Jesus, Gender and Faith

Two nights ago I got to speak on the topic of gender reconciliation.

And, wow, it was terrific. First of all, it never ceases to amaze me how novel topics around gender and faith are for people. Truly, it exposes the lack of intentional conversations about these things, both in the culture and, particularly, in the church.

Next, in large part because of that novelty, it strikes me that people are hungry for teaching and training on these topics. We could have gone for hours the other night, because once I had raised the issues, people wanted to both process them and share their stories.

Finally, it was a great experience for me personally. When I got home I said to Amy, “that’s what I want to do when I grow up.” It feels great to share the thinking I’ve been doing and to see it benefit, bless and challenge people. I was a very satisfied teacher the other night!

I’ll share some of the content with you over time, but here’s a quote that I’ve really been chewing on, about Jesus, gender and faith. It’s from a book entitled After Eden by a team of writers. Read this and chew along with me!

“The life and teachings of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels and the account of his continuing work through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church display God’s will for gender relations. It is God’s desire to oppose societal patterns that elevate some persons over others and that harm, demean, subordinate, and oppress various women and men. It is God’s will to restore gender relations to the mutuality and equality that characterized the covenant partnership of woman and man in creation. Christ was sent by God the Father and anointed with the Spirit to initiate, among other things, this redemption of gender relations.”