Council limits pastoral roles to men
From Christian Week:
TORONTO, ON-Roy Matheson has been one of the most vocal opponents of a move by conservatives within one of Canada’s largest evangelical denominations, the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada (FEBCC), to make male leadership a test of membership in the denomination. This fall, Matheson may pay the price for his beliefs by having to walk out of the denomination at the FEBCC’s conference November 3-6 in Toronto… Darryl Dash, senior pastor at Richview Baptist Church in Toronto, believes the National Council is making a mistake in pushing the issue and listening to a small group of strict complementarians who are threatening a split that would likely involve many more churches than a split involving egalitarian churches. “A small group is pushing us toward a precipice,” he says. “Scripture is not clear enough to demand unanimity.” Dash, who worked with several other Toronto area pastors to defer the issue for a year for further study, wonders “what’s worth splitting over and drawing lines in the sand.” He also worries the issue will contribute to FEBCC churches losing their significance in today’s “post-Christian” society. “We need to address missional questions in a society that doesn’t care what churches think (about the role of women),” he says. “We need to accept ambiguity and allow diversity. Unfortunately, this is not the Council’s view.”
I was having nightmares about this article after the interview was over, mainly because I couldn’t remember if I had been too harsh. Overall, not a bad representation of both sides of the debate.