First and second things

At the weekend, the Keswick Convention put out a statement on social media as follows.

 It seems that the convention has been subject to a bit of a protest about their stance on women speakers. It’s not the first time that Christians have decided to protest Christian events. In fact, back when we attended Keswick, there was a man who would stand outside with a banner denouncing us as all kinds of terrible for our use of the NIV.  As is so often the case, the protestor hadn’t really done much to affect the convention itself but had made a nuisance of themselves in the town with the locals. 

A few people responded to the convention by expressing surprise and delight that there had been a woman speaker allowed at the convention. They seemed even more surprised to discover that this wasn’t the first time, in fact, from what I can work out, for much of its history and certainly for as long as I can remember, Keswick have welcomed women speakers onto the platform.  How could this be possible when so many people attending the convention and so many of the speakers are from complementarian church backgrounds?

There’s two simple answers to that which seem to get ignored.  The first is that “complementarianism” is itself an umbrella term which includes a range of views. The crucial point is that complementarians believe that men and women are made equal in God’s image but complement one another by making different contributions to marriage/the family and as a result of this into local church life.  Complementarians therefore tend to agree that the role of elder/pastor in the church is restricted to men but would differ on a number of things.  Some complementarians like John Piper  would argue that this affects a wide range of workplace roles as well as churches and parachurch organisations, others would say that it is something limited to two specific questions “how do husbands and wives relate” and “who can be elders?”  Some like Peter O’Brien have argued that voluntary submission is one directional by wives to their husbands as heads.  From what I can tell, the stronger historical tradition is “mutual submission” within the context of headship.  Some would assume that all leaders are male, others like me would argue that whilst elders are male, church families need mums and dads, leadership is therefore about more than eldership. 

When it comes to the question of preaching and speaking, this means that some complementarians would note that there is strong evidence of women exercising a prophetic ministry in the New Testament and that there are examples (see for example Priscilla) of women teaching men in certain contexts.  The result is that some complementarians would see a place for women preaching and others would agree with teaching outside of the local church context. This might include in seminaries, through books, blogs, podcasts etc and at conferences.

This means that there is a diverse range of views within complementarianism. However, the second answer takes us a step further.  Generally speaking, most complementarians would recognise that this is an issue that evangelical Christians differ on.  There are Christians who have different views on the role of women in the church but are equally and fully committed to the Gospel and to the authority of Scripture.  They submit to Scripture’s authority recognising that it is God’s Word that is infallible not our interpretations.

This means that we recognise that there are first and second order things.  What the Gospel is, the authority of Scripture, the Trinity are all examples of first order things.  Second order matters include a range of issues from the mode and timing of baptism through to the nature of gifts of the Spirit.  You’ll find a range of speakers and a range of attendees on those topics at events like Keswick too. What this means is that complementarians can participate in events where they may not agree with and may not be comfortable with everything that goes on.  They recognise that there are issues of greater importance, things that we are united on that remind us that we are all one in Christ Jesus.