Complementarianism akin to Racism? – An open Forum

This morning I was reading through the Argus (our local newspaper) and got to the public feedback section. Amongst the numerous letters written in by readers I was astonished to find myself being indirectly accused of racism. Let me explain…

One writer wrote in about how outraged she was at the bigotry on display in the current debacle currently taking place amongst the Church of England in England around the issue of women being consecrated as bishops. She was incensed that this would still be an issue in such a ‘progressive’ age. Instead she suggested that we envision the whole issue from another angle: imagine if people were debating as to whether or not black folk could be consecrated as bishops – imagine the outrage if that was the case. Now indirectly she is insinuating that holding complementarian views about women in church leadership is akin to being a fairly radical racist.

What do you think? Is she right to draw the analogy? Why/why not? Are people like myself, who hold to a complementarian view, guilty of a form of behaviour that is akin to heinous racism? Have your say… (if you don’t understand the term ‘complementarianism’ then click on the link above)

NT Wright on GAFCON

Bishop Tom Wright has some comments on the recent GAFCON. Here’s part of his conclusion:

“In short, my hope and prayer is that the spiritual energy, the sense of celebration, the eagerness for living and preaching the gospel, which were so evident at GAFCON, can and will be brought to the forum where we badly need it, namely, the existing central councils of the Anglican Communion. I understand only too well the frustration that many have felt at these bodies. But if GAFCON is to join up with the great majority of faithful, joyful Anglicans around the world, rather than to invite them to leave their present allegiance and sign up to a movement which is as yet – to put it mildly – strange in form and uncertain in destination, it is not so much that GAFCON needs to invite others to sign up and join in. Bishops, clergy and congregations should think very carefully before taking such a step, which will have enormous and confusing consequences. Rather, GAFCON itself needs to bring its rich experience and gospel-driven exuberance to the larger party where the rest of us are working day and night for the same gospel, the same biblical wisdom, the same Lord.”

By and large he seems to be quite supportive of GAFCON, and rightly so given his theological stance. I just wonder though, and I say this as a Tom Wright fan, if he fails to really understand that the GAFCON crew are completely tired of dealing with the ‘forum’ he suggests. They’ve tried to bring their exuberance to the larger party with little success and they’re now no longer convinced that there is this ‘great majority’ of faithful Anglicans pulling the same way that they are with the same gospel.

A Dying Worldview?

Some people have their head in the clouds when it comes to the worldwide evangelical/theologically conservative Christian movement, be it Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Charismatic, Independent, the Young Reformed, the old Reformed, the Reformissionals, etc. etc. Take for example Father Jake’s comment that the rhetoric of GAFCON is “so obviously the last gasp of a dying world view.” – Not that obvious to me buddy. If anything it seems to me that there are numerous indications that in 20 years time the evangelicals (sure they’ll probably look different) will still have a substantial voice – maybe not so much on their traditional turf but perhaps more globally.

Is this a good thing? Well I think with wise heads like Peter Jensen’s close to the front it will ensure that the primacy of the historic orthodox gospel is on the agenda for some time to come.

GAFCON Starts Tomorrow

The ‘Global Anglican Future Conference‘ (GAFCON) starts tomorrow in Jerusalem. For evangelical and conservative Anglicans around the world this is a potentially enormous and important conference. My own denomination – the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), who have long been out of official communion with Canterbury, have been invited along as observers. This conference could potentially mark a significant turning point in the history of one of the largest denominations in the world. It is also a conference that is beginning to concretize much talk about the church of the Global South rising up to replace the West as the future of global Christianity. In that light its of no surprise to see Lamin Sanneh of Yale University as one of the speakers.

This is a conference all evangelicals should be praying for – that God would be pleased to bring fruit and resolution to the crises facing Anglicanism.

For more information David MacGregor is constantly updating his blog with stories about GAFCON.

39 Articles Blogged

If you find yourself connected to or in the Anglican tradition in any way (like myself), or if you have any interest in this particular stream of Protestantism then you might want to follow Michael Jensen’s new blog project. Michael has set out to blog through the 39 Articles which have historically been the doctrinal base and frame for Anglican thought and practice. He believes that this 16th century document still has much to say to us today and so I, for one, am going to keep a keen eye on this blog project.

Gone and Back Again…

Load shedding is seriously encroaching on my blogging habits! Not only is the power out for a number of hours when I’d love to sit down with a cup of coffee and read and write posts but it also resets my wireless router every time and I don’t always have access to it to reset the configuration.

Anyway – I’ve also been away for a few days and so I wasn’t always here to enjoy the load shedding (what a shame). But since I’ve missed quite a few days of blogging I thought I’d start by pointing to a few interesting posts that I pulled from the glut in my feed reader.

Michael Foster talks about his church going the missional community route.

Abraham Piper points to all his posts regarding the recent Pastor’s Conference in Minneapolis. Check out the links to talks by D.A. Carson.

Tim Chester posts a paper written by Christopher de la Hoyde entitled “Atonement: Engaging with an emerging theology“. Looks interesting.

But the post of the week goes to Gordon Cheng who points out how the Sydney Anglican Bishops, who recently declined to attend Lambeth, might better spend their time.

More from Peter Jensen

I know this article is half a month old already – which BTW is absolute ages in the blogsphere- but its worth a read anyway. Peter Jensen speaks about why he thinks the idea of setting the goal of 10% (10 percent of the population in Sydney to be in church within 10 years – they are currently at the 5 year mark of the Mission) is worthwhile part of the Sydney Mission. Notice how much of what he says has ‘missional’ overtones.

The Week Ahead in Links

Well the weekend is over, and yes, we are the rugby world champions, which you probably knew already unless you were sleeping under a rock. The South African blogsphere is still ablaze with rugby posts – so if you want to keep reliving the victory then you might want to check that out.

If you’re not feeling ‘sporty’ this morning but rather more ‘churchy’ then the Evangelical Anglican has posted some of the thoughts of Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen from earlier this month regarding the current crisis in worldwide Anglicanism – they’re well worth a read.

Drew Goodmanson has set out something of his itinerary for the coming months – and right at the bottom I spotted his plans to maybe come to South Africa. Drew if you read this – we should hook up.

Otherwise enjoy your day, I’m off to go sit in a library and read for the rest of the day with brief intervals of coffee.

Baptism Debates

Justin Taylor has recently posted Lig Duncan’s view on paedobaptism in an attempt to give the paedobaptist view a credible hearing I suppose. As can be naturally expected his post has brought with it a long stream of comments batting about the issue of baptism from the two differing perspectives. Everyone has their arsenal loaded with their favourite books that disprove this or that theory and they throw them at each other. Everyone states how they moved, in their own thinking, from one position to another.

So instead of weighing in to that stream of comments I thought I’d post here on my own opinions on the subject. It would just be wrong if I didn’t weigh in with my credentials! So I was a baptist, even worked for a baptist church – now I’m an Anglican and a sympathizer with the paedobaptist view (how’s those credentials?). The piece of literature that helped me most in my shift in thinking was this article by Dennis Johnson, who like me moved from a baptist to a paedobaptist position. Since reading the article a number of my colleagues have cemented my thinking on the subject. In all of it though I found the article most convincing – even more so than Lig Duncan’s article.

To me the issue comes down to the discontinuity/continuity debate – wherever you draw your line on that issue is where you’re going to draw your line on the baptism issue – the baptism is just a subset of the bigger debate. Anyway – read the article and see what you think.

Jensen Closes his Pulpits

Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney has closed his pulpits to the visiting Bishop John Spong. And so he should! Spong holds more heretical views than you can count on all your fingers and your toes. I bet Jensen will now be painted as a divisive figure who is destroying Christian unity – when actually he should be cheered on as a hero of the gospel because that is what he is. Al Mohler has more.

Time for a Change

Yes…I got bored and changed things around a little.

BTW – my brother pointed out Mark Meynell’s blog to me. Mark’s a great Bible teacher from the UK, now serving at All Souls, Langham Place. Mark has previously spent a number of years working in Uganda at a Bible College there. I met him at a workshop he did in Durban about 5 years ago (I doubt he remembers me). Give his blog a look.

Jensen on Church Planting

I’m busy writing a paper entitled, ‘Contemporary Issues Regarding Church Planting and Mission‘ and I came across this quote by Phillip Jensen (2001):

“Church planting is an evangelical agenda because every evidence we have is that new churches, grow faster, reach new people and outsiders more effectively.“

Now some people think that Phil Jensen is some big fundamentalist ogre from down-under. I on the other hand think that few people have a heart for church planting like this man. His talks and articles on church planting have served to inspire me more than anyone else regarding the absolute necessity of church planting (Tim Keller came in a close second!). In fact the whole idea of church planting as the most effective means of evangelism dawned on me when someone read one of his articles to me. He might rub you the wrong way, but you can’t fault his desire to see people come into the kingdom.

Anglicans under the Pope?

The Times has a sensational story this morning claiming that senior bishops of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church are ready to discuss and support a merger under the primacy of the Pope. It doesn’t seem to be a hoax, and its not in the tabloids section so it makes for quite a bombshell of a story to wake up to. Dr. Al Mohler has some thoughts on it here.

(HT: Adrian Warnock)