Gospel Coalition’s confession includes clear complementarian language

The Gospel Coalition, which held its inaugural conference last week in Deerfield, Ill., has adopted a confession of faith that unambiguously asserts the historic Christian position on humanity and gender.


The Gospel Coalition, which held its inaugural conference last week in Deerfield, Ill., has adopted a confession of faith that unambiguously asserts the historic Christian position on humanity and gender.

The Gospel Coalition was founded by a group of evangelical leaders including Tim Keller and D.A. Carson, to promote a robust, Gospel-centered ministry in local churches.

Noted evangelicals such as Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, founder of 9Marks Ministries and Ligon Duncan, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss., and president of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, are among coalition leaders.

The coalition drafted a number of founding documents, including a preamble concerning the Gospel, a confession of faith and a theological vision for ministry. Article 3 speaks clearly of God’s creation of human beings and the distinctive, complementary roles to which they have been called as God’s earthly vice regents. It reads:

"We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God's agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God's wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments."

The Gospel Coalition will soon host website with audio from the inaugural conference, which was held May 23-24. Speakers included Carson, Keller, Duncan, Crawford Loritts and John Piper. The coalition will hold conferences every bi-annually.

In its mission, the group overlaps with, and yet is distinct from, others such as the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and Together For the Gospel. The coalition seeks to reassert the Gospel "center" within evangelicalism that was once held in place by such leaders as Carl F.H. Henry, a "center" that leaders discern as largely missing from local church ministries today.

The Gospel Coalition’s founding documents are available on a number of weblogs, including a link on Justin Taylor’s Between Two Worlds.