This week I have the chance to put my theology into practice. Monday through Saturday shall be what I refer to as a “study lab.” It’s a time where my theological views shall be “put to the test.” You see, this week the gender distinctions that many Complementarians declare are ever-so-important have been trumped in my life. Why? Simple: my wife has gone to visit her family for a week. For all practical purposes, I have taken on the role of “mother.”
This is day one of being an Egalitarian…
Well, a practical Egalitarian. Perhaps you could call me a theoretical Complementarian who is a functional Egalitarian. I don’t know. I just know that today I became Mr. Mom.
Perhaps you are wondering how my first day of being an Egalitarian went. Thanks for asking. I expected the day to be quite horrible, as I was unsure as to how my children would end up with a day of missing out on gender distinctions. In fact, I was so concerned that I had a back up plan in place: send them to live with a Complementarian family that I know. I also expected to begin doubting the authenticity of Scripture as the liberal agenda would force me to reevaluate how important form criticism was in regards to what we really know about the New Testament. Throughout the day I held my breath for the moment where I would begin to believe that the Documentary Hypothesis for the Pentateuch was clearly fact. Plus, at any moment denial of the gospel was sure to occur! Right?
Alas, none of those things happened. But what did happen seemed pretty good.
First, I had a chance to spend the day with my children. It was great. We did some shopping *gasp!* and then went home and had a wonderfully prepared dinner. Okay, for the sake of full disclosure, I think my Egalitarianism failed in this regard. We had cereal. But our time together was great. My oldest daughter told me all about her day and was excited about how her first softball practice went. My other kids had a good evening. We watched AFV and then said our prayers.
Second, I got to minister to two people. Yes, even though my raging Egalitarianism was at work, I had the chance to be Christ’s hands and feet. Now, I’m not entirely sure if the ministry I was doing was in keeping with the good theology of Complementarianism, but I did do some ministry nonetheless. And it was really fun to be a part of.
Third, that ministry led to me being blessed by the people I was ministering too. I got a bunch of steaks because they wanted to “buy me dinner.” That rarely happens in my life, so I was really blessed. Then, if that wasn’t enough and to make my first day of being an Egalitarian even better, I got a phone call from one of the people I was ministering to apologizing to me because they had been rude to me once and wanting to know how much I had meant to them.
Finally, not only was the offer we made on a house accepted, but we locked into an interest rate and couldn’t have gotten anything better.
I don’t know. Being an Egalitarian has been really good. But it was only the first day… we’ll see how the rest of the week goes.
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
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