Beth Moore, a

For those who don't know, Beth spoke at @LPConnect services today, and the experience marked me in a way I just took a long walk reflecting on.

Thoughts...

It was said of George Whitfield (yes, I know) there was an anointing on his preaching such that he could just say the word “Mesopotamia” and men would begin to weep. I've felt that 3x in my life: anytime Tony Evans opens his mouth, hearing Henry Blackaby in college, & today.

There are some women who, probably out of wounds, DO have an angry, gender-competitive edge who seem to want to cast men down. There is such a thing as a “Jezebel spirit.”

But miss me with that charge against Beth because whatever that is, her countenance was its reverse-image.

Here I am a 37-yr-old kid trying to figure things out, in the presence of the woman whose Bible teaching has been received by more women than any woman in church history (let that sink in) and she overtly treated me as a superior.

She requested to sit next to Jana and me in services, seemingly as a sign of coming under our leadership. She asked if there was anything I’d like her to change about her message after the 1st service. “May I have a picture with you and your children?”, she asked.

I was literally embarrassed. But then I felt dignified beyond my stature by her honor and challenged. Something kind of rose up with me: “I want to become the quality of man Miss Beth just treated me as.” I felt called up, rather than competed with or cast down.

Full disclosure: I am a convictional complementarian. Just like in a family, I believe courageous, gentle, Jesus-y men should be the primary leaders of a church. I just don’t believe they should be the *only* leaders of a church.

In the garden, God looked at Adam, said, “It's not good that man should be alone,” & designed families to work best w/ both a father & a mother. If every family = a little church & every church = a big family, a church works best w/ both spiritual fathers & spiritual mothers.

I do understand that there are a few verses (every jot and tittle of which I believe should be obeyed in their intended meaning) that lead many to forbid women teaching in a worship service, and that as a result conservative, Bible-believing Christians may differ in this.

But in the words of a friend, when I stand before Jesus I’d rather risk an “oops” for allowing women to preach the gospel in a male-elder church than risking an “oops” for silencing 50% of the Christian population.

I don’t care what you call them - ministers, directors, cardinals, unicorns, or leprechauns. Just unleash the Spirit of the living God that lives in them.

May God raise up another generation of product-in-her-hair, polish-on-her-nails, fire-in-her-bones @BethMooreLPM's.

FOLLOWUP CLARIFICATION: I was not saying @BethMooreLPM honored me because I’m a man and she’s a woman. I was pointing out the oft-lobbed charge of “Beth Moore = Jezebel spirit” seems hilariously untrue to me.