{"id":7133,"date":"2023-07-11T13:56:16","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T17:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=7133"},"modified":"2023-07-11T13:56:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T17:56:16","slug":"christian-theologian-john-piper-doesnt-believe-women-should-lead-parachurch-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/07\/christian-theologian-john-piper-doesnt-believe-women-should-lead-parachurch-organizations.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Theologian John Piper Doesn\u2019t Believe Women Should Lead Parachurch Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jimscoyle \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Theologian and author John Piper sparked debate after he stated he did not believe women should serve in leadership positions in parachurch organizations. Piper was speaking on his \u201c<\/span>Ask Pastor John<\/span><\/a>\u201d podcast when a listener reached out to him with the following question. The man stated he works in a globally well-known parachurch organization and that, \u201cRecently, our leadership decided that all positions of leadership within the organization will be opened to women. This includes campus leadership, regional leadership, and national leadership. Women will be permitted to teach men from the Scripture, to be in positions of spiritual authority over men, to shape and correct doctrine within the organization, and to mentor men in their ministry roles. Previously, these positions of spiritual authority over men were reserved for men alone. The reason given for this change is that a parachurch organization is not the church. Therefore, the commands addressed to churches about the role of men and women in relationship to one another do not apply in this case.\u201d The questioner then asked for Piper\u2019s take on the situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Parachurch organizations, as defined on Piper\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Desiring God<\/span><\/a>\u201d website, are \u201cChristian organizational structures that are not churches and are not necessarily under the direct oversight of a local church or an association or family of churches.\u201d Such organizations often take the form of faith-based non-profits like Franklin Graham\u2019s Samaritan Ministries or Christian health cost-sharing ministries like\u00a0<\/span>Christian Healthcare Ministries<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Samaritan Ministries<\/span><\/a>. Piper responded to the question, saying, \u201cWell, that\u2019s sad to hear to me, but it\u2019s not surprising, and it\u2019s not new.\u201d He went on to add, \u201cThe position that the teachings of the Bible concerning sexuality have no bearing on human relationships outside the church or the home is na\u00efve.\u201d He went further to state that such a position was \u201cculturally compromised.\u201d \u201cThe world today is in free fall of denial that nature teaches us anything about what maleness and femaleness are for. And that denial used to be \u2014 back when I was in the early days of fighting these battles \u2014 that male and female personhood teaches us nothing about what God intended our roles to be. But now the denial is that our bodies, not just our persons, teach us nothing about what life should be as male or female,\u201d he added later, noting the current controversies over so-called \u201cgender-affirming care\u201d that often involves the removal of healthy breasts and male reproductive organs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Piper pointed to 1 Timothy 2:12-14 for his reasoning, noting how Paul stated women are not to have authority over a man and that this was not just in ecclesiastical structures but is due to the very nature of creation where \u201cAdam was formed first, then Eve,\u201d and, \u201cAdam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.\u201d Piper summed up his conclusion by stating that \u201cI think Paul would say, \u2018I have taught, Moses has taught, nature teaches that it goes against man\u2019s and woman\u2019s truest, God-given nature to place a woman in a role of regular, direct, personal leadership over men.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Egalitarian and complementarian views of the Bible have been brought into the spotlight lately after the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reaffirmed its position that the role of pastor and elder is for men only and expelled two churches for <\/span>having female pastors<\/span><\/a>. Rich Stearns, President Emeritus of World Vision USA, took exception to Piper\u2019s comments,\u00a0<\/span>tweeting<\/span><\/a>, \u201cWow! So a women [sic] can\u2019t even lead a domestic abuse ministry for other women, or a children\u2019s ministry \u2013 or a youth ministry if there are any men (or boys?) under her authority? What a colossal waste of the giftedness of half the human race.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Allie Beth Stuckey, a popular apologist and political commentator, had an episode on her podcast this past May be entitled \u201c<\/span>Is My Podcast Sinful?<\/span><\/a>\u201d to discuss how to view her podcast given a complementarian view of the Bible. Stuckey referred to Piper in her episode, noting she does not agree with everything he says but that she aligned herself mostly with his views on complementarianism. She stated she did not believe the Bible prohibited women from speaking on \u201ctheologically complex\u201d issues in some contexts. She contrasted this with what she called the \u201cpatriarchal view,\u201d which \u201csays that if a woman is to teach other women, it must be within the bounds of child-rearing and homemaking.\u201d She wrote that \u201ccomplementarianism is different from biblical patriarchy. We all have proper context and responsibilities for our gifts, but while we agree that women should not be pastors or teach in pastoral roles, we don\u2019t see biblical support for the idea that women can\u2019t be talking about academic theology publicly, generally speaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theologian and author John Piper sparked debate after he stated he did not believe women should serve in leadership positions in parachurch organizations. Piper was speaking on his \u201cAsk Pastor John\u201d podcast when a listener reached out to him with the following question. The man stated he works in a globally well-known parachurch organization and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":7136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Theologian John Piper Doesn\u2019t Believe Women Should Lead Parachurch Organizations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Piper sparks controversy after he said that he did not believe women should serve in leadership positions in parachurch organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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