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*whispers*
What if the conversation about gender roles in the church isn't so much about gender itself but about how we form community & what we think that community is supposed to do?
What if the conversation about gender roles in the church isn't so much about gender itself but about how we form community & what we think that community is supposed to do?
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but I continue to be amazed by how little we question the shape of modern ministry.
When a church operates like a business or government, it will have little need for spiritual mothers b/c our culture understands family formation as a private (vs. public) endeavor. "Mothering" is exclusively biological, directed toward home. It's not a mode of being elsewhere.
When a church functions like family, however, spiritual mothers will be *essential* b/c there can be no new life without fathers AND mothers.
ISTM that the sidelining of women's gifts tells you a lot about the way a ministry understands its mission. Folks will disagree w/ me but I also don't think the debate should focus fundamentally on ordination.
The questions are much more about the cultures we're building & what those cultures reveal about our sense of mission & vocation. How we relate to the gifts & contributions of the women in our midst tell us whether we think they're necessary to the community's life & well-being.
So the questions I ask are:
"Who are the mothers of your church?"
"How are you honoring & equipping them?"
"Where does your time, money, & attention go?"
"Is your church operating as the household of God or Big Box ministry?
"Who are the mothers of your church?"
"How are you honoring & equipping them?"
"Where does your time, money, & attention go?"
"Is your church operating as the household of God or Big Box ministry?
Caveat: "Family" is doing a lot of work in this thread & I don't presume that we naturally understand all that the family is supposed to be. To be clear, family =/= nuclear suburban family model of domestic consumption.
Instead, I'm using family to describe a lifegiving community of distinct individuals bound together by shared begottenness & with a shared vocation.
