THE SECOND DAY OF AUGUST IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN. There is much discussion today regarding church leadership and its exercise by male and female disciples. Unfortunately, this discussion often generates more heat than light. Needed instead are calm and thoughtful believers who can observe and discern biblical details, analyze the scripture data, successfully bridge the gap across twenty centuries, then work patiently with other brothers and sisters to faithfully apply ancient biblical principles to today's circumstances. These were my goals when I prepared the … [Read more...]
Church Leadership in the New Testament
You can watch the power point below or download it here: Church Leadership in the New Testament (right click and "save link as") http://www.slideshare.net/EdwardFudge/virginia-leadership-series … [Read more...]
Family Notes 10/06/2015
THE TENTH DAY OF JUNE IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN. A PLACE IN HISTORY Finding their Voices: Sermons by Women in the Churches of Christ, edited by D'Esta Love (ACU Press, 2015), 254 pages. This new book not only relates history, it also makes history, preserving sermons of 29 women from Churches of Christ, a new notion during the past 100+ years among this fellowship, although its earliest days saw more than one woman evangelist on the American frontier. The editor was Pepperdine University's first chaplain, and I applaud Pepperdine for leading the way in that … [Read more...]
A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD
THE TWENTIETH DAY OF FEBRUARY IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN Last Sunday, the jihadist group calling itself ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) martyred 21 young Egyptian Christians working in Libya, one of Egypt's four next-door neighbor states. Ramez Atallah, a leader in gospel outreach worldwide, is general director of the Bible Society of Egypt. Within days of the executions, Atallah published an article in the Society's Newsletter titled "A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD," which he addressed to fellow-Christians everywhere as "THE NATION OF THE CROSS." In the … [Read more...]
LENGTHY SERMONS
A parishioner in one state wants to tactfully suggest that his minister shorten the sermon, while a preacher in another state inquires how to make his sermons more effective. Both invite my opinion on the subject. * * * I am instinctively sympathetic toward preachers, having personally delivered two sermons each Sunday for about 20 years and still enjoying the pleasure of preaching from time to time. The truth is that a few listeners are bored by a sermon of any length and they need our love and prayers. However, preachers also need to remember the truth discovered by an … [Read more...]
PREACHER’S AGONY
A young preacher who has just accepted a new position writes that when he first interviewed at the non-creedal church, he expressed his honest beliefs about the work of the Holy Spirit and concerning the role of women in the church which he knew were different from the church's traditional views. About half the church agrees with the preacher and half hold to the traditional understanding. The preacher puts a high priority on loving God and loving people. However, some members stated at a recent congregational meeting that "we believe [our traditional church] doctrine and if that doesn't work … [Read more...]
WOMEN ‘BE SILENT’ IN THE CHURCH (2)
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 when he says that women are to keep silent in the church?" * * * Even if this text did not have a context (which it does), and if it were intended to say women cannot speak at all "in church" (which it was not), its most literalistic interpretation would still not prevent women as well as men from acting as ushers, serving the Lord's Supper or taking up the offering, to name just a few silent areas where women often are not permitted to serve. In fact, the larger context shows that both women and men exercised … [Read more...]
WOMEN ‘BE SILENT’ IN THE CHURCH (1)
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 when he says that women are to keep silent in the church?" * * * The passage you mention is only one of several specific "sit-down-and-shut-up" commands found in the same chapter. The chapter is part of an epistle addressed to a volatile group of Middle Easterners known for their unruly assemblies, whether "secular" (Acts 19:29-41) or "sacred" (1 Cor. 14). Three times within a few verses, Paul issues a restraining order of "Silence!" First, to the disorderly tongue-speaker who lacks an interpreter (v. 28), second, … [Read more...]
WOMEN PASTORS
A subscriber in the Southwest U.S. asks whether biblically a church should ordain women as pastors (or elders). Reverent scholarship is not all of one mind on this topic. Some scholars conclude that Paul denies women leadership position in the church, a decision which they believe to be binding in all times and places (1 Tim. 2:8-15). The Apostles were all men, they note, and every mention of elders, bishops or pastors in the New Testament is masculine. These scholars acknowledge that men and women are equal before God, that males and females are joint-heirs together of salvation, that they … [Read more...]
MUST WIVES ‘SUBMIT’ TO HUSBANDS?
"You made some comment that sounded like you might adopt the politically correct line these days," writes a subscriber. "Have you forsaken the biblical truth that women should submit to their husbands?" * * * If I was ever politically correct, I assure you it was an accident. As Christians, we "march to a different drummer," and it is not the beat of the latest worldly fad. As for whether wives ought to be submissive, why should they be exempt from what is clearly a general Christian command for every believer -- regardless of gender, age or station in the world? The word … [Read more...]