Anyone? Okay, to be honest, I haven't read it yet, but I should have a chunk of time tonight. Surely one of us has read it and has a thought or two? If not, just share something that's been going on in your life this week. My other half's been in St. Louie all week, so I've been a bit busier and not home much.
Hope everyone is well. Keep reading!
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6 comments:
I've finished two and have almost finished three but - I don't have kids or a man to worry about!!!
I like reading other's thoughts but I don't think I'm going to have any big epiphany about the way I think about women's roles. Just the fact that every paragraph talks about "possibly means" or "may have meant"...
I just get frustrated knowing that no one but God knows and we're all just going to have to live by faith and do the best we can do. I know I sound frustrated over it because I really am.
So what IS your thinking? Is the book tracking with the way you feel or think, or is it frustrating because you disagree? I think our group would be a safe place to vent those frustrations you speak of. Come on. I did write you a birthday poem, after all. (wink wink)
Seriously, it would be nice if we all could imagine we're sitting in my living room sipping coffee and nibbling biscotti. Now share. :)
I am not sure that I understand where she's coming from or not. ("That Girl" is Terri, right?) When you hear all of these possible meanings, it can get overwhelming. So many people who are deeply rooted in God's Word have different things to say. I am thankful that God looks at our hearts. I am finding this study very interesting. I don't know that my views about women's roles in the church will change. Some of those views are based on what I've been taught about women's roles in the home. THAT view is not necessarily based on knowledge of context and Greek and all that. So who knows, my thinking about it all might change! :)
I will share those thoughts later. I need to go right now.
I am a "bottom-line" kind of person. I like to know the "why" of every situation and that's not how faith works.
I'm not afraid at all to say when my beliefs have changed on any topic it's just that I guess I've always considered myself very important to God so I haven't worried very much about women's roles in public worship.
Not having studied a topic so in-depth before, I guess I am a bit overwhelmed by the possible meanings. I guess I've never really looked at this so seriously. When I get bogged down in Paul saying that women shouldn't be teachers...etc, I get a little put out with Paul and since he's not here to explain himself and we're having to guess what he means, I don't like it.
I'm just being challenged more than usual and I'm not sure that I like it. I like it - I'm just not comfortable with it.
... and that Keener guy is such a know-it-all! :)
Oh yeah, ...and what a wonderful birthday poem it was!!!
Thanks for sharing, Terri. I love how we all come from such different places and yet having Jesus in common makes us sisters.
See by the time I was a teenager, I was starting to become aware of "rankings" in the church. Adult men, of course, always held the positions of influence and authority in my church upbringing. Most of the women I was around had very little to say in doctrinal matters. In my home life, my dad's side of the family, in great Southern style perhaps, upheld this with family dinners cooked by the women, tables set by us girls, and then the uncles and men getting to eat first while the food was hot. THEN the women and children ate and cleaned up the mess. I thinked I bucked that even then by begging to eat with the men. (My caveat to that was that my own father was a true servant leader--doing more than his share of housework, cleaning, and childraising.)
I guess I say all that to say that those human examples contributed to me NOT feeling very important to God. God must see me as 2nd rate since His church and my culture seemed to support that as well.
However, I seem to have been born with this innate need for justice and equity. I've always had strong, guttural reactions to racism, sexism, elitism, genocide. I always root for the underdog in anything from history to film to sports.
Only in the last few years have I started to grasp His love for His children. And only in recent years has the issue of gender inequity in the church of Christ become even clearer to me. And since my feelings had little fact to back them up, I decided it was time to study it.
I will admit thought that it's hard to study something that can leave me more frustrated with my reality. But my hope is that the "possibly means" and "may have meants" will become clearer by the end. Though I hold little hope that this is an issue with a clear as glass ending.
Thanks for sharing. I'm encouraged to get back into the book this weekend. Tomorrow morning, unless it's rained out, our church family is putting on a big community children's carnival. I'm in charge of the inflatable Mysterious Castle. In fact, I hereby dub myself Queen of the Mysterious Castle. I shall rule my castle in peace and love. :)
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