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A Trinitarian Pattern Applied to Church Leadership Roles

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A Trinitarian Pattern Applied to Church Leadership Roles LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY A Trinitarian Pattern Applied to Church Leadership Roles A Thesis Project Submitted to the Faculty of Liberty University School of Divinity in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Ministry By Michael D. Rouleau Lynchburg, Virginia February 2021 Copyright © February 7, 2021, by Michael D. Rouleau All Rights Reserved Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ii Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Thesis Project Approval Sheet ______________________________ Dr. David B. Roberts ______________________________ Dr. Larry Steven McDonald iii THE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY THESIS PROJECT ABSTRACT Michael Rouleau Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, February 7, 2021 Mentor: Dr. David B. Roberts There is considerable debate in our society today, articles are written, and books are authored, all on the subject of a woman's role in ministry. With this topic being approached from multiple angles, the most straightforward approach is often ignored, overlooked, or marginalized. It will be argued that the Bible, interpreted according to the grammatical, historical method of interpretation using normal grammatical word usage, does not allow a woman to be appointed to or to occupy the role/office of an elder/pastor. In this paper, an examination of the Trinitarian model will be explored in terms of its roles and the authority-submission structure. Then that model will be traced through the Imago Dei, showing that man was created under that schema. God created both the family and the model upon which it is built. This model has foundational roots within the relational nature of the Trinity. Especially as it pertains to the respective member's role and hierarchy, using the same model, it is then applied to the church's foundational organization to assess its biblical applicability. If so confirmed, it would thereby establish a hierarchical nature of Christ's church. Against this model, it will provide the necessary backdrop from which our thesis can be evaluated biblically. The research survey revealed a type of slow, glacial movement that is starting to infiltrate the congregational thinking of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church. As a result, a class was devised and planned to be taught to the life group leaders who would, then, lead their groups through the material. This is the planned approach to address the survey results for Atlantic Shores Baptist Church. Keywords: Women, Pastor, Elder, Leadership, egalitarian, complementarian iv Contents Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………8 Ministry Context…………………………………………………………………………22 Problem Presented……………………………………………………………………….23 Purpose Statement………………………………………………………………………..24 Basic Assumptions………………………..……………………………………………...24 Definitions………………………………………………………………………………..25 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………….27 Delimitations……………………………………………………………………………..27 Thesis Statement…………………………………………………………………………28 Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework…………………………………………………………...29 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………...29 Theological Foundations…………………………………………………………………43 Theoretical Foundations………………………………………………………………….53 Chapter 3: Methodology………………………………………………………………………..60 Intervention Design………………………………………………………………………60 Implementation of Intervention Design………………………………………………….63 Chapter 4: Results………………………………………………………………………………64 Chapter 5: Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….89 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...104 Appendix I………………………………………………………………………………..……115 Appendix II…………………………………………………………………….……..………..120 v Appendix III…………………………………………………………………..……………….125 IRB Approval………………………………………………………………………………….154 vi Abbreviations CBMW Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood DMIN Doctor of Ministry IRB Institutional Review Board LUSOD Liberty University School of Divinity vii 8 Chapter 1 Introduction When God was about his work of creation, in the beginning, he had intentionality toward each aspect of his creation. There was a function or a design to his creation; an ontological purpose. Jesus echoed this specificity when he stated, "have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female" (Matthew 19:4). The extended background to this quote is found in Genesis 2:20, “…But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him”. In the following verse, the creation of the woman is described. There was functional and purposeful design to the creation of man, which manifests itself in the relationships, roles, and responsibilities that have been divinely designed, not humanly contrived. As to the intentionality of design, Larry Crabb (among others) comments that "the sexes are distinct in what they were fundamentally designed to give and in what brings them the greatest joy in the relationship."1 Therefore, the distinctions of masculinity and femininity and their role distinctions are from the beginning designed by God intentionally. This design should resonate within every person's heart as part of our core nature (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18, 21-24; 1 Peter 3:7c; 1 Corinthians 11:7-9). This intentional design, known as the image of God, is reflected in the language used by the writer of Genesis. A common consensus of evangelical scholars is reflected in the following comments where this definition of the image of God conceives of both male and female as: "created and finite representations (images of God) of God's own nature, that in relationship with Him and each other, they might be His representatives (imaging 1 Larry Crabb, Men and Women, Enjoying the Difference (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991), 174. Jack Balswick and Judith Balswick, “A Trinitarian Model of Marriage,” in The New Evangelical Subordinationism? Perspectives on the quality of God the Father and God the Son (Eugene, OR.: Pickwick Publications, 2012). Susan T. Foh, Women & the Word Of God: A Response to Biblical Feminism (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1979). James B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1981). Mary A. Kassian, Women, Creation, and the Fall (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1990). Werner Neuer, Man & Woman: in Christian Perspective (Wheaton, IL: Crossway books, 1991). 9 God) in carrying out the responsibilities He has given to them. In this sense, we are images of God in order to image God and His purposes in the ordering of our lives and carrying out of our God-given responsibilities."2 Balswick and Balswick, in their chapter, "A Trinitarian Model of Marriage," also comments that, "It seems, then, that the triune God's intention was for humans (plural--man and woman together) to reflect something of the plurality (us ... our) of God's own nature. It should be noted that Adam and Eve are depicted in Genesis as providing not only the prototype of a human being in general but also of marriage in particular. So, when we ask what it means for spouses to be created in the image of God, we seem to be directed to draw an analogy from the Godhead to indicate how we are to reflect the image of God in marriage."3 From this, the intentionality of God’s design in the human couple is very evident. That communicated via the image of God in which they were created was the sense of community and relationship, along with a sense of order, seen in the Trinity as a model of authority and submission (hereon referred to as the authority-submission model). Jumping from this original design to our modern-day, when it comes to male and female dynamics within our society, a considerable drift has occurred away from our original anchor point. There is now considerable debate engaged, articles written, and books authored, all about what a woman's role is in ministry today or some associated aspect of it. This topic is approached from a plethora of different angles, with the most straightforward approach often ignored, overlooked, or marginalized. The researcher will argue that the Bible does not allow for a woman to occupy or be appointed to the role/office of an elder/pastor. According to the grammatical, historical method of interpretation using normal grammatical word usage, the Bible does not allow a woman to be appointed to or to occupy the role/office of an elder/pastor. 2 Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 133. 3 Jack Balswick and Judith Balswick, “A Trinitarian Model of Marriage,” in The New Evangelical Subordinationism? Perspectives on the quality of God the Father and God the Son (Eugene, OR.: Pickwick publications, 2012), 326. 10 When it comes to the ordinarily conservative Southern Baptist Convention, whose faith statement limits the office of pastor/elder to biblically qualified men, a surprising result from a survey taken of Southern Baptist women reveals that they favor the idea of female clergy.4 Biblical egalitarians try to make this discussion center around education, the individual's skills, their perceived worth, and numerous other arguments. Relatively few of these arguments deal simply with the text of Scripture and what it says. When they are forced to deal with the Scriptures, they employ a distinctive hermeneutic amiable to their position to explain their version of the discussion.5 Robin Scroggs gives an excellent illustration of this academic footwork to avoid
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