No comments on my last post may mean no interest in the topic. But for the sake of closure, let me offer this last post on gender roles and women in ministry. Here are just a few random and rambling thoughts.There are a disproportionate number of women in the Psychology and Social Services program at CBC. I am in great need of more men in my classes. Just to illustrate - it’s not uncommon for some of my classes to have 20 women and 3 men in them.
We need solid Christian men to enter this field. We need men who can counsel. We need men who can work in mental health clinics, residential centers, homeless shelters, crisis pregnancy centers, domestic violence programs, adoption agencies, mentoring programs, etc. We need men who can serve as role models for young boys in trouble or in need.
I suspect this isn’t a problem isolated to CBC, however. I suspect that many Christian colleges/universities are similar. Men wanting to serve, minister to, and lead others gravitate towards Bible and ministry degrees. Women wanting to serve, minister to, and lead others feel pressured to avoid Bible and ministry degrees (or at least are not encouraged to pursue them). So they gravitate towards fields that are more open to women like psychology and counseling.
I’m overgeneralizing, but I sense something is amiss.
Far too often, pastors (who are men) find themselves ill-equipped to deal with many problems that people face.
Christian psychologist Larry Crabb offers a more stinging criticism. Here are several quotes from Understanding People.
"[Many] preachers remain safely distant from troubling realities of their people’s lives, shielded by their commitment to exegesis."
"Rather than running to the Scripture with urgent questions raised by real life, perhaps they retreat from people and their questions behind the acceptable barrier of scholarship. The tools of exegesis and the principles of hermeneutics can then become the means of denying the reality of unsolved problems. Real-life remains unexamined and real-life questions remain unanswered while preachers proclaim a lifeless version of the living Word."
"The theological library becomes for many a hideout from life rather than a study from which we emerge equipped with God’s living truth prepared to move into the deep parts of people’s lives."
But many counselors (a growing number of which are women) are not in any better of a situation. They are not encouraged to pursue serious Biblical studies as a foundation for their work. They are not encouraged or trained to teach and counsel authoritatively from Scripture.
So (in a grossly overgeneralized summary)…
We have men ministers who are trained in the Word but don’t know how to effectively address the difficult problems real people are facing in the real world. And we have women counselors who know how to address the difficult problems real people are facing in the real world, but aren't trained in the Word.
I openly acknowledge there are plenty of exceptions to this description. I am speaking of general trends, (not just of CBC, but of the Christian world at large). And I could in fact just be plain wrong in my perceptions.
This has been one of my more scattered posts. But if you can make some sense of my ramblings, I would love to hear your thoughts and observations.
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2 comments:
I know that this was overgeneralized as you said, but I certainly see your point. There often seems to be a disconnect between people loving doctrine & the Scriptures and people loving other people & helping to meet their needs. This is ironic and heartbreaking because the two walk hand in hand--as for there not being any interest in your last post there was, I just wasn't able to finish reading it and had nothing of importance to add.
I recently heard that the definition of an excellcent staff is that they are cross-trained. I would agree that we need more cross-training in the church. I would also say that one of the great benefits of training women to participate in ministry is that they can minister to each other. Church leadership is treading in dangerous and unneccessary territory when same-sex counseling is not taking place. In Titus 2, we see men mentoring, counseling, teaching men and women doing the same with women. This happened naturally in the early church with the emphasis on family and we are beginning to accomplish it with the strong movement for effective mens and womens ministries in the church.
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