Cheryl Schatz

Grant, welcome to my blog!

I appreciate your comments and your call to moderation.

The issue here is not about secondary issues but about the primary issue that has had an addition of a secondary issue as necessary. If we allow a separation like this then it will be easy to dismiss godly Christian brothers and sisters in Christ as outside the faith merely for disagreeing on a non-essential doctrine.

There have been some really serious talk in the CBMW group about egalitarians as ones who are either in heresy or heading towards heresy merely because we believe that God can call and gift women and use them for the benefit of the body of Christ. I have heard the sermons myself and I can’t tell you how sad it makes me feel. But when the line is crossed by listing complementarianism as essential and necessary for the gospel to be preached and for converts to be educated on the essentials of the faith, we need to make a stand so the rift that has occurred in the body will not lead to complete separation. This is divisive and dangerous and unhealthy. We simply cannot add our own secondary doctrines to the gospel and expect it will be tolerated. While I commend the T4G men for standing up to defend the gospel against the challenges of liberalism, they have taken it too far by adding egalitarianism as a challenge to the gospel.

We need to take out our spiritual knives and cut away the false and perverted gospel but we dare not cut deep into the gospel itself and graft in a supposed essential addition unknown through Church history.

I really do appreciate your gracious tone and your appeal to balance. I too am interested in balance but I allow people to speak freely here especially out of their hurt and mistrust of men who have stifled them and taught churches to hold women back in contradiction to the direct call and gifting of God. Many forums will not allow egalitarians to speak freely. This blog is not like those that restrict free speech.

As far as T4G, my message to these men would be to go back to treating us as dear brothers and sisters in Christ and keep this issue as a secondary issue of faith and leave it out of the gospel.

You also mentioned the issue of whether there were women in the T4G conference and I can assure you that there were very few allowed. Because the conference is so popular, the organizers gave men preference so that men who wanted to attend were not kept away and displaced by women. The event is primarily for pastors and church workers and since they believe that these should be men, it isn’t surprising that the group was made up of almost exclusively men.

But does this really make it “Together for the Gospel”? With the complementarian message it is men alone who are to teach doctrine to the church so women do not appear to be needed in the togetherness for the gospel. I don’t think that men really understand what they are missing out on when they exclude their sisters in Christ. God’s gifts are all necessary no matter what vessel that God decides to use.

Thanks again for your comments!