Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 102

John Piper on the Apostle Paul, Suffering, and the Groaning of a Fallen World

I love the apostle Paul, I love his God-breathed words in Scripture, and I love what he understood and said about suffering. And I love John Piper too—so it was a no brainer to feature this excellent article, excerpted from John’s new book Why I Love the Apostle Paul. —Randy Alcorn

The Whole Creation Groans in Every Grief: Why I Love the Apostle Paul

By John Piper

Only rarely do we find a person who is able to speak meaningfully about suffering at the very personal level of pain and loss, and also at the cosmic level of why the whole universe is the way it is. Most people, it seems, are wired either to be a wise counselor who can apply God’s goodness and power to individual need or to think globally about why the entire world is permeated, for all its beauty, with horrifying calamities. Finding both in one person is rare and beautiful. The apostle Paul was such a person.

Paul was not naïve about the vastness of human misery and suffering in the world. And the explanation he gave, as he probed this mystery, was both personal in its application to individual Christians and cosmic in its scope of redemption.

Destined to Suffer

Within weeks after starting a new church and appointing leaders for the church, Paul prepared the new believers to suffer.

When they had preached the gospel . . . they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:21–22)

Paul did not try to soften the claims that Jesus put on his followers. He did not use a bait-and-switch tactic by luring people with the promise of prosperity and then changing his tune when trouble arrived. He said plainly, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

When tribulation began, he reminded the believers that they were not entering something unusual. They were not being singled out because of some sin. They were experiencing what God had ordained for his beloved children. So he urged them not to be “moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this” (1 Thessalonians 3:3).

Paul’s Personal Empathy

Paul helped people see their suffering through the lens of God’s good purposes for their eternal good:

We ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. (2 Thessalonians 1:4–5)

Paul helped individual Christians not just in the pain of persecution but in all their sufferings, whether disease or accident or loss or the ordinary burdens of life. He explained that the whole creation is groaning under futility caused by the fall (Romans 8:22), and then he added that Christians are not exempt from this groaning:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22–23)

In other words, Christians endure groans of almost every kind in this world until Christ comes to redeem our bodies. Life in the body — life in this fallen world — means groaning. So take heart, if you are trusting in Christ. Your suffering is not owing to God’s wrath against you. Your condemnation for sin has been taken away by the death of Christ (Romans 8:1). God will not let you be tested beyond what he gives you the grace to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 9:8). Your groaning is limited. Redemption is coming. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

Paul’s Global Vision

Amazingly, Paul is eager not only to help us individually, with our personal suffering in the moment, but also with the big picture of why the whole creation is in such a mess. Here is the key passage from his great letter to the Romans:

The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:20–22)

This subjection of the creation to futility is a reference to God’s act in the garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve turned away from God’s goodness and wisdom and authority. God did what he said he would do (Genesis 2:17): he introduced death into the world and put creation under bondage to corruption and pervasive futility.

In other words, God’s judgment upon the sin of human rebellion was the breakdown of nature’s beautiful functioning. Now things go wrong. Corruption and futility are shot through the created order with every manner of suffering and dying.

A Picture of Sin’s Evil

We can shed some light on God’s purpose in this subjection of creation if we ask, Why would God’s judgment fall on physical creation when the sin was an act of the human heart? My answer is that the physical miseries of the creation are a visible and deeply felt witness to the moral ugliness and outrage of sin.

For most of us, the sins of our hearts (our preference for God’s gifts over God himself) do not cause great agony of soul. We do not feel the real outrage of the universe — namely, that the beautiful Creator and sustainer of the world is disregarded and dishonored. But just let our bodies be touched by pain, and we are full of indignation that this is happening.

In other words, God subjected the physical world to corruption to show us the outrage of sin at the one point where we really feel it. All physical pain and sorrow should scream at us, “This is how horrible sin is.” This is how serious our moral condition is before God. This is why the redemption of the world was not cheap, but cost the infinite price of the Son of God dying for sinners.

For Your Comfort

It is beautiful and rare when a person can offer a global explanation for suffering, and then also make his own very personal suffering a means of our comfort. But Paul has done this for me many times. He wanted it this way:

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. (2 Corinthians 1:6)

I take this very personally. I love him for the vastness of his global vision. And I love him for turning his own suffering into a means of my comfort.

By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source:  desiringGod.org

For more, see John’s book Why I Love the Apostle Paul. And if you’d like to study Paul’s life, I recommend first reading or listening to the book of Acts and letters of Paul. If you want a quick illustrated read on the apostle Paul, see my graphic novel The Apostle. I spent a lot of time studying his life to write it, and chose many of the great action scenes in Acts and added some scenes to tie it together. Or if you want a serious biography, The Apostle: A Life of Paul is a classic. —Randy Alcorn

Photo by Grant Ritchie on Unsplash

My Heaven Booklet, and Ideas for How to Use It to Share the Gospel

I’ve been greatly encouraged by the responses to the little 60-page Heaven booklet, which contains a sampling of the questions and answers found in my Heaven book. Heaven has reached over one million copies sold, and this small, affordable booklet has sold over 1,500,000. I never would have guessed it of either! (Here’s a short excerpt from the booklet.)

The Heaven booklet has been widely distributed at memorial services. Some churches, including my own, make it available at every memorial service. Sometimes it’s handed out at the door; sometimes it’s placed on the seats or pews. 

Many people, including myself, also regularly give away booklets. It doesn’t take much effort, and when it does, it’s more than worth it. I leave them with servers at restaurants (always with a tip that's 20% or more), give them to people on planes, and have them on me for checkers at stores. In some cases, we won’t be in a position to follow up and may not see the person again in this life. But consider that one day, in the presence of Christ, you may have a person who read the booklet and came to faith in Christ, or were strengthened in their faith, say to you, “Thank you for giving me that booklet—God used it powerfully in my life!”

Here are some of the notes we’ve received from readers over the years. Their ideas for sharing booklets may inspire you:

Our 22-year-old son passed away a few months ago suddenly from a stroke. I have given out many Heaven booklets to his friends. I write in the booklet that I appreciate their love and care after our son's passing, and that I am sure they would like to read about where he is today. Then I pray as I share the booklet with them. It is then God's job to work on their hearts, not mine. The booklet is written so simply and gives the "message" in such tactful ways. When I give the booklet to a person I know is a Christian, I ask them to read it and then pray about who to pass it along to who is not a Christian. This helps to make sure that the person I thought was a Christian really is, and then the additional benefit when it is passed along to others. —B.

I always have a few Heaven booklets with me wherever I go. …While I was waiting for my number to be called [at the DMV], I offered one to the gal sitting next to me. I was surprised when she said, “I already have one”! We had a great conversation while we waited, she said she knew all about Randy Alcorn and his ministry, and had read many of his other books. So… since this woman I asked already had a Heaven Booklet, I gave them to the DMV worker who helped me instead, and he gave one to his coworker at the next station! —D.T.

I gave some Heaven booklets in gift bags with chocolate to my neighbors this Christmas. It fills me with joy that I can use these booklets this way! At least one of my neighbors is not a believer, so I prayed over the bags before they went out. —M.G. 

Our church will be giving out food baskets at Easter, and we plan on giving each recipient one of the booklets.  If it has as much impact on those receiving the booklets as the book did on my Sunday school class, we will have a revival in this city. —Anonymous

I work in a medical office and regularly order Heaven booklets to keep in the office for patients to read or take. Each morning I make sure there are three Heaven booklets in each exam room, along with the other reading materials, hoping people will take them to read. I purchased 200 four months ago, and they are almost all gone already and I'm ordering 200 more!—S.L.

God laid a new idea on my heart the other day when I passed a homeless guy with a sign: to buy $5 gift cards to McDonalds, etc. and put them in the Heaven booklet along with the “How Can We Know We’re Going to Heaven?” tract and give them to them. …Now I look forward to seeing someone with a sign instead of dreading and avoiding them! —C.Z.

Recently I used the Heaven booklet in an English fellowship class with Chinese ladies. We started with the last chapter, "How can we know for sure that we'll go to heaven?" We read, translated, and discussed. It was a perfect way to make the gospel clear. They each had a booklet to take home and one to share if they wanted an extra.  —M.W.

My elderly mother has been in a nursing home for about a year. She has been sharing Heaven booklets with visitors and staff for almost as long. I had purchased 100 booklets to send with sympathy cards and filled a wicker basket with Heaven booklets for her to keep on her night stand. Many people are curious about the books and most are delighted to take one home with them. Nursing homes are excellent mission fields! —A.B.

I have really enjoyed passing out the Heaven booklet and the tracts. It makes spreading God's love easier. I own a small landscaping business and have several aging monthly customers whom I really care about. It has been very meaningful to give them the Heaven booklets, as I have been praying for them for years.  —M.F.

Someone suggested to me using the Heaven booklet as a tract. A friend and I took them as we travelled by car to Pennsylvania for a funeral, and we have been using them for years now. Only once has someone rejected my offer. These beautiful little booklets are planted all over the country.  —M.W.

Heaven Booklets Sale from EPM

Don't miss our lowest price of the year on the 20-pack of Randy Alcorn's Heaven booklets! They're ideal for church giveaways, grief support group members, or individual gifting to a loved one. For a limited time, the 20-packs packs are $15 each (62% off $39.80 retail). 

Sale ends Thursday, April 11 at 12 p.m. PT. 

The Rich History of the Early African Church

In my novel Dominion, I picture one of the characters, Dani, who is in Heaven, learning about the history of the black church. It’s a rich history, one that I think we all should celebrate. It was fascinating to study these things as I spent a few years researching that novel.

I hope you find this interesting:

Zeke and Torel left Dani alone to observe through the time portal a great ancient civilization in northern Africa, near modern Sudan. She viewed with fascination the coal black people who called themselves Kushites, whom the Greeks called Ethiopians, which meant “dark skinned.” She watched them develop their own alphabetic language, build pyramids, masonries, ironworks, and complex waterways. She marveled at their excellence in architecture, education, and the fine arts. They were one of the most vigorous and advanced civilizations the world had ever known. Suddenly she saw the writing of the psalmist, and it thrilled her: “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”

She watched as Jeremiah was rescued by a black African, then as Simon—from Cyrene in Africa—carried the cross of Jesus. By the time of Christ, this black people group was sending ambassadors to Arabia, India, China, and to Rome. She saw a number of Africans gathered on the day of Pentecost, converted to faith in Christ. She saw the church at Antioch, among the chief leaders Simeon, called “Black Man,” and Lucius the Cyrenian. She watched the Antioch church send out Paul and Barnabas to evangelize Turkey, Greece, and Italy. It inspired her to see black church leaders sending missionaries to reach pagan white Europeans with the gospel. She wished Harley could see this. She wished she’d learned about it back in the Shadowlands.

She watched, intrigued, as one man came to the fore in this ancient drama, a man born just before Christ. He was the chief officer in charge of Ethiopia’s treasury.

Something inside this man—Dani recognized it as the voice of Elyon—told him there was more than the petty ethnic-centered gods of races and nations, such as the three-faced Kushite lion or the Egyptian ram god. There must be a true God who made all races and nations and reigned over all. This Ethiopian sought to know that one true God. He’d heard of a God who brought justice and redemption to a band of slaves, delivering them from the Egyptians a millennium and a half earlier. This was a God who could not be manipulated, who did not exist to fulfill the agenda of any man or nation.

The Ethiopian welcomed the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem. After a few weeks of observing Jewish worship and faith, he began his long journey back by carriage through the Sinai desert to Egypt, from which he would travel another eight hundred miles to his home. Along the way he studied the Hebrew Scriptures, of which he had obtained a scribal copy for his queen at great price. As Dani watched him riding in his chariot, she felt the longing, the ache in his heart to know the truth. It thrilled her.

Suddenly a man appeared on the scene, Philip, a Jewish Christian convert. He had already gone to reach the Samaritans, who had been hated as half-breeds but whom he knew should be embraced because all racial barriers had been broken down in Christ. Now, sent by God’s Spirit, he went to the Ethiopian.

Dani listened as the black African asked questions, and Philip, the brown Jew, explained how God’s Son had suffered and died and risen for all men that they might be forgiven of their sins and spend eternity with him, along with brothers from all nations and tribes and languages.

The Ethiopian listened in rapt attention, sensing this was the missing piece to life’s puzzle. The man came to faith in Christ as he sat in his chariot. He asked Philip to baptize him in water by the road. Dani wept at the sight of this baptism, feeling as if she were there. It moved her more than any she’d ever witnessed.

Dani watched in excitement as this black national leader continued to study and grow in his faith on the journey home. Back in Ethiopia he became an outspoken witness for Elyon’s Son. She watched many in that nation come to Christ, knowing the descendants of these people would migrate to west Africa and seventeen hun­dred years later many would be taken to the new world as slaves. She realized her roots for the first time—she and her family were descended from the very Ethiopians she now observed. Churches were established, thriving churches. She watched the decades become centuries as some of the greatest theological minds of early Christianity—including Augustine and  Tertullian—came out of the black churches of North Africa.

As she watched the courage and conviction of the first African Christians, the strongest bulwark of early Christianity, she swelled with wonder and the right kind of pride. The spiritual heritage of her people, she realized for the first time, did not simply go back a few hundred years to American slaves. Many people of her race embraced the Christian faith before the first white churches were born, before the gospel traveled north to Europe or spread to Asia, and fifteen hundred years before it came to the new world.

She marveled too, as she followed the timeline of history, that the Christian church was solidly grounded in North Africa over six hundred years before Mohammed lived and Islam began. She watched the flourishing ministries of over five hundred bishops in the African church, then grieved as she witnessed Islam’s military conquest and persecution of African Christians. She wondered why she had never before heard this part of history. But she thrilled at the vibrant Christian faith and perseverance of her ancestors, even amid the suffering and enslavement by Muslims.

Dani wept at length, feeling pain eclipsed by joy. Finally she felt a hand on her shoulder. Thinking it might be Elyon’s Son, she peered up at the broad smile of a coal black face she immediately recognized. It was the Ethiopian man, baptized by Philip, now in the full-time service of the King of the universe. Dani and the man walked and talked and exchanged stories. He introduced her to many of his family and old friends, who became her new ones.

If you’d like to read more about the early African church, check out this issue of Christian History, one of my favorite magazines of all time (all 100 issues are on my shelf!). 

Photo by Rod Waddington [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Is Death a Taboo Subject for You, Or Are You Preparing for Life’s Greatest Certainty?

There’s an old story of a slave who travels with his master toBaghdad. Early one morning, milling through the marketplace, the slave sees Death in human form. Death gives him a threatening look, and the slave recoils in terror, convinced Death intends to take him that day.

The slave runs to his master and says, “Help me! I’ve seen Death, and his threatening look tells me he intends to take my life this very day. I must escape him. Please let me leave now and flee on my camel so tonight I can reachSamarra, where Death cannot find me.”

His master agrees, and the terrified servant takes off on the fifteen-hour journey toSamarra.

A few hours later, the master himself sees Death among the throngs inBaghdad. He boldly approaches Death and asks him, “Why did you give my servant a threatening look?”

“That was not a threatening look,” Death replies. “That was a look of surprise. You see, I was amazed to see your servant today inBaghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight inSamarra.”

While the imagery is pagan, the central moral of the story is biblical. “No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8).

The time of our death is unknown to us. But the fact of our death is inescapable. We may spend our lives running from death and denying death, but that won’t stop death from coming at its appointed time.

As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we’re all going to die. We don’t like to think about death; yet, worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour. If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, it means that more than 250,000 people every day go either to Heaven or Hell.

In his book Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope, Matthew McCullough writes this about the taboo of death in our culture:

When is the last time you heard a sermon about death, or heard the subject raised in a small group or a Sunday school class? We don’t talk about death anymore. Why not?

Geoffrey Gorer, an English sociologist, was among the first to examine this roping off of death from polite conversation. In a groundbreaking essay called “The Pornography of Death,” Gorer draws a telling analogy between the place of sex in the nineteenth century and the place of death in the twentieth century. Even as the prominence of sex has broadened—in conversation, in a mainstream television, in what kids are allowed to see and know—death has been shoved out of sight and out of mind.

In the 1870s, when death was everywhere, it would have been embarrassing to bring up sex at a dinner party. It would have been shameful to admit you think much about sex. It would have been irresponsible to talk to your kids about sex. But by the late 1950s, when Gorer wrote, the taboo had shifted. Death had already become in the twentieth century what sex has been to the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century adults told children that babies came when storks dropped them at the front door. Those same children stood bedside as their loved ones died. Now kids learn that grandpa’s death means he’s gone to a place where he can play golf or go fishing all day. Meanwhile, kids have 24/7 access to sexual content in their Instagram feeds.

How about you? Have you and your family talked about the certainty of your deaths, and how that should impact your lives now? Not talking about death won’t postpone it a moment. Talking about death won’t bring it a moment sooner. But it will give us opportunity to be better prepared when it comes.

David said, “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath” (Psalm 39:4-5). Picture a single breath escaping your mouth on a cold day and dissipating into the air. Such is the brevity of life here. The wise will consider what awaits us on the other side of this life that so quickly ends.

Since life’s greatest certainty is death, it only makes sense to prepare for what lies beyond this life. Any life that leaves us unprepared for death is a foolish life. Matthew Henry put it this way: “It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.”

For more on the subject of death and eternity, see Randy’s books In Light of Eternity and Heaven.  For inspiring quotations about death and resurrection and Heaven, see Eternal Perspectives.

Photo by Mayron Oliveira on Unsplash

Redefining Jesus to Meet Our Expectations and Our Culture’s Preferences

The following is an excerpt from The Knowing Jesus Study Bible, edited by Edward Hindson and Ed Dobson. I hope this might encourage us to consider where at times we too might be like Peter, who attempted to fit Jesus within “the parameters of his own expectations.” 

As I write in my book Face to Face with Jesus, many today try to reinvent Jesus to fit popular notions of the kind of Christ people want. But Jesus is notoriously uncooperative with all attempts to repackage and market Him. May we worship and serve the Son of God, never attempting to redefine Him, but instead faithfully representing Him in all His fullness to a needy world. —Randy Alcorn

“Who Do You Say I Am?

During Jesus’ earthly ministry there was much discussion about who he really was. Some people surmised that he was John the Baptist come back to life. Others conjectured that he was Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets (Matthew 16:14). But Jesus was primarily concerned about what his own disciples thought. Peter’s confession was immediate and emphatic: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

Peter actually professed two separate truths about Jesus’ identity. First, he is the Christ, God’s promised Messiah, the anointed One sent by God to be our prophet, priest and king. But Peter further declared that Jesus is the Son of God.

Peter was characterized by his impetuous actions and outbursts and frequently spoke what was on his mind without sufficient forethought. In this instance, however, he is to be applauded for his insightful statement of faith. But before we cheer too loudly, we must look ahead at the ensuing event.

Shortly after this conversation Jesus began preparing his disciples for his coming death (verse 21). These words did not sit well with Peter, and he spoke out in rebuke ‘Never, Lord! …This shall never happen to you!’ (verse 22). Peter understood who Jesus was but failed utterly to grasp the nature of his mission, assuming that, because Jesus was the Messiah, he had come to establish an earthly kingdom and to overthrow the Roman government. Peter was right about who Jesus was but wrong about why he had come.

And the issue was critical—critical enough for Jesus to respond to Peter with uncharacteristic harshness. If Jesus were not to die in accordance with his Father’s plan, then Satan would win the victory in the battle for the human soul and destiny, and Peter was in effect voicing Satan’s opinion!

Peter had structured his conception of Jesus to fit within the parameters of his own expectations. The consummate man of action wanted a king and a kingdom—not death and apparent defeat. We often do the same thing. We are quick to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but then we proceed to try to force him into the misshapen opening that represents our own image, perspectives and needs.

Our human nature wants to make Jesus Christ palatable to our modern culture rather than allowing him to shine forth before the world as a crucified and risen Savior. But when we redefine Jesus, we do the work of Satan. At that point we, like Peter, understand neither our leader nor our enemy.

Photo by Ben White on Christianpics.co

Much-Needed Perspectives on Suffering from Dave Furman

I really appreciated this 20-minute interview about chronic pain with Dave Furman, a church planting pastor/missionary in Dubai and the author of Kiss the Wave: Embracing God in Your Trials. I met Dave at a Gospel Coalition conference I was speaking at a few years ago, but at the time had no clue about his chronic pain.

What he shares in this podcast was very touching to me, and perhaps it could encourage you as you face your own suffering, and be a resource to share with others to help bring them to greater understanding. Dave’s perspective is such a much-needed one.

Listen to the podcast.

Since we’re on the subject of suffering, let me again highly recommend the Beyond Suffering Bible, which includes devotionals on the subject of suffering, words from Joni Eareckson Tada, study notes, intros, and topical guides.

Also, here’s an article on how Your Suffering Can Be the Pathway to Greater Godliness, which I wrote a few months ago during my wife Nanci’s cancer treatments.

“I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75).

For more related to the subject of suffering, see Randy’s book If God Is Good, as well as the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness and book The Goodness of God. Also, the booklet If God Is Good, Why Do We Hurt? deals with the question and shares the gospel so that both unbelievers and believers can benefit.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

What About Quoting from Someone You Disagree with in Some Areas or Who Had Personal Moral Failures?

Over the years, I’ve been asked why I would quote from someone in my books or on Facebook or Twitter when I don’t agree with them in every area. My response is that when I quote someone in a context of agreement, the only thing I’m saying is I agree with that statement, not all their other statements. Nor is my quoting someone a blanket endorsement of their lifestyle and choices in every area. Otherwise there is no one I or anyone could quote from!

For example, there are any number of areas in which I disagree with C. S. Lewis, but the quotes from him I put in my books are very insightful observations which I do agree with. Another example is Martin Luther, whom I respect and quote from even though he was anti-Semitic, and I deeply disagree with his view of Jewish people.

To be influenced by someone does not require that we endorse that person in all areas. That said, there is also much inaccurate criticism of people on the internet. For instance, I’ve been sent things that claim C. S. Lewis was a universalist. That’s simply false. A universalist believes everyone will be saved and go to Heaven. But Lewis emphatically believed some people would go to hell for eternity, not Heaven, and he said so clearly. (In this article, I talk more extensively about Lewis’s writings on hell, which include many profound and fascinating things. Some are biblically precise, while others are more abstract and subject to misunderstanding. In some cases, his views are not solidly biblical. But many of his insights on hell are true to Scripture, and some of his speculations are compelling food for thought.)

John Piper has addressed the question of “How I Process the Moral Failures of My Historical Heroes?” in the following video. I found this helpful, and hope you do too:

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

One Woman’s Insights on Church, Women, Authority, and Creating a Culture of Happy Complementarians

Today’s blog features an article by Whitney Woollard titled, “Delighting in Authority: How to Create a Culture of Happy Complementarians.” My daughter Angela passed it on to me, and it’s terrific.

Women in church leadership is a huge issue and there are related biblical issues at stake. (If you’re interested, I share some more thoughts here.) The widespread perception among both unbelievers and believers in our culture is that conservative Bible-believing churches—especially those that are also politically conservative—are the last bastion of cultural chauvinism, dedicated to stereotyping, subjecting, and minimizing the equality, worth, intelligence, and gifting of women. We are thought to foster disrespect and, indirectly, abuse.

Unless we intentionally show this isn’t true—and demonstrate an authentic (not merely superficial) respect for women as intelligent and gifted students and teachers of God’s Word—many of our girls and young women will drift away from the church, or turn to churches that are egalitarian. Others may stay but never discover and use their gifts. Furthermore, there’s a large segment of culture we won’t reach.

We shouldn’t ever violate what Scripture commands in an attempt to be relevant, but we should exercise the freedom to do what Scripture allows to grant women the widest and deepest and most meaningful roles in Christ’s body.

That’s why we need to hear from voices like Whitney’s. She’s a writer, speaker, and women’s Bible teacher here in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more at whitneywoollard.com. —Randy Alcorn

Delighting in Authority: How to Create a Culture of Happy Complementarians

By Whitney Woollard

If I were a man, I would be a church planter.

I’m a strong leader with the gifts and wiring essential to the call. I thrive when casting vision, making disciples, training leaders, preaching the Word, and evangelizing the lost. I’ve been “thinking in sermons” since I was fifteen. I can’t help but target potential leaders. I constantly wonder how to reach my community. It’s instinctive. When I hear a powerful sermon, I feel a compulsion to preach. When someone leaves the church, I can’t sleep at night. When I study a text, I obsess over theological clarity.

But I’m a woman—a woman who believes God has spoken authoritatively in his Word on all matters pertaining to life and godliness. A woman whose conscience is bound by the conviction that the authoritative teaching office of God’s covenant community is reserved for men. I’ll never plant a church as the lead pastor/elder [1] not because I’m incompetent or lack the desire but because I believe the Word speaks with authority on this issue, and I trust the God who authored it. In fact, I delight in the authority of the Word, my husband, and the local church. I’m convinced everything God ordains, including various spheres of authority, is the best possible plan for his glory and my good. I’m what you would call a happy complementarian. [2]

“Coming Out” as a Happy Complementarian

Unfortunately, not everyone delights in God-ordained authority. On the one hand, pop-culture has done a fine job of convincing women that femininity and freedom can only be found in throwing off the patriarchal shackles of previous generations to discover our “true, empowered selves.” I’m told my feelings and desires are the ultimate source of authority. Even an unbeliever would encourage me to plant a church if that meant “following my heart.” Today in Portland, Oregon—where I live—to be a strong woman is to reject any limitations on what I can or should do.

On the other hand, some Christian sub-cultures (particularly strands of fundamentalism that uphold a view of complementarianism suspiciously close to subordination) have created miserable women who outwardly affirm complementarian convictions while inwardly despising authority. Some have tragically suffered spiritual abuse from leaders and no longer know how to distinguish godly authority from an ungodly authoritarian. Others feel so trapped by manmade traditions and superficial limitations that they become like caged animals provoked even by innocent bystanders. They’re the bristly ones who affirm male headship but are bitterly offended at the slightest talk of authority.

I want to reject both extremes, even if it invites disapproval. I’m tired of apologizing for being a strong female and a conservative complementarian. In one circle, I’m too educated, too theological, too opinionated, and ask too many questions. In another circle, I’m too conservative, too prudish, too restricted, and don’t speak enough.

It’s time for the church to create space in its local assemblies for strong females who happily affirm authority (e.g., male headship and eldership) while advocating for more opportunities for women to flourish according to their gifts and qualification. Imagine how the gospel could be displayed to the watching world if churches were filled with biblically-minded women who embraced God-ordained authority as a blessing rather than a burden? This counter-cultural impulse would offer continual opportunities to share the gospel with a world that’s desperate for truth.

How Can Pastors Help Female Leaders Delight in Authority? 

But how can you do this when the overwhelming voice of culture smacks of anti-authority sentiments? The ideas below are neither novel nor exhaustive, but they do come from someone whose entire life is and has been directly affected by her views on authority.

1. Cultivate a High View of God’s Word.

Any discussion on authority must begin and end with the Bible. To start anywhere else is to build your “theological house” on the sand. Too often, people will start with a John Piper sermon or a CBMW article without pushing women to grapple with the biblical texts themselves. But only the Word of God has the power to penetrate to our innermost being and shed light on areas we desperately try to hide—like our anti-authority predispositions.

It was a high view of God’s Word that brought me to my current convictions. Early in my Christian walk, I realized I had a dog in the “egalitarian versus complementarian” fight. I applied myself to the Scriptures, earnestly desiring to know what God said about leadership roles in the local church. I came to the conclusion that the authoritative teaching office of God’s covenant community throughout redemptive history has always been and should continue to be restricted to men (e.g., priests in the Old Testament, apostles during the Apostolic age, and elders in the New Covenant). And after coming to this conclusion, I felt joy! God gave me a clear conviction on this matter, and the issue has been settled ever since. My conscience is held captive to the Word of God. And to echo Luther, I believe to act against conscience is neither safe for me, nor open to me.

By constantly pointing to the Word, pastors can help women become the kind of people who are controlled by biblical conviction rather than personal preferences or pragmatism. Encourage them to search the Scriptures and see what God says about women in leadership. Discuss the central, debated texts and facilitate open dialogue. Create environments where women can ask questions as they wrestle with the issues. Help them think well about the Scriptures and be willing to graciously challenge any preconceived notions that may not be rooted in the Word. Ultimately, equip them to make informed decisions based on good exegesis that leads to God-glorifying convictions.

2. Cultivate a High View of Women.

From Genesis to Revelation, the testimony of Scripture is that both male and female are created beings invested with great dignity, value, and worth. And both are tasked with the awesome responsibility of making visible the invisible God through their work and service. The church should be the primary place where the glorious image of God is showcased through men and women carrying out the Great Commission together with mutual love and respect.

All too often, however, the church has devalued women by not providing provision for them to serve and flourish within their respective gifts. I see this regularly with women who have leadership and teaching ability. The church may have a strong position articulated on paper, but functionally they don’t know what to do with these women . . . so all too often they don’t do anything. This isn’t necessarily malicious or calculated; I think it’s just the state of affairs in conservative churches today—but it’s one in need of continual reformation. As a female gifted to lead, I can tell you it’s not helpful (in fact, it’s confusing) to form a theology of women in leadership that never gets implemented.

I have been in churches (large “progressive” churches) where my husband and I agreed with everything on paper, but I wasn’t actually allowed to do anything within my gift set. It turned out a young woman without kids could never teach women. This reveals a low view of women that’s too pervasive in many conservative complementarian churches. Women are an essential part of the body, gifted by the Spirit to serve the church, and they should be encouraged to minister in all the ways the Bible permits.

Part of good, God-ordained male leadership is creating environments in which women feel valued, protected, and encouraged to serve in the ways God has wired them. Show women you value them by forming a robust, biblical theology of women in leadership and then actually implementing it. Here are a few suggestions:

Provide opportunities for aspiring female teachers to get proper training so they can teach and preach the Scriptures to other women well. Perhaps consider one of these Simeon Trust workshops for women.
Offer seminary-like classes on basic Bible, theology, and spiritual formation for your women.
Give the women’s Bible study team time each semester to go over the curriculum and help them teach it well.
Invite feedback from women on your sermons, on the worship, on the formation of small groups, and on the Sunday School classes.
Ask women how you could better serve them in the way you preach, pray, and lead. After all, on average half of your congregation are women so wouldn’t it be helpful to get insight into the spiritual needs of your women . . . from a woman?
Have women do things like serve communion, pray, read Scripture, or share their testimonies from the front. I cannot tell you how encouraging it is when I visit a church and hear a woman pray or read Scripture. It communicates volumes to the women sitting in your pews.
Periodically ask yourself, “Are the women in my congregation flourishing? Are they being provided various opportunities to serve? Are they being treated as co-heirs of eternal life and partners in ministry?”

Every one of these points comes from the practice of my local church, a conservative, Bible-teaching, gospel-centered, Baptist church. I recently told my pastor I would be complementarian wherever I go because my conscience is bound to biblical convictions, but he sure does make it easier for me to be a happy complementarian!

I’ve been a Christian for fifteen years, and this is one of the first churches where the lead pastor has made me feel like a blessing rather than a burden for being a theologically-minded woman. That’s fifteen years of struggling to find my place in the local church because I was made to feel like a burden for the way God wired me. I’m not entertaining self-pity here, but I do think that’s sad.

I believe many women would be more willing to graciously embrace male authority in the church if they felt valued by the male leadership and given opportunities to serve Jesus in meaningful ways. Pastors, I urge you to use your God-ordained authority to help female leaders to flourish in your church. Make authority a pleasant experience for them.

How Can Female Leaders Help Pastors Delight in Authority?

Part of being a “happy” complementarian is helping facilitate a culture in which male leaders find joy in leading us. We should (along with all believers) submit to authority in a way that helps leaders care for our souls “with joy and not groaning” (Heb. 13:17).

I’ll be the first to confess I haven’t always done this well. I can’t imagine how much “groaning” I’ve caused my pastors in the past. But, through much repentance and grace, I’m growing. Here are helpful suggestions I’ve learned along the way, primarily through my own sin and short-comings:

Give others a “category” for you. Oftentimes, people just aren’t sure what to do with strong, theologically-minded women. Graciously help them see that you’re a woman who loves Jesus, delights in male authority, and desires to teach the Bible to other women.
Speak highly of the male leadership in your church and home (if married). One of the most harmful things a woman can do is publicly criticize her pastor or husband. If we truly delight in male headship, our words should reflect it.
Look for ways to encourage your pastors and elders. For example, tell them when a sermon was especially helpful or mention specific ways you’re praying for them.
Thank your leadership for the current opportunities women are given to serve the church. Let them know it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Be quick to communicate and slow to assume. Communicate that you have a passion for teaching women the Bible rather than assuming leadership knows and is intentionally withholding the role from you. A lot of hurt feelings are built upon false assumptions.
Ask if there is or will ever be provision to serve within your gifts. Display a willingness to be trained and equipped accordingly. Show your pastor(s) that you’re also willing to serve outside of your gifts in order to help the church.

Ladies, let’s make authority a pleasant experience for the men in leadership over us by being a blessing to the body. May our words, actions, and attitudes help them view their God-ordained role as a delight.

Finding Freedom within Limitations

The Psalmist declares, “I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free” (Ps. 119:32).

This reflects my heart on the issue of authority. Years ago, I bowed before God’s infinite wisdom on the matter of women in leadership and discovered the path beneath my feet was broadened. There’s a delightful freedom to be experienced when one accepts God-given boundaries. My conscience is clear, my convictions are firm, and my ministry is meaningful.

I’m not sad that I’m not and couldn’t be a church planter or lead pastor. I don’t feel restricted or resentful. Instead, I feel full. Submitting to the authority of God’s Word, specifically as it plays out in the local church, has freed me to run in the path of God’s commands. I have found great freedom within authority.

What about you?

Footnotes

[1] This truth doesn’t mean women cannot be involved in church plants. Of course they can. They should be! A well-rounded planting team would include trained, equipped women in the core group. I’m speaking to the lead, authoritative role as the church planter.

[2] A complementarian holds the theological view that men and women are created equal in dignity, value, and worth but hold differing, complimentary roles in marriage, family, and the local church.

This article was originally posted on 9Marks and is reposted by permission of the author.

Photo by Ben White on Christianpics.co

“Keep Your Heart,” “Expensive Principle,” and More Odd Google Translate Renderings of My Book Titles from Other Languages

One of my great joys is to see my books translated into languages around the world. To date, there have been translations in over seventy languages (see the full list).

It’s always interesting to see the different covers that the publishers choose, some of which are wildly different—and also sometimes better—than the original English version. Years ago I blogged about some of these covers, including the Korean Heaven for Kids, which portrays me, as the author, as an old man with a cane speaking to children. The Indonesian translation of the same book has green children on the cover.

I’m also fascinated by the titles the translators choose, wondering what exactly they mean to those who will read them. Out of curiosity, I had a couple of our EPM staff try plugging some of them into Google Translate to see what they came back as in English. Some titles are insightful, while others are downright humorous. Of course, Google Translate is a great program that can be helpful, but it can only translate words literally; it can’t convey the meaning of distinctive cultural idioms.

The Purity Principle, translated into about twenty languages, gets some interesting results. The Turkish title translates back into English as Sexual Minority Theory; the Czech as The Principle of Cleanliness; the German as Keep Your Heart. The Indonesian title came back as the unfortunate What’s Wrong with Sex? (Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it! God created and designed sex for the sacred union of marriage, and reserves it for that union. When it takes place in its proper context, God is definitely pro-sex.)

My book Why ProLife? also had some interesting translations. The Serbian title is fitting: Abortion: Right to Choice or Murder? So is the Turkish title: Do You Have a Right to Life? The translation of the Faroese (a North Germanic language with about 66,000 first-language speakers) title is Who Protects Lives?; the Estonian unfortunately came across as Why The Egg Is for Life. (Prolifers are sometimes asked, “Then why isn’t it murder to destroy a sperm or an egg?” The answer, as every scientist should know, is that there is a vast and fundamental difference between sperm and unfertilized eggs on the one hand, and fertilized eggs, or brand new unborn children, on the other. Of course, I have no idea what an Estonian reading the title in his own language would think—it might be a far better title than Google Translate makes it seem to us!)

The Treasure Principle has sold over two million copies in English and has been translated into thirty languages. The Danish title translated as Save Up in the Sky; the German as Where Your Sweetheart Is; the Latvian as Thorny Principle (another translator said Expensive Principle!).

One of my favorites is the Italian title for my novel Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, inspired by C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. Google Translate renders it The Letters of the Count Grin of Putrid.

The French title for my small book TouchPoints: Heaven came across as Feet on the Ground, Eyes to the Sky. (Sort of an abridged version of what I’ve written about how it’s possible to be both heavenly minded and of earthly good!) I also like how the Dutch title of The Goodness of God translated as A Good God in Evil Days; or there’s the Korean title for my book Heaven, which in English is Heaven Is Like This.

What’s the point here? This is just a glimpse into the complex world of language and culture, and the fact that single words and especially word groupings are far more complex and idiomatic than dictionary definitions account for. And in every translation, there are always expressions, figures of speech, and illustrations which need to be altered, to make them culturally relevant and understandable. In fact, I’ve been contacted by a number of translators asking me if they can try to come up with their own illustrations when the English ones just don’t make sense in their culture. I always say “By all means!”

By the way, our ministry has translated lots of articles into other languages, including over 100 resources in Spanish, as well as some in French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, and several other languages (see the full list here). If you know someone who speaks these languages, or ministers to others who do, we invite you to share them!

“And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

What Does It Mean That We're "Hidden with Christ in God"?

Colossians 3:1-4 tells us that as believers, in a sense, we’re already in Heaven with Christ: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (emphasis added).

Our intimate link with Christ in His redemptive work makes us inseparable from Him, even now. As we walk with Him and commune with Him in this world, we experience a faint foretaste of Heaven’s delights and wonders.

Though it’s true that Christ is with us and within us while we’re on Earth, it also works in the other direction—we’re united with Christ, so much so that we are seated with Him in Heaven: “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

Notice that the following description, written to believers alive on Earth, is in the present perfect (not future) tense, which expresses a completed action: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22-23).

In a metaphysical sense, we’ve already entered Heaven’s community. By seeing ourselves as part of the heavenly society, we can learn to rejoice now in what Heaven’s residents rejoice in. They rejoice in God, His glory, His grace, and His beauty. They rejoice in repentant sinners, the saints’ faithfulness and Christlikeness, and the beauty of God’s creation. They rejoice in the ultimate triumph of God’s Kingdom and the coming judgment of sin.

Heaven, then, isn’t only our future home. It’s our home already, waiting over the next hill. If we really grasp this truth, it will have a profound effect on our holiness. A man who sees himself seated with Christ in Heaven, in the very presence of a God to whom the angels cry out, “Holy, holy, holy,” won’t spend his evenings viewing Internet pornography.

No wonder the devil is so intent on keeping us from grasping our standing in Christ—for if we see ourselves in Heaven with Christ, we’ll be drawn to worship and serve Him here and now, creating ripples in Heaven’s waters that will extend outward for all eternity.

For more on the eternal life that awaits us, see Randy’s book Heaven. You can also browse additional resources on Heaven.

Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash