Sons & Daughters|gifted to serve together

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.”
Acts 2:17-18

upcoming Trainings

All those currently helping serve on Sundays and all those who want to serve, men and women, are invited to attend a short “training” in the GCR Worship Center. We’ll review our Lord’s Supper and Core Scripture reading practices and the convictions behind them, look at the weekly volunteer process, and make sure everyone feels equipped.

5:30pm | Wednesday March 18
Serving the Communion Meal

SIGN UP TO SERVE COMMUNION

5:30pm | Wednesday April 15
Reading the Core Scripture

5:30pm | Wednesday May 13
Leading the Communion Table

statement from our shepherds

As many of you are aware, in the Church of Christ tradition, the inclusion of women has been limited in the worship assembly and some ministry roles. However, for many years at GCR, we have slowly expanded those roles both within and outside of our Sunday morning worship. This includes singing and playing on the Worship Team, facilitating small groups, chairing church committees, reading scripture and praying during special assembly occasions, participating in responsive congregational reading, offering words of exhortation during our baby blessings, senior Sundays and “God at Work” moments as well as the hiring of women ministers. The Elders believe that our female members serving and expressing their spiritual gifts in this manner blesses our congregation.

Over the past few years, the Elders have studied scripture and discussed the role of women and how it is applied at GCR. Based on these studies, and with much prayer, the Elders want to affirm our current practices. Additionally, we have voted to expand the ways in which our female members serve and utilize their gifts in our Sunday morning worship. For our female members who desire to serve and use their gifts more in Sunday worship, this expansion includes roles such as serving communion, sharing communion thoughts, reading core scriptures and sharing words of exhortation and encouragement to the congregation. This expansion does not include a consideration of the leadership roles associated with the senior/preaching minister or Elder.

To provide clarity regarding women’s roles at GCR, the Elders want to share some specifics regarding our study of this topic. We are hosting a combined class in the gathering space on Sunday February 8th and 15thduring our normal Bible Class time. A question-and-answer time is also scheduled for Wednesday February 25th. Sermon time will also be focused on this topic on February 22nd and March 1st.

There are important conversations we want to have with you. We are aware there will be questions, excitement and concerns regarding this topic. We ask that you commit to engage with us in these conversations in the coming weeks. It is our intent to facilitate constructive discussion and to provide transparency as we move forward in this area. As such, we encourage you to make plans to attend and participate in these times of discussion. We are excited to see the ways in which God will bless our church family.

Sincerely,

The GCR Elders

Family update

classes and sermons

WEDNESDAY NIGHT CONVERSATION

6:30pm | Wednesday February 25
“Sons and Daughters: A Conversation with the Shepherds”

Speak to a SHEPHERD

If you’d like to visit with a GCR shepherd about this particular topic, please click below to send an email including your name and phone number. One of our shepherds will contact you soon to set up a time and place for a conversation.

E-mail gcr SHEPHERDS

Frequently Asked Questions

GCR’s leadership (elders and ministers) has been studying, praying, and talking about this since at least 2012. Over time, we’ve realized that differing views exist, but none that prohibit GCR from continuing, affirming, and increasing our current practices. The elders have studied this once again more recently and believe this is a progression being led by God’s Spirit.
For several years now our women have not been limited in any service roles outside the Sunday morning worship assembly. During Sunday morning worship gatherings, our women are encouraged to do almost everything—read Scripture, pray, speak to the congregation—if it’s a “special occasion.” Over time, this has resulted in the development of several inconsistencies. Women serve in all public roles in some settings, some public roles in other settings, and almost no public roles in others. Women serving publicly on Sunday mornings has naturally become a more normal expression of how we worship at Golf Course Road. Women are baptizing their children and friends they are bringing to Christ. Our female Children’s Ministers make announcements and bless our kids and families. Our female Youth Minister does similar things. GCR women read their Bibles from their seats and from the stage, sing from their seats and on stage in duets and trios and solos, serve the communion meal with their families on special occasions, and pray with members in the aisles. We believe this blesses our entire church family. But it cannot continue without making a clear statement to the church as to our biblical position and leading the church through Biblical study that outlines the basis for the practices. This is a natural step along a path we’ve been walking for many years, and we believe it should continue on a more frequent and regular basis. This shift now makes our positions and practices clear and more in line with our biblical convictions.
For those who are struggling with this, the changes will seem too fast; for those who are excited about this, the changes will seem too slow. We want to be sensitive to the entire church family and strike a healthy balance between running over people with too much and not doing much at all. The “change” won’t be that women are reading, praying, and serving in the Sunday morning assembly; it will be that instead of relegating their public service to “special Sundays” or from the back of the Worship Center, they will be on the stage and more frequently. Our sisters will be seen now and not just heard.
Not at all. As with men, only those with both the giftedness and desire to publicly serve on Sunday mornings will be encouraged to do so.
This shift for GCR applies only to public service roles within the Sunday morning worship assembly. The elders and ministers have not studied or even considered ordaining female elders or hiring a female senior preaching minister. And there are no plans to do so.
We value scripture highly. We understand on this particular issue that two major perspectives result in differences in interpretation. All our study has been grounded in the Scriptures and we believe our conclusions reflect the whole of Scripture, including the specific passages in 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2.
God calls on us to remain united in Him, Christ, and each other as we explore ways to respect our differences. Every Christian should come to his or her own understanding of God’s will in his or her own life, and on matters of conscience we are encouraged to be unified and gracious with each other. If anyone has questions or concerns, our shepherds are willing and eager to meet for those discussions. Our hope is that all of us in Christian relationship together can study the Scriptures, participate in the Bible classes, listen to the sermons, engage in spiritual conversations, and otherwise prayerfully and faithfully walk with us through the process of how we’ve arrived at this point. We believe a careful study of the Scriptures and a mutual love and respect for one another will result in increased harmony for all of us.
We believe we will all be blessed to hear the hearts of our Christian sisters as they pray and read the Word. Our body will grow together as we experience different perspectives and insights. We hope to reflect a fuller image of God’s nature to each other and to the world and move closer to his will and his Kingdom. We’re recognizing the equal gifting of God’s Holy Spirit to all believers. And we are equally encouraging and affirming our sons and daughters, our men and women, in expressing those gifts.

reading RECOMMENDATIONs

Hicks, John Mark. Women Serving God: My Journey in Understanding the Bible. Nashville, TN, 2020.

Hicks recalls his personal journey as a born-and-raised Church of Christer, from writing and teaching as a complementarian, to adopting the “limited practices” position, to eventually, through careful Bible study and reflection, embracing the egalitarian posture he advocates for today. Very accessible and readable language and style.

Osburn, Carroll D., ed. Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity. 2 vols. Joplin, Missouri: College Press Publishing Company, 1993, 1995.

A selection of essays by over forty biblical scholars in the Churches of Christ, including professors from Harding, ACU, Pepperdine, and David Lipscomb Universities.

Osburn, Carroll D. Women in the Church: Reclaiming the Ideal. Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 2001.

Written from the Church of Christ perspective, rigorous biblical scholarship, highly academic.

Gupta, Nijay K., Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2023

A thoughtful and thorough examination of the Scriptures, with careful attention to early church leaders like Phoebe, Prisca, and Junia. Gupta expertly weaves his own experiences into the narrative, resulting in an enjoyable and enlightening read.

Keener, Craig S. Paul, Women & Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1992.

A comprehensive coverage of the applicable biblical texts and their social contexts. Keener reminds us that Paul is addressing the structures of his day, not mandating the same structures for all time. Consequently, we must understand the difference between what God put up with in less-than-ideal cultures and the ideal for which we should strive.

Silvey, Billie, ed. Trusting Women: The Way of Women in Churches of Christ. Orange, CA: New Leaf Books, 2002.

The personal stories of 19 women in the Churches of Christ who tell of their struggles to use their God-given gifts in various ministries; their stories highlight both the pain and the blessing as women’s voices are heard in increasingly public ways among Churches of Christ.

Allen, C. Leonard. Distant Voices: Discovering a Forgotten Past for a Changing Church. Abilene, Texas: ACU Press, 1993.

Our heritage in the Churches of Christ is broader, richer, and more diverse than previously imagined, and this diversity extends to how we have approached gender roles and expectations.

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