Tried With Fire

Several years ago, I would have been thrilled to attend Together 4 the Gospel. I had no pretensions to being a pastor. I would have been happy just working in the bookstore. I was not young or restless, more middle-aged and sedentary, but I was caught up in the excitement of this new movement and would have loved to bask in the reflected glory of the leaders I admired. The thought of being with so many Calvinists, all talking the same talk was very heady stuff. And this was cool and doctrinally "right" to boot. Having come through a few difficult church situations, I was idealistic enough to believe that selfish ambition and putting an organization ahead of people would never happen. After all, we were Calvinists, and a good solid doctrinal foundation would guard us against such things. But as events have played out over the years and even this week , this has not been the case, and I have been grieved to tears. It's true that elders must be able to teach, but that is...

Last week, Lisa and Aimee got the ball rolling with their posts ( here and here ) on women's ministry and specifically where middle-aged women fit into the picture. As a woman in her 50's, I appreciate that my friends have started this discussion, so if you haven't read their posts, please do. However, I want to take a step back even further and consider what are the expectations of women's ministry ? I've broken this one question into three sub-questions which have spawned even more, so consider yourself forewarned. Who is the focus of women's ministry? The go-to verses about women's ministry are Titus 2:3-5, older women teaching younger women what is good. There is no question of the need to train those who will carry on after we are gone. But is this the sum total of what women's ministry should be? Namely, is the focus only on the younger generation? If so, could this lead to the possibility of older saints falling through the cracks? What is the...