Menu iconFilter Results
Topic: Uncategorized

New book sets forth a practical theology of women’s ministry in the church

February 1, 2006
By CBMW
Share:

How does a local congregation carry out women’s ministry in a way that is faithful to Scripture? Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt have written a new book that seeks to give a thoroughly biblical answer to that question.

How does a local congregation carry out women’s ministry in a way that is faithful to Scripture?


J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt have written a new book—Women’s Ministry in the Local Church (Crossway)—that seeks to give a thoroughly biblical answer to that question.


The authors argue that women’s ministry is vital to the life of a local church and must, in both its message and methodology, move forward upon the tracks of a thoroughgoing biblical theology.


Hunt is the former director of women’s ministries for the Presbyterian Church of American (PCA) and is an active mother and grandmother, a pastor’s wife, and the Women in the Church Consultant for the PCA. Duncan is senior minister of the historic First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Miss. He also serves as chairman of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).


“The role of women in God’s Church is a vital and volatile question in every age, but the increased visibility of this topic in our time demands that the Church develop a theology of, and a functioning model for, women’s ministry in the local church,” the authors write.


“Even among evangelicals who hold to male headship, there is widespread difference in practice regarding women’s ministry.”


Within the pages of Women’s Ministry, Hunt and Duncan seek to answer five fundamental questions:


· Why should a church have a women’s ministry—what is the biblical apologetic?


· Who is responsible for the women’s ministry in a church?


· How does women’s ministry relate to the other ministries in a church?


· What are the tasks of a women’s ministry?


· How does a church implement a biblical approach to a women’s ministry?


The authors use two main building blocks in constructing a biblical framework for women’s ministry: the covenants of Scripture and a complementarian approach to gender roles in the church and home.


“The covenants of the Bible give the framework to understand Scripture,” the authors write. “God’s covenant of grace supplies the vital structure, the unifying thread, of His redemptive plan set forth in Scripture.


“Complementarianism gives the relational framework for men and women to live out their covenantal privileges and responsibilities.”


Both Hunt and Duncan argue that the church has a crying need to develop an apologetic on biblical womanhood. That apologetic will, in turn, serve as the underpinning of a women’s ministry in the church.


“Biblical womanhood and worldly womanhood are radically different,” Hunt writes, “just as everything about the Christian life is countercultural and counterintuitive. Without a biblical apologetic for womanhood, individual women and women’s ministries will lose their way.”


Hunt is the author of numerous other books on biblical womanhood, including By Design: God’s Distinctive Calling for Women, The True Woman: The Beauty and Strength of a Godly Woman, The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood, Spirtual Mothering, and Leadership for Women in the Church. All are available in the CBMW webstore at new.cbmw.org/store. Duncan is author of the forthcoming book from Crossway, Misunderstanding Paul? Responding to the New Perspectives.


Women’s Ministry in the Local Church is available through the CBMW webstore here.  It is also available to read online in its entirety on the CBMW website.  This PDF file is for personal use and should not be ditributed.

Did you find this resource helpful?

You, too, can help support the ministry of CBMW. We are a non-profit organization that is fully-funded by individual gifts and ministry partnerships. Your contribution will go directly toward the production of more gospel-centered, church-equipping resources.

Donate Today