Posted by deangonzales on September 2, 2010
In June 2006 twenty-three Dominican pastors and ministerial students completed the “Marrow of Theology” program and graduated with a Certificate of Theological Studies (C.T.S.) from Reformed Baptist Seminary. In 2009 three of the honors students from that first class of graduates – all members of Iglesia Bautista de Gracia (Grace Baptist Church) in Santiago, DR, where the program had been hosted – took what they had learned in the Marrow program and together with Pastor Oscar Arocha launched La Academia Ministerial de la Gracia (Grace Ministerial Academy, AMG). They desired to carry out Phase 2 of the vision of the Marrow of Theology program, which is to see the outworking of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy:
And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2, ESV).
Passing the Baton
These gifted brothers, having developed a program to pass on the sound doctrinal teaching they had learned, invited pastors and ministerial aspirants from Latin America to apply for enrollment in a streamlined, intensive training program hosted at Iglesia Bautista de Gracia in Santiago. Grace Ministerial Academy (AMG) graduated its first class of eight students in 2009 and its second class of twelve students in 2010. Moreover, three of the instructors of AMG completed their Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) degree from Reformed Baptist Seminary in 2010. The AMG graduates came from Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They are returning to their home churches where they will engage in or support pastoral ministry. In a few cases some will teach in local theological training programs, passing on what they have learned to others.
2010 Graduation Ceremony
It was a tremendous blessing to participate in the July 25 graduation service. Pastor Lou Sloger of Grace Baptist Church, Papillion, Nebraska, was the keynote speaker. He exhorted the graduates not to boast in their acquired theological knowledge as an end in itself, but rather in their vital relationship with the living God. In short, they must endeavor to keep sound doctrine wedded to passionate devotion. I was also encouraged by the testimonies of the students who expressed profound gratitude for the solid education they had received and the pattern of godliness they had observed in the life of the professors and the church. For a brief slide show of the graduation, click the link below.
2010 DR Graduation
Support Ministerial Training in Latin America
God willing, AMG is preparing to enroll a third class of students from Latin America. Iglesia Bautista de Gracia is funding a goodly portion of this program. A significant amount of the remaining funds has already been pledged. However, some additional funds are still needed to cover all the expenses which include lodging, food and travel expenses for the students and a moderate compensation for the professors.
As someone who has been involved in training the AMG professors and who knows they are men of God competent to teach not only by lip, but by life, I can heartily recommend this program. It’s church-based, theologically sound and cost-effective.
If you would like more information about the program or if you are interested in helping fund this third class of students, let me encourage you to contact Pastor Luis Arocha (luis@ibracia.org) or Oskar Arocha Jr (oskararocha@gmail.com). Contributions for AMG can also be made to Grace Baptist Church, 205 E Halleck Street, Papillion, NE 68046, which is a ministry partner in this endeavor. Pastor Lou Sloger of Grace Baptist Church, Papillion can be contacted for more information (ldsloger@cox.net; 402-331-5984).
Your servant,
Bob Gonzales, Dean
Reformed Baptist Seminary
Posted by deangonzales on July 15, 2010
Should we allow minors into the membership of the church? Most evangelical churches would, without hesitation, answer this question affirmatively. Those that practice infant baptism believe the Bible warrants the inclusion of the children of believers into the membership of the church de jure. On the other hand, many Baptist churches today pressure young children to “make a decision for Christ” and accept such decisions or professions of faith without careful reflection on credibility.
In response to these two common evangelical views, Reformed Baptists have rightly stressed the need for a profession of faith as a prerequisite for baptism and church membership (contra paedobaptism) and appropriately questioned the often superficial decisionalism that characterizes far too many Baptist churches (contra decisionalism). They have, I think rightly so, highlighted the need to be cautious about hastily accepting as genuine a child’s profession of faith in light of several factors. These include a child’s lack of intellectual maturity (1 Cor 13:11; 14:20; Heb 5:11-14; 11:24-26), a child’s tendency to be changeable in his/her opinions and commitments (Isa 3:4; Matt 11:16-17; Eph 4:13-14), and a child’s proneness to self-deception (Jer 17:9; Ps 58:3; Prov 1:1-4; Eph 4:13-14). It is also pointed out that Luke, in Acts, refers to adult males and females being added to the church but doesn’t explicitly refer to children (Acts 5:14; 8:3, 12; 9:1-2; 17:4, 34). Accordingly, some Reformed Baptist churches are hesitant to baptize children and, in some cases, require an individual to reach adult status before he/she may become members of the church.
While I appreciate and share some of the concerns raised by Reformed Baptist pastors, I’m decidedly in favor of baptizing and bringing children in to the membership of the church on biblical grounds. To begin with, the Bible teaches that children can be converted and should be urged to believe the gospel (Matt 18:1-6; Matt 19:13-14; Mark 9:42; Luke 18:15-17; Eph 6:1-2). Most, I think, would concede this point. But the Bible says more. In his epistles to the church in Ephesus and to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul likely contemplates children (i.e., minors) as church members.
For our purposes, we’ll focus primarily on the text in Ephesians. In 6:1, Paul exhorts children, “Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (ESV). The phrase “in the Lord” may suggest that the child is to obey his parents in light of his saving union with Christ (see Rom 16:8, 13; 1 Cor 4:17; 7:22, 39; 15:58; Eph 2:21; 5:8; 6:10; Phil 3:1; 4:1; Col 3:18; 4:7; 1 Thess 3:8; Philemon 1:16; Rev 14:13). Some, however, demur, and argue that the phrase means nothing more than “for the Lord’s sake” or “because the Lord commands such submission.” But there are exegetical data in the larger context that suggest Paul was addressing children whom he assumed were in saving union with Christ and who were, in fact, members of the church in Ephesus.
First, it should be noted that 6:1-2 is tied grammatically to 5:21 which, in turn, is linked grammatically to 5:18. Paul’s argument goes something like this: he commands believers to yield themselves to the control of the Spirit rather than the control or influence of wine (5:18). This command is followed by participial clauses, which serve to explicate the command. In what ways should the Spirit’s influence manifest itself in our behavior? (1) by admonishing and teaching one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (5:19); (2) by giving thanks to God the Father (5:20); and (3) by “submitting to one another in the fear of Christ” (5:21). The Greek term translated “one another” can be all-inclusive, i.e., every believer is (in some sense) responsible to submit to every other believer. More likely, though, it’s referring to one subgroup submitting to another subgroup within the body. This is confirmed by the subsequent context wherein Paul exhorts subordinates within the body of Christ (i.e., wives, children, slaves) to submit to superiors within the body of Christ (i.e., husbands, parents, masters). In light of this, it appears that the “children” envisioned in 6:1-2 are, in fact, a subgroup of those who can and should be “filled with the Spirit” (5:18) and motivated by “the fear of Christ” (5:21). Such language can hardly be applied to unbelieving children who happen to be attending the corporate meetings of the church.
Second, it should be remembered that Paul has already identified the recipients of the epistolary directives as “the saints who are at Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (1:2; emphasis added). He is writing specifically to those who are no longer “strangers to the covenants of promise” but are “are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:12, 19). So along with the “wives” and “slaves” who, as members, are called on to demonstrate their union and allegiance to Christ by submitting to their God-ordained authorities, we must include the “children” who, as members, are called to do the same.
Of course, we’re well aware that the semantic range of the Greek teknon, translated “children,” is broad enough to include any minor, including older children in the stage of adolescence. Accordingly, we acknowledge that the text does not specify the actual age of the children in view. They may, very likely, be older children. But they are, after all, children, not adults. Consequently, if our reading is correct, the position that limits baptism and church membership to adults is without biblical warrant and would seem to run counter to practice in the apostolic church. Of course, we may grant that there are potential dangers of bringing young children into the membership of the church: we could unwittingly diminish the significance of baptism, breed a spirit of presumption, and create a climate for religious formalism. Moreover, we should concede that the privileges and liabilities of church membership require a level of adult-like maturity that children may not yet possess (Prov 1:1-4; Isa. 3:4; Matt 11:16-17; 1 Cor 13:11; Eph 4:13-14; Heb 5:11-14; 11:24-26).
Even so, the likelihood that children were members of NT churches and the overlap between childhood and adulthood (i.e., adolescence) should caution us against making any hard-fast rule as to the exact age when a young person may be brought into church membership. Since there are some membership responsibilities that require an adult-like maturity (e.g.s., office-related functions, difficult church discipline cases, etc.), it’s probably best to grant children all the benefits and responsibilities of membership with the exception of office-bearing and voting privileges until the become adults.
But there are benefits to church membership concerning which we don’t want to deprive our children. While attending church as non-members does expose our children to various means of grace such as congregational singing, corporate prayer, the ministry of the word, and Christian fellowship, membership in the church provides converted children with further means of grace such as more formal pastoral care, greater accountability, opportunities to serve, and a deeper level of fellowship and belonging to the family of God.
In conclusion, then, the NT warrants the inclusion of minors into the membership of the church. The practice of restricting membership to adults, despite its good intentions, doesn’t conform to the rule of sola Scriptura. The eldership must exercise caution and discernment when assessing a child’s profession of faith. But we should not operate from the assumption that the NT limits baptism and church membership to adults. Moreover, we shouldn’t assume that minors are incapable of fulfilling the responsibilities of membership (with the exceptions of voting on major decisions and holding office). Children not only may be converted but they may also become a valuable asset to the church as participatory members. Therefore, we should allow children into the membership of the church.
Bob Gonzales, Dean
Reformed Baptist Seminary
Posted by deangonzales on July 14, 2010
Maureen Dowd, an influential columnist for the New York Times, recently suggested that feminism is not working for women. In a piece entitled “Blue Is the New Black,” published in September 2009, she wrote
In the early ’70s, breaking out of the domestic cocoon, leaving their mothers’ circumscribed lives behind, young women felt exhilarated and bold. But the more women have achieved, the more they seem aggrieved….According to the General Social Survey, which has tracked Americans’ mood since 1972, and five other major studies around the world, women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier.
This piece—and the growing body of studies and literature like it—honestly poses the question, Do women in a modern world, faced with complex choices previous generations could not imagine, have to be unhappy? Is there a calling in which women can find lasting happiness?
Mark Chanski, a Reformed Baptist pastor in Holland, Michigan, thinks there is. The author of the excellent Manly Dominion (Calvary, 2007), Chanski has recently published Womanly Dominion,a companion text to his treatise on biblical manhood. In 200 crisp, scripturally saturated pages, Chanski charts an engaging course for Christian womanhood in a feminist age.
WOMANLY DOMINION: CHRISTIAN WOMANHOOD IN A FEMINIST AGE
The text’s central metaphor is a soccer game. A futbol enthusiast, Chanski exhorts women to “play your position” in a cultural climate that encourages rebellion against biblical gender roles. Chanski grounds his argument in the dominion texts of Genesis 1:27-28, and this dominion-based approach shapes his perspective on biblical womanhood at every turn. Early on, he urges that
Godly women, made in the image of God, mustdaily tell themselves: “Win it!” to the glory of God. [Women] must for the long haul, for the entire game, contest after contest, resolve to put forth maximum effort to rule and subdue their daily challenges, so help them God. (21)
From the stories he shares, Chanski’s own wife seems to fit this mold. At one point, he recounts her constant activity devoted to the welfare of her family:
My bride of 25 years strikingly imitates her subduing God. I constantly stand in appreciative awe of her extensive and detailed calendars and to-do lists. Dianne diligently plots out her week with calculated premeditation. She synchronizes her short term goals with the annual and monthly calendar appointments. Out of this she forges to-do lists for each day of the week. Then she relentlessly crosses out those task challenges one by one….With this vigorous spirit, my wife subdues the chaos and overcomes the obstacles before her, creating order and stability in our family’s otherwise disheveled world. (29)
I can testify to a similar experience in my own home. As Dianne Chanski and so many other Christian women do, my wife works quietly at a number of thankless tasks, honoring the Lord, refuting by her daily life false stereotypes and straw (wo)men.
There is much to chew on in the book, which will be highly useful for parents training daughters, men seeking to learn more about biblical womanhood, and more. Here are a few of the subjects it tackles:
- The inspiring effect of unknown mothers of famous men (42)
- The struggles of single mothers (127)
- Training girls to develop their minds without acquiescing to the vocational expectations of the culture (148)
- A balanced but honest approach to appearance, including Chanski’s exhortation to women to take care of their bodies without obsessing over looks (173)
- Helpful words for single women who want to be married (186)
- Commentary on girls and athletics (213)
MATTERS TO THINK OVER
I would point out just a few quibbles. Womanly Dominion, in my opinion, would benefit from increased reference to modern commentators who share Chanski’s perspective (there are many). Also, while Chanski’s sports metaphors may play well with some women, others will struggle to comprehend them.
There is a more significant matter to mention regarding the text. The book needs a stronger grounding in the gospel as the means to achieve the life of womanly dominion. This is not to say that Chanski does not comprehend the importance of the gospel in his writing and ministry. It is also not to say that the book does not reference in numerous places the importance of the gospel, the gracious providence of God, and the role of the Holy Spirit in supernaturally creating a spirit of dominion in women (see, for example, 120-21, 150-51, 182-84, 190-91). The gospel is in this text; the power of God is regularly referenced in this text.
But this already helpful book would grow considerably stronger by weaving a gospel perspective throughout the book, rather than just mentioning it in passing late in the book. It’s not enough to preach Genesis 1:27-28. Rather, it needs to be preached from the very beginning through a gospel grid. Maybe something like this: “Let’s confess that we haven’t fulfilled our dominion. But Christ has, which is great news! You no longer have to justify yourself by beingthe perfect Proverbs 31 woman. Now, resting entirely in his grace and freedom, let’s win it!” Only the gospel creates a spirit of dominion and empowers women to triumph over their sin and discouragement in living to the glory of God. Without such a mini-biblical theology, it is regrettably possible that some women might be intimidated or even feel condemned by Chanski’s bold style and frequent imperatives.
I have no doubt that Chanski believes this gospel and grounds his life and ministry in it. And one need not—must not—sacrifice exhortation on the altar of encouragement. But the gospel needs to occupy the center of this text, in terms of both content and hermeneutics.
THE LIFE OF WOMANLY DOMINION: NOT EASY BUT WORTH IT
Chanski nowhere suggests that the life of womanly dominion is easy. He makes it clear that women who are called to marriage, homemaking, and motherhood will face challenges, sometimes significant ones. Raising children is hard. Running a home is difficult, especially with a busy husband. Stresses from a hundred directions can swallow up joy and contentment.
Faced with these realities, Chanski does not mince words. Neither does he sidestep difficult issues such as sports, daycare, and working outside of the home, which Christians sometimes avoid, yet which faithfulness to Scripture calls us to think through. Indeed, the weight of these realities makes it all the more necessary that women constantly remember the vivifying power of the gospel and apply it to their circumstances, their challenges, their temptations.
With the caveats noted above, Womanly Dominion is a useful book. It may bless the church most by showing us that it is not choice for its own sake that will bless women and bring them happiness. Only making the right choice—living according to passages such as Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, and Titus 2—can satisfy these ends. If that seems rather simple, perhaps it is because the Lord made it so, in order that women of varied backgrounds, gifts, and times might experience the joy of living for Christ as a woman of dominion through the power of the indwelling Spirit.
Mark Chanski, the author of Womanly Dominion, serves as an adjunct professor of exegetical theology for Reformed Baptist Seminary and a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Holland, Michigan.
Owen Strachan, the reviewer, serves as Instructor of Christian Theology at Boyce College and is the author of the five-volume Essential Edwards Collection (with Doug Sweeney; Moody, 2010).
This book review was originally published on 9Marks (July/August 2010) and is reproduced unaltered with permission.
©9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org. Toll Free: (888) 543-1030.
In June 2006 twenty-three Dominican pastors and ministerial students completed the “Marrow of Theology” program and graduated with a Certificate of Theological Studies (C.T.S.) from Reformed Baptist Seminary. In 2009 three of the honors students from that first class of graduates – all members of Iglesia Bautista de Gracia (Grace Baptist Church) in Santiago, DR, where the program had been hosted – took what they had learned in the Marrow program and together with Pastor Oscar Arocha launched La Academia Ministerial de la Gracia (Grace Ministerial Academy, AMG). They desired to carry out Phase 2 of the vision of the Marrow of Theology program, which is to see the outworking of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy:
These gifted brothers, having developed a program to pass on the sound doctrinal teaching they had learned, invited pastors and ministerial aspirants from Latin America to apply for enrollment in a streamlined, intensive training program hosted at Iglesia Bautista de Gracia in Santiago. Grace Ministerial Academy (AMG) graduated its first class of eight students in 2009 and its second class of twelve students in 2010. Moreover, three of the instructors of AMG completed their Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) degree from Reformed Baptist Seminary in 2010. The AMG graduates came from Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They are returning to their home churches where they will engage in or support pastoral ministry. In a few cases some will teach in local theological training programs, passing on what they have learned to others.
It was a tremendous blessing to participate in the July 25 graduation service. Pastor Lou Sloger of Grace Baptist Church, Papillion, Nebraska, was the keynote speaker. He exhorted the graduates not to boast in their acquired theological knowledge as an end in itself, but rather in their vital relationship with the living God. In short, they must endeavor to keep sound doctrine wedded to passionate devotion. I was also encouraged by the testimonies of the students who expressed profound gratitude for the solid education they had received and the pattern of godliness they had observed in the life of the professors and the church. For a brief slide show of the graduation, click the link below.
