This semester, I’ve been studying several different facets of modern-day slavery and the war against it. Here’s some of what I learned from reading Half the Church by Carolyn Custis James. It's an incredible book. I just wish I could share more of it with you! In a battle, when half of the soldiers can't or won't fight, the entire army is disadvantaged. The battle for building God's kingdom is no different. When God created the world, He made two types of warriors: men and women. Designed to work together, they were part of His perfect plan. Then, something changed. With the fall, the roles of men and women became distorted.
Contrary to patriarchal culture, in God’s economy, daughters and sons have equal value. In the beginning, when God created, He created both man and woman in His image. Both of them bore the responsibility of representing Him. Their actions and interactions would reflect Him to the world. After creating them, God commanded both man and woman to rule and subdue. When Paul referred to all of God’s people as sons in the New Testament, He wasn’t excluding God’s daughters. Instead, he was communicating to them that, in God’s eyes, they were a valuable part of the Body of Christ, worth as much as sons.
Women are vital to the mission of the church because they reflect the Father in a unique way. When God named Eve in the garden, He gave her a name that was later used to describe God himself. Throughout the Old Testament, when the word Ezer refereed to God, it was in a military context. God was Israel’s helper and protector. Because God is three in one, He knew that one person alone couldn’t accurately represent Him. He created both Adam and Eve so that He could be reflected in their relationship and intimacy. Without women, the image of God in our world would be incomplete.
Created to work together, men and women are most effective in their mission when they collaborate. After making Adam, God said that it was not good for the man to be alone. While Adam was surrounded by animals and had an intimate relationship with God, there was no one else like him. No one related to God or the world around him like he did. When God created Eve, Adam found that by walking in relationship with her, he could be more fully himself than before. Within the church and the Kingdom, there are places for men and women, brothers and sisters, to work alongside one another.
In the church and the world, things go best when men and women work together. Both halves of the church are vital to the success of the mission God has given. If men don’t allow women to be involved in ministry, they hold themselves back from being as effective as they can be. When women choose not to walk in everything God has called them to, they deprive the entire Body of Christ of their gifts. Working together, men and women have better ideas and are able to make better decisions. Their interactions reveal who God is to the world.