, including women. The practical outworking of Complementarianism is too large to list here. There?s just no getting around the fact that the gender question has massive implications for the life of the disciple in nearly every aspect of his life.
If you have ever pondered questions like this, then see the entire blog post by JBMW editor Denny Burk.
(HT:David Kotter — CBMW)
Posted in Church, Complementarianism, Egalitarianism
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December 4th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I came from a church that is egalitarian and I have grown to see that it is simply not biblical. It’s really important for us to get this right becuase if we don’t understand the realationship between a man and a woman it will skew our understanding of the relationship that Christ has to us as His holy bride. Besides all of this, if we ignore the clear teaching of scripture and allow the culture to influence our understanding of male and female realtionships it will inevitably result in the acceptance and affirmation of the ordination of homosexuals to the ministry.