Putting women in their place

For many years there's been debate in the church about the place and role of women. From the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches right down to the smallest organic church meeting at home, it's often just assumed that men should take leadership positions while women should not. This has been the pattern throughout most of church history.

There are plenty of exceptions of course, especially in the non-denominational, less structured groups. But even in the small, organic house churches it's not unusual to find reduced or limited roles for women. The view that women should be passive is generally reflected in church practice, supported by many Biblical scholars, and taught as both required and beneficial.

Often women are accepted or even preferred for work involving other women or with children and there are many other roles open to them. However, in many cases women are not allowed to teach men or have any authority over men. Authority itself is often misunderstood, but that's another story.

On the other hand, many of us sense that something is seriously wrong. It seems that half of the talent, wisdom, energy, and capability of the church is prevented from functioning or at best limited to functioning only in ways that are circumscribed and restricted.

But whatever we might think we have to accept the Bible's teaching on these matters, right? Right!

And we all know that the Bible is clear about this, authority is laid on men while women are to be in submission, right? Well - let's not be too hasty here.

Jon Zens has just published a careful analysis in reviewing John Piper's book 'What’s the Difference? Manhood & Womanhood Defined According to the Bible'.

Jon's review is well worth reading whatever your current understanding of these things. He writes refreshingly and thoughtfully and draws on a wealth of biblical knowledge and experience. You can read the review in the panel below and you can also download it, print it, or enlarge it to full screen using the options at the bottom of the panel.

You can find more from Jon on the 'Searching Together' website.

Women - Jon Zens Review

Since I published this blog post Jon Zens has written an excellent book on the same topic, 'What's with Paul and women'.

Demolishing the old office - the video

A few days ago I promised you a video clip of the demolition. Here it is. This clip shows the hydraulic crushing jaws at work on a steel reinforced concrete floor in the building that once included my office.



It's an extraordinarily quiet way to bring down a building, there is no loud noise, no great vibrations underfoot as large pieces of masonry come down. It's all crushed in situ and the pieces that fall are relatively small. There is awesome power in these steel jaws. The machine eats through concrete like a child nibbling chocolate.

Colworth (CU) - Church of Two

I had volunteered to take today's Christian Union meeting. I'd mentioned the idea of Church of Two (CO2) briefly before, but decided to share it more fully now that Sean and I have been testing it for a couple of weeks.

I introduced the idea in outline, explaining that it is simply two (or three) people agreeing to meet daily to do two short exercises together. The whole daily session may take as little as ten minutes, but the frequency and the nature of the disciplines encourages openness to one another and to the Lord.

We read Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 which emphasises that two are better than one. And we also considered how Jesus sent his disciples out in twos, and how they are listed as pairs in the gospels.

I briefly explained the SASHET and VIRKLER disciplines. SASHET stands for Sad, Angry, Scared, Happy, Excited, Tender. The idea is that the partners in the CO2 take turns to discuss their feelings under those headings, focusing on the way each feels today. The other partner listens without offering advice, though asking for clarification is OK. In this way, both partners learn to share their feelings more freely and at the same time hear about the feelings of the other.

VIRKLER is a simple technique to help a person listen to the Lord. It consists of four steps done before the CO2 meeting each day. First it's necessary to clear worldly issues from the mind. The second step is then to focus on Jesus. Then, with the focus where it ought to be, pay attention to the thoughts, ideas, pictures etc that pass through the mind. Finally, note these things down as they present themselves and consider what the Spirit of Christ is saying to you today. The conclusions can be shared when the partners meet and may guide a time of prayer.

It seems likely that at least one other person from CU will now try CO2, and he already has a friend in mind. If so, it was well worth sharing.

There is much more information online. Read more about CO2 from the following resources...

• The CO2 Flyer
• Stories from the Revolution

Cycling - The wrong way to do it

This is a bad idea. Do not try this at home! Watch these crazy cyclists in the video and then read on for more detail. It may be illegal, stupid, and unkind to other road users, but my goodness it makes for an interesting video!



There are some common-sense (but not necessarily legal) suggestions for safe cycling on the website where I first saw the video. The site is called 100 Mile Bike Ride.

St Neots (Open Door small group) - A breakfast shared

There was no Open Door morning meeting today because the Priory Centre was not available for use. Donna's small group decided instead to meet for breakfast, six of us met at Tony and Barbara's for a traditional English Breakfast. Barbara had prepared eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, along with some fine bread, toast and the rest. Thanks Barbara!

It was great fun to sit around the table, share the morning meal with thankful hearts, and chat. What a great way to build closer relationships and get to know one another better! Sometimes the simplest things are very effective.

After clearing the table we decided to head for the garden centre in Huntingdon, browse the cards, books, and gifts on offer, and sit together for a final cup of tea or coffee before heading home again.

Not only did we enjoy the food and the company, we also shared information and stories about our life, about church, and about Jesus. Great fun.

Bedford - Tough Talk

This evening Donna, Paul and I drove into Bedford for the X-treme Camps reunion meeting at Priory Methodist Church in Newnham Avenue. The numbers were lower than expected, but the evening itself was just great!

There was live music and Stacey made an excellent job of capturing the attention of everyone in the room, especially the younger ones. This, of course, was the object of the exercise. The music and singing were strong and enthusiastic and were followed by a sort of bush tucker competition during which volunteers were invited to consume such delicacies as lemon and lime slices, banana and gravy, anchovy and chilli. One young man stuck at it valiantly and took away a very worthwhile winner's prize.

Tough Talk had been invited to take the main part of the evening and they were very good. They combined an account of one man's very rough life with brief episodes of squats by another guy carrying a heavily loaded bar across his shoulders. Each time Chris returned he lifted an increased weight and in between the story of Simon's life continued. This created a sense of tension throughout, keeping us listening to every word.

The true story involved Simon's love of money for the power it gave and the final loss of everything. There was also loss of a job, involvement in a club brawl, a court case because of the violence, and then a remarkable phase in which Simon met a follower of Jesus who persuaded him to come to church. It turned out to be Holy Trinity, Brompton - the home of the Alpha Course! Nicky Gumbell prayed with him, he took an Alpha Course, and his life was transformed.

We heard a second life story from another member of the team, the band came back for more music, and then we all headed home. I was greatly impressed by what I'd seen and heard. I came away with a DVD of more Tough Talk stories and two books with even more of the same. It's great stuff. Highly recommended for any youth or adult audience.

See Tough Talk in action for yourself in the video below. Premier.tv has more Tough Talk videos online.