The CBE Scroll

This account is the testimony of Liz Beyer, the CBE bookshop co-ordinator

My life was a series of contradictions before I confronted the issue of biblical equality. Growing up, my family went to a restrictive church, but my parents were very egalitarian. They encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do. From the outset, the church sent one message, my personal life sent another.

Life turned around when I became a Christian. My relationship with Jesus was joyful and full of possibilities, but the church I was attending kept putting restrictions on how I could express that. I wanted to study Scripture and teach; to tell everybody what God had done in my life! But once I started going to church again, I encountered walls – ‘you can’t’ ‘there’s no place’ or people would literally ignore me when I spoke!

During this time I got married and struggled with the issue of submission, which in this case meant doing what others told me to do. I found that I was trying to live under multiple masters. Jesus said that a person can only have one master – God. Yet the voice that was speaking in my heart was the one I listened to the least! I found that I was walking through a maze trying to figure out what messages I should obey.

We didn’t have kids for 6 years, which made me an outsider- the subtle message in my church was that to be ’spiritual’ was to have many children. I wanted to go to medical school but didn’t go because of the messages I received about my role as a woman. If I obeyed others ‘in authority over me’ I was told I would also be obeying God.

25 years later, I was severely depressed. I saw no future in the church, I had foregone my chances at education, my marriage was in shambles and there seemed to be nothing worth living for except my kids – all because I had an incorrect understanding of biblical submission. The ramifications of the church’s teachings in my life were misleading and very damaging. I finally realised that I needed to know just who I was in God. I literally had nothing left to lose. My sister put me in touch with CBE and I found the materials I desperately needed! I began to read Katharine C. Bushnell’s “God’s Word to Women” and it was like a salvation experience all over again. I went from death to life, when I learned what the Bible really says! CBE literally saved my life!

Before I was connected to CBE, I had lost everything that had any meaning, including my dignity as a human being. To all the authors who spent their time and money, along with those who have endured the costs to health, family and work to seek the truth, I want to say thank you! You are a prophetic voice to the world. I believe there will be many people in heaven who will line up to shake your hand, give you a hug and tell you how your writing changed their lives. Most importantly, our Lord will say “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in to the joy of your master!”

It would be good to hear others’ stories of how they came to see things differently and how it changed their lives. Every person is unique and yet there are similarities in the story – it sounds familiar!

Well, it’s nearly midnight and we have only just left a group where we’ve been listening to some amazing stories of how people have come to an understanding of biblical equality.

It’s not only the wonderful speakers, the wide variety of workshops, the bookshop and other information booths, but the conversations which emerge as we get to know one another. People from different countries and cultures with diverse experiences all feeling the freedom to talk and share their stories.

Someone has used the phrase ‘echo of Eden’ and that’s just how it seems – relationships as God intended – without shame and judgment and acceptance of who we are and the journey we are on together. A foretaste of an eternity of being all we were created to be!

If you happen to be within striking distance of St Louis, there’s still time to get to the Hilton Frontenac for Saturday and Sunday morning meetings and electives. You can also check the CBE website later to find out what recordings and DVDs will be available.

Next time I will list some of the topics covered and the speakers and maybe some will stir your interest. You may even want to ask questions related to some of the issues raised. Watch this space!!

Hello everyone, Rob here.  I just wanted to let you all know that we’ve updated the CBE Scroll to make the RSS feeds a little more visible.  If you don’t know what RSS is, it stands for Really Simple Syndication.  It’s a way to get notification and excerpts from frequently updated online content like blogs.  Says Wikipedia:

(RSS) feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

If you don’t already have an RSS reader program, I have used both Google Reader and RSSOwl and both are free and easy to use.

So back to the Scroll.  Now you’ll notice in the upper part of the right-hand column two new RSS icons.  The yellow icon links to the entire site feed.  This will give you all the recent posts.  The second red icon will give you just the recent comments which is a good way to keep up with conversations on each post.

As always, let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. And now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

I was shocked. I remembered the old Bryan*, the Bryan that put on the brakes during a discussion of Large Group speakers at our Coordinating Team planning retreat. “Why is it suddenly illegal to bring in white men?” he asked, frustrated. As Multi-Ethnicity Team Leader on our exec, I was pushing hard for more female and ethnic minority speakers during our weekly InterVarsity chapter meetings. Some of the other C-Team members were fairly supportive; Bryan was making it an uphill battle.

How did that same Bryan end up sitting next to me on a flight home to North Carolina, rattling on excitedly about speaker Brenda Salter-McNeill and other highlights of Urbana 06? I had noticed how carefully InterVarsity had crafted its triennial missions conference, putting women in the pulpit and using the gender-accurate TNIV, among other things. Nevertheless, I hadn’t imagined its potential effect on Bryan’s support for women in ministry. But he could not deny the voice of the Holy Spirit through these female speakers—who was he to silence God?

As I prepare to graduate, I realize the stark contrast between InterVarsity and much of the evangelical world—my female friends and I will no longer find widespread acceptance as leaders. However, regardless of our personal beliefs, when women are suddenly barred from such roles, we might actually miss them. Women like me have had invaluable experience leading in mission on campus, and men like Bryan have served alongside women, being blessed by their leadership.

Across a fairly wide spectrum of parachurch organizations, opportunities abound for the reconsideration of limiting views of women. Women lead in many mainstream evangelical ministries, large and small, and God’s work through them is not unnoticed. Christianity Today features articles by authors like Lauren Winner, and Joan Mussa and Julie Regnier serve as Senior Vice Presidents for World Vision. Women even teach future pastors at Fuller, Gordon-Conwell, and Trinity, three of the largest non-denominational evangelical seminaries. A female student leader from Campus Crusade organized UNC’s 24/7 Prayer week this year, and countless other local ministries depend on the time, vision, skills, and prayers of women who love Jesus. While varying in their official positions on women in ministry, each of these more missionally driven organizations senses a practical need for women’s participation.

Yes, it may seem contradictory at first: despite affirming women in their specific ministries, many parachurch organizations like InterVarsity remain silent about female deacons, elders, and pastors/priests in the local church. (Some organizations would say they oppose it, in fact!) I myself used to feel abandoned by this silence, but now I celebrate it. While I question the validity of this sharp church/parachurch distinction and would appreciate InterVarsity’s eventual allegiance to CBE’s egalitarian cause, I have begun to rejoice in the quietly strategic—even inadvertent—role of other parachurch organizations in advancing gender reconciliation and justice.

Especially among university students and other young adults, the parachurch, with its focused yet flexible structures, is often uniquely suited to interact with diverse constituencies otherwise lacking exposure to women in ministry. Indeed, perhaps one of the most significant things we can do to support gender equality is to remain invested in the parachurch organizations that are already informally, sometimes accidentally, changing minds and hearts about women. Regardless of what is or isn’t said about the issue, the mere presence of women in leadership transforms lives. By donating to humanitarian organizations, encouraging college-bound high schoolers to join a campus ministry, volunteering at a local level, or simply connecting others to a female author who has mentored us from a distance, we may be doing more than we realize to advance women’s ministry. Of course, I look forward to finding clearer allies to CBE’s mission. But I’m excited to see the Lord is already at work, sometimes in the places I least expect.

Hello folks, I’m Rob the tech admin of The Scroll.

Some of you have noticed that your comments don’t immediately post to the blog anymore, and are now more faithfully moderated per CBE’s policy:

Moderating these posts is not meant to prevent varying opinions from being expressed, but rather to preserve The CBE Scroll from being used for harsh, disrespectful, or inappropriate purposes. (excerpted from the Comment Guidelines page)

In addition, you’ve probably noticed that the comments aren’t being moderated as quickly lately. This is simply because the blog staff is a bit shorthanded lately with some planned vacations. So rest assured that your comments will see the light of day shortly.

Thanks for your consideration, and keep up the peaceful dialog!