(e)mergent Voyageurs

Gender: Humanity’s Most Basic Diversity – Genesis 1:26-31

Few topics have so consistently divided Christians throughout history than the topic of the role of women in the Church. Fortunately, in recent years, a greater freedom and equality for women is being experienced. Women are being released in their unique giftings and callings, breaking down barriers of the formerly insurmountable walls. But again, to go deeper in this is so key to our growth as the Church in this age, that our failure to do so would be one of the greatest failures in history.

While the increased involvement of women in every aspect of ministry has been a phenomenal breakthrough for much of the Church, there still remain more subtle barriers to their full involvement and investment. It is not enough to acknowledge the equality of women in both value and position, if we maintain systems, structures and even theological understandings that remain exclusive and patriarchal. Let me try and explain it in other terms.

Again using the model of First Nations people, let’s consider the role the government has to play in making restitution for the wrongs committed against these people in the past. When settling land claims and treaty rights, the government often faces a great deal of resistance from the non-Native population. Many of them do not understand why the aboriginal people should get special treatment. A common question is, “If they want equality, shouldn’t they have the same laws, limits and freedoms as the rest of us?”

What this question fails to account for is the difference between equality and equity. Simply put, equality is the condition or quality of being equal. Equity, on the other hand, is more specifically concerned with the fair determination of equality, according to proper reason. Therefore, to say that equality is to treat two very different people of very different cultures the same way, would be like saying that a person with a severely severed leg should not receive treatment before someone suffering from a headache, all in the name of equality. In the same way, when striving to celebrate gender diversity, we cannot equate equality with commonality.

Generally speaking, men and women have differences in the way they view and respond to the world around them. Rather than contradictory, these differing perspectives reflect the intentional complimentary nature of humanity that God instilled. While this does not limit either gender to “boxes” into which they must fit, it does recognize that like culture, God has invested something unique of Himself into each gender, something we can more fully understand and appreciate through mutual relationship and unity. It is also something that can be lost if kept repressed, instead of released and valued as a necessary part of the whole.

However, as we study history, women have been humanities most consistent victims of subjugation and oppression. Sadly, the Church has too often been the leader in such repression, both through blatant prejudice or unwitting ignorance. Due to this, Western Christianity (which has gone on to be the dominant expression of the faith in missions) developed its systems, structures and theological understandings from a narrow, exclusively patriarchal perspective. And while these are all good and valuable within the context of the whole, their distinct exclusion of the other half of humanities view has left a huge deficit in our understanding of God and our practice of the Christian faith.

The reality we face as the Church, then, is to know God in a truer and deeper sense. We need to begin to encourage the development of not only women leaders, but also women theologians, thinkers, administrators and pastors. We need to allow the way we do, see and understand things to be changed to include the needed “new” perspective they have been given by God. We need to explore the fullness of God through the context of His most precious creation, humanity- both male and female. All of humanity is made in His image, neither gender being more central or significant. Until we can grasp this, our maturity and effectiveness as believers in this age will be seriously crippled.

Again, this dedication to the diversity of humanity should in no way compromise the basic doctrinal truths of the Word of God. This understanding does not add something new to the character of our Creator, but rather rediscovers a very old, lost truth. This becomes very difficult, as many Scriptures can be (and have been) wrongfully understood and applied to uphold the false prejudices. These have never been, nor will ever be, easy problems to resolve. However, failure to try and work through these key matters has much too high a cost to ignore, even in the face of disagreement and conflict. (For a thorough treatment of this issue, read the book “Why Not Women?” by Loren Cunningham & David Hamilton, YWAM Publishing, 2000. Download the free PDF version of “I Commend To You Our Sister” by David Hamilton, considered one of the most researched thesis on the topic ever done).

Part Four of this series will briefly examine some of the pitfalls of this journey and wrap it up with a final challenge.

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Culture: Deeper Than Dance – Revelation 7:9-17

I was once visiting a church where a First Nations woman began to dance to the worship. A (white) woman leaned over and said, “Isn’t it just lovely when they dance around with their feathers? The church needs to encourage that sort of thing”. While this woman was sincerely genuine in intentions, too often our desire to see culture celebrated never goes beyond external novelties, requiring nothing of ourselves as the Church. We need to go deeper.

We have seen the initial contextualization of cultural expressions such as dance, music, clothing, tools, protocol, and so much more. Redeeming these aspects of culture has truly been an obedient response to God’s call upon our lives as believers. God is unfathomably pleased with us, His presence dwelling in the truly diverse worship of His people. We have come so far in such a short time it is amazing! However, we would be losing out on far more if we didn’t push in further. These steps, while important, are only brushing the surface.

As a new generation of leaders enter into service to God, not only must we understand and embrace the value of diversity He has imparted to our mission and to larger Body of Christ, we must go deeper, exploring aspects of culture that go beyond just external forms such as dance or clothing. Like the hidden practices and understanding of justice that I experienced God work through that night beneath Mt. Baker, within every culture, God has invested something unique of Himself. I believe that He does this intentionally, so that to truly know Him, we must embrace the uniqueness of all His created peoples. Let me repeat that, because it is important: To fully embrace God, we MUST embrace the diversity He has created in the people He created in His image.

Christian Traditions: Beyond “Inter-denominational” – 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

A few years ago, I had the rare privilege to spend some one on one time with His Grace, Adam Exner, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Vancouver Archdiocese. During our time together, we were discussed the recent trend of evangelicals making decisions to become members of more traditional churches, such as the Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic. My own interest was peaked as, in the past few years, such Roman Catholic writers as Henri Nouwen, Jean Vanier, Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day had been having a decidedly positive impact on my faith.

The Archbishop’s answer touched me in its simplicity and sincerity. He said, “Jamie, when following Jesus, each of us has to follow the path God has called us to. Some He has called to be Catholic, others have been called down a different path. What you need to do is pray about it and hear what God has to say to you. Then you obey and do what He tells you to do.”

Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to hear a lot of cutting criticism and often blatantly false teaching, aimed at discrediting the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most frequent was the assertion that the Roman Church discourages personal relationship with God, as it undermined the authoritative grip of power the Church had on the people. And while I do not agree or endorse all the Roman Catholic Church represents (in the same way that I do not agree and endorse all that the Evangelical church represents), the Archbishop’s answer proved how much misunderstanding could be cleared away through simple dialogue and relationship.

Many people are describing the current age we live in as the post-denominational era. Some of the largest growing sectors of Christianity are the non- and inter-denominational congregations. This trend reflects a positive increase in unity within the Church, where differing theology, while still important, does not divide believers. This increased unity has created opportunity for incredible effectiveness in ministry and missions outreaches, their very diversity largely responsible.

However, rather than focusing on the sticky and complex issue of denominations within Christianity, we should emphasize the larger, differing traditions. Each of these traditions finds representation and expression within most every denomination. In his outstanding book, “Streams Of Living Water” (HarperCollins, 1998), Richard J. Foster separates them into six basic traditions: the Contemplative Tradition, the Holiness Tradition, the Charismatic Tradition, the Social Justice Tradition, the Evangelical Tradition and the Incarnational Tradition. Let me briefly outline the nature of these six traditions as Foster describes them.

The Contemplative Tradition constitutes the prayer-filled life, stressing biblical meditation. Reflective in nature, this tradition protects our faith from becoming too intellectual by recognizing the transcendent mystery of God. The Holiness Tradition is what Foster calls the “virtuous life”, where purity of heart guides righteous action. From the Charismatic Tradition we explore the empowered life with the Holy Spirit. Accompanied by a celebratory joy, this tradition offers us the ability to follow God into making the impossible possible. When we talk about the Social Justice Tradition, we mean the discovery of the compassionate heart of God. Here is where the prophetic voice speaks out against the failures and compromises in the world and Church, championing the plight of the oppressed. The Evangelical Tradition is one centred fully on the Word of God, emphasizing evangelism and personal relationship with Christ. And finally, the Incarnational Tradition is where we experience the divine sacramentally through the world around us, dissolving the false lines between the sacred and secular. Each of these traditions, working in harmony and unity, reflect the fullness of the Church God has called us to be. For further development, please read Foster’s indispensable book. (Visit Renovare for more info).

Whether we are part of a Christian organization, a local church or even as an individual, we cannot be satisfied with simply being open to the diversity existing in these traditions. It is not enough to appreciate and welcome others who may see things differently. Rather, we must pursue this diversity, learning from traditions that we are not familiar with, deliberately developing a fuller view of our faith, strengthening where we are weak and being a strength were others are weak. With the guiding foundation of biblical truth, as we are intentional about allowing these traditions to invest in our lives, churches and organizations, denominational issues will begin to disappear.

Part Three will examine an aspect of diversity that I think is centrally important to the Church- Gender.

emerging church