Embracing Complementarianism

Is there a more contentious topic for church life than the matter of how men and women are to relate and partner in ministry? Conversations about this topic aren’t new, but they aren’t getting easier either. For this reason, I’m very glad for the rich resource of Embracing Complementarianism: Turning Biblical Convictions into Positive Church Culture. | This is a book I have been waiting for! Graham Beynon and Jane Tooher have done a beautiful job in explaining what complementarianism is (and isn’t!), showing how it is rooted in the Bible and describing what it might look like in action. This gracious introduction to a controversial and potentially divisive issue is eirenic, thoughtful and stimulating. I think this will be so helpful in all kinds of contexts as together we work out what biblical faithfulness looks like in the life of the local church and beyond. | Here’s a book for those looking for sound reasoning and humble guidance in regard to the practical application of complementarity in a variety of church contexts. Graham and Jane graciously and consistently apply what the Scriptures teach with a lack of rigidity yet with firm conviction in regard to the biblical call for men and women to express their godliness through gender. | I much enjoyed reading this fresh, sensitive, thoughtful, well-informed and engagingly positive treatment of what is so often seen as just a troublesome and controversial topic. The authors leave space for readers to come to different conclusions in detail, under the shelter of a glad affirmation of the goodness of the word of God in every passage of Scripture. I especially valued the tone of gentle gladness allied to a confident affirmation of essentials. | This helpful book will challenge you to think through the implications of your complementarian convictions and then put them into practice at your church. Every local church should consult it. | Writing a book on complementarianism today is like lighting a match in the dry forest of Western society. It can ignite a raging controversy in a culture deeply conflicted about gender. But Jane Tooher and Graham Beynon commend complementarianism in a clear, and compelling way. Their book is biblically rich and wisely applied for God’s people as his beautiful design. | This outstanding book is deeply grounded in the Bible, shows a clear grasp of the contexts in which our churches are working, and is thoroughly readable and highly stimulating. It will help you rethink your convictions. It will encourage you to value highly the ministries of women and men. It will challenge you to work out together what you believe about women’s ministry in the life of the church. It will provide excellent pathways towards implementation of positive complementary ministry. | This is a brilliant book to help church leadership teams think through how they implement complementarian convictions. The authors are enormously sympathetic to the wide variety of personal and church experiences which readers will bring to these questions. They helpfully challenge whether complementarian churches actually embody equality and whether they manifest a genuine feel of family, rather than just asserting those things. Whatever your personal convictions on the relevant biblical texts, Graham and Jane ask really helpful questions to make sure that these convictions are lived out in a manner which produces a mutual flourishing of the sexes. | A really useful book. It clearly explains the various positions on complementarianism and the potential imbalances that each is prone to. You will be equipped to examine and understand your own position and to embrace it with clarity, conviction and joy. | Those of us who believe the Bible teaches distinct roles for men and women in church cannot presume to commend our view on the strength of our exegesis alone. We need urgently to show not only that it is true but that it is good. We need to be able to point to healthy local churches and ministries and say, ‘There! Like that! That’s how it’s done well.’ Tooher and Beynon have written a book that speaks directly and compellingly to this need. It’s a book that moves beyond the ‘what’ to the ‘how.’ Both authors have extensive ministry experience, which shines through in their writing. They understand that for most of us, the challenge is not so much what the Bible says but how to land it faithfully and fruitfully in the actual circumstances of mission and ministry in the 21st century. | We always need to teach the truth about what the Lord says, confident that it will be a blessing. This fine book gives us the courage to see that the complementarian position is good for us as we experience what it is like to belong to the family of God. It shows that as we truly model family in the church, we will be witnessing to the world around us about the transforming power of the gospel. Read it and see. | There are many superb books on the theology of complementarianism, but this one is different! It gives complementarianism ‘legs’ and probes what it could look like on the ground in your local church. The emphasis is on exploring ways for men and women to minister together rather than settling for the status quo. I’ve worked at the coalface of complementarianism for 30 years, but my intuition tells me that this book has the potential to transform the complementary ministry of men and women for a new generation. | In a day when polemics are often wielded on both the right and the left, it is refreshing to read an irenic and immensely practical book on what it means to embrace complementarianism. Beynon and Tooher’s book will help pastors and church leaders (and laypeople too!) to think carefully about what it means to include both men and women in the ministry of the church in a complementarian framework. I hope this book will be read widely and will lead to further clarity, understanding and humility as we work out what it means for both men and women to be involved in the ministry of the church. | Embracing Complementarianism paints an engaging and persuasive picture of what complementarianism might look like in the local church. It is neither dismissive of alternative views nor prescriptive of the conclusions reached by the authors. Rather, it raises some vitally important questions about men and women serving together in ministry, and encourages pastors and churches to reflect deeply on their convictions about Scripture’s teaching in this area, and the way they are, or are not, put into practice. It’s a book to make use of, not merely to read and keep on the shelf. This is the book on complementarianism we’ve been waiting for! | The abuse of power by some prominent church leaders in recent years has left many in our constituency wondering if the complementarian position is as toxic as many of our opponents would suggest. Certainly, those who define complementarianism purely on the basis of what women cannot do are shooting themselves in the foot and exposing their ignorance. So, what does it mean to be complementarian, and how can we be sure that our biblical convictions are having a positive rather than a negative impact on our church culture? In this book, Graham and Jane are not just asking us to consider the biblical principles but actually show us (and model for us) what it means to embrace them and live by them. If we believe that God’s design for men and women is for our good, then embracing it is not an optional extra for Christians but absolutely key if our families and churches are to flourish. | Here is a fresh and envisioning guide to help church leaders move beyond an embarrassed defence of complementarianism to advancing a positive vision of men and women working together in a local church. | Few issues have generated more controversy in our culture and the church in recent years than the relationship between men and women. Complementarian theology has been condemned by some as abusive, and its advocates have all too often taken a defensive approach. Drawing on their many years of church ministry and training experience in Britain and Australia, the authors present a compelling, positive vision for complementarianism that rejects outdated stereotypes in favour of a holistic biblical vision of God’s creational plan for men and women. Irenic in tone, culturally sensitive and exegetically rooted, this book will help reluctant complementarians to more joyfully embrace what they believe. Egalitarians evangelicals who read it will gain a better understanding of the convictions and concerns of complementarian brothers and sisters. It unpacks the practical implications of complementarianism for church life without being prescriptive and provides helpful reflection questions for individuals and groups. | To be complementarian has always been to be counter-cultural. If that was true a few years ago, how much more today when society’s questions have progressed from “what can women do as well as men?” to “what is a woman, anyway?” Yet I agree with these authors that church members tend to respond to a confident, convictional, and robust complementarianism. I very much appreciate their desire to encourage believers to truly embrace complementarianism by practicing it in a way that is worth embracing—one that is faithful to God’s Word, that celebrates both the distinction and equality of the genders, and that frees both men and women to serve in all the ways God permits and invites them to. It’s my hope that many church leaders will read this book and carefully work through it as they attempt to implement a complementarianism that honors God and is faithful to the Scriptures. | Graham Beynon is Head of Local Ministries, FIEC, UK. A popular conference speaker, Graham is the author of several books including Mirror, Mirror and Emotions. He is married to Charis, and they have three children.