Gifted

Debbie Duncan

Description

Gifted - women in leadership. You would be mistaken if you thought this book was just for women. It looks at the history of women in church life and leadership, at egalitarianism and complementarism and says - women are leaders and so are men , what can we learn from each other ? It's looks at different leadership styles, gifts and skills. And it's also includes other women's stories from Margaret Sentamu and Christy Wimber to a Vicky Thompson and Bev Murrill. There are other contributors.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857219497
• Langue: English

Extrait

GIFTED
Having worked in leadership roles in both commercial and church environments, and in both short- and longterm teams, this book has helped me to evaluate the ways in which I have functioned, and challenged me to harness new approaches and practices that would both improve my own performance and satisfaction and that of others who look to me for direction.
Joyce Gledhill, Operations Director and Elder at Gold Hill Baptist Church
GIFTED
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
Debbie Duncan
Text copyright 2019 Debbie Duncan
This edition copyright 2019 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Debbie Duncan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by
Lion Hudson Limited
Wilkinson House Jordan Hill Business Park Banbury Road Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com
ISBN 978 0 8572 1953 4
e-ISBN 978 0 8572 1949 7
First edition 2019
Acknowledgments
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, copyright 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version , copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image retrorocket / istockphoto.com
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
(1 Corinthians 15:58)
This book is dedicated to both men and women who are serving the Lord. You may not have an official title, but God has called you to do what you do. I want to remind you that he knows who you are.
It is also dedicated to the person who has believed in me the most - you have supported and challenged me as you want me to be the very best version of myself. Thank you, Malcolm.
I also want to dedicate it to the remarkable family we are a part of - Matthew, Benjamin, Anna and Riodhna, Ellie and Jacob, may you reach further and higher than we have as you seek to serve God.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Malcolm Duncan
Chapter 1 Lessons from History
Chapter 2 Different Viewpoints
Chapter 3 Leadership is Not One-Style-Fits-All
Chapter 4 Paternalism
Chapter 5 Transformational Leadership
Chapter 6 Servant-Hearted Leadership
Chapter 7 Emotional Intelligence
Chapter 8 Leadership Models
Chapter 9 Reflection
Chapter 10 Rhythm - Work-Life Balance
Afterword
Endnotes
FOREWORD
The first time I was challenged about the role of women in leadership in the church was not long after I decided to become a Christian and follower of Jesus. I was in a gathering where a woman was talking to us about her service and ministry overseas. Her story was riveting. She told us of people who had come to faith through her preaching; of others who had been supported through hardship and heartbreak by her pastoral care, love, and support. She shared stories of men and women who had been strengthened in their relationship with God and with one another through her discipleship, Bible teaching, careful listening, godly advice and gentle but clear wisdom. She recounted stories of new ventures in faith and breaking new ground for the gospel of the Lord Jesus that involved planting churches, leading missions, praying for the sick, and bringing the reconciling presence of God to bear in difficult civil and political situations. As she brought us up to date on her ministry, she invited us to reflect on moments when God had used her to speak his mind and his perspective into difficult and divisive situations. It was amazing. As a young believer, she inspired me. Her passion and faithfulness to God were astounding.
I noticed, however, that she was telling us her story from the lower platform in the building where the meeting was taking place. That puzzled me because the room had a balcony too and it was full. She would have been seen more clearly by them if she had been positioned in the empty pulpit. As a new Christian I didn t understand the difference between the lower platform and the pulpit (I still do not), so I asked the person who was sitting beside me why this remarkable woman was standing where she was. She said, and I will never forget this, Women don t preach here, son, they share. And women don t teach, they give testimony. Our church believes that women should be kept out of the pulpit. That statement did not make sense to me then and it does not make sense to me now.
I came to understand that the position that church held was one of complementarianism - explained later in this book in more detail - where it was believed that women were equal to men but that there were certain roles and functions of governance, leadership and teaching in the church that God did not want them to occupy. I came to understand the concept and to appreciate the biblical defence of it as I grew in my own faith, but it puzzled me. What particularly troubled me on the night in question were the implications of all of this and the way it was being handled in that church. Was the higher pulpit really more holy and important than the lower platform? How could that be right? And what about the woman herself? In the weeks and months that followed, as I read the Bible, I began to see that the ministry God had entrusted to her covered many of the bases of those things that the church did not feel she should be doing. She was fulfilling the duties of an elder, a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, an evangelist, an apostle, a prophet, and a deacon. How could she be fulfilling these roles if God did not want her to and the church felt she was barred from? When I asked these questions, I was told that she was able to because she was a missionary. God was using her because no man was there to be used. I couldn t accept that. The implications were too profound. Was she second choice? Or were the people she was reaching less important than the people in my own country? None of it made sense.
And so, I embarked on a study of the Bible for myself. Not asking God to help me to justify the position of women in leadership but instead asking him to show me through the Bible what he wanted to say about leadership in his church and in society, what the traits of leadership were and what the roles of men and women were in this regard. It was my commitment to take Scripture as my plumb line and my desire to read it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that led me to the strong conviction that women and men could occupy any role in the church s leadership, governance, teaching and ministry that God called them to. This is commonly called the egalitarian position and is also explained later in this book.
There are a great many assumptions about the differing sides of this argument. It is wrong and unkind to assume that all complementarians demean women or think of them as less. It is also wrong to assume that all egalitarians base their arguments on theories of social progression or theological liberalism. Although both things may be true in some situations, they are not true in all. In addition, it is important to acknowledge that both complementarians and egalitarians can find evidence of their argument in Scripture. Caricature and name-calling over these issues do not get us anywhere. That being said, it is my profound conviction that the teaching of Scripture, taken in the whole and not by isolating a few texts, points to the egalitarian nature of ministry. The handful of texts that are used to defend complementarianism must be read in the light of the whole corpus of Paul, of the wider New Testament and the whole Bible. If our reading of them puts their statements at odds with the rest of Paul, or Jesus, or the Bible in its whole witness, then we must make some exegetical and hermeneutical choices. Either we accept that one part of the Bible says one thing on this issue and the rest says another (a position I cannot accept because of my a priori commitment to the inspiration, overarching cohesiveness and authority of the Bible) or we need to be humble enough to say that we are reading those specific texts incorrectly and we must come before God and ask him to help us use scripture to interpret scripture. If we do the latter, I believe we arrive at a more balanced, and more biblically faithful position - that of egalitarianism.
The animosity and anger that is generated by discussions such as this are unhelpful and ungracious. Somehow, we must learn to disagree without being disagreeable. I have many close frie