Women in the Bible: What can they teach us about gender equality?

What can we learn about gender equality from the women in Scripture today? Can women in Scripture serve as role models for the women striving for leadership positions and could there be a potential correlation with current-day policies and practices supporting gender balance, and Christian ethical standards? This article, based on the Reformed paradigm, addresses women portrayed in formal and informal roles spanning from leaders, teachers, prophets and other prominent characters – each playing their roles in Scripture. It is argued that despite women often being placed in marginal positions in Scripture, they nevertheless permeate the Bible in narratives on resourcefulness, auto-leadership, and in their place in securing and upholding the Covenant with God. It will be demonstrated how women are presented as necessary partakers in the most significant of biblical narratives, and that their leadership exertion typically has a necessary role in the overarching scriptural scenarios. It will appear that by taking a closer approach to Scripture, we can take inspiration from female biblical leadership figures in most, if not all realms of today’s life.Contribution: It will be clear that Scripture lends sufficient support to promote full and complete gender equality, whether this be expressed in corporate life, government, or family. The examples gleaned from Scripture will demonstrate how gender equality not only is something that Scripture allows, but also expects.

“Commit To Faithful Brethren Who Are Able To Teach” (2 Timothy 2:2): The Pastor/Preacher As A Leader In Disciple Making

Many have come to associate discipleship process in the church with Bible studies. As such, preachers pay little attention to disciple-making in their delivery with the assumption that preaching time is not the time to build up disciples. Some preachers are also affected by postmodernism, capitalism, and secularization-individualism and as such want to project themselves only and think about what they can get. They forget that biblical leadership is about building others and developing other people’s faith in Jesus Christ so that they grow to maturity. Preachers who do not see the need to build others and overlook committing the word to them cannot be ideal leaders of the church. Bearing in mind that the key role of the pastor is preaching, this paper emphasizes the role of the preacher in disciple-making. It argues that for effective disciple-making, the preacher must intentionally aim at committing the message to others who have the capacity to teach others too in order to have a multiplicative effect. Using the practical theology approach, the paper demonstrates that when a preacher builds relationships intentionally, lives a life of integrity, and builds up knowledge, the command to commit the word to faithful brethren can be fulfilled.

Martin Buber’s View of Biblical Leadership and His View of the Eternal Thou

Recent studies have renewed focus on Martin Buber’s “theopolitics” in contrast to “theological politics.” The present study expands this work by looking at what Buber meant by God. His approach to the Bible, informed by his view that “extended, the lines of relationship meet in the Eternal Thou,” illuminates his analysis of the five types of biblical leadership. That analysis, far from separating “religion” and “politics,” seemed to assume what might be designated a civil religion. The social order was integrated with religious concerns. Underneath the socio-religious surface, however, Buber discerned universal principles of relationship. Analyzing each stage in biblical leadership as Buber presented it shows how he extended the lines of historical relationships to reveal an aspect of the Eternal Thou.

God-image of Servant King as powerful but vulnerable and serving: Towards transforming African church leadership at an intersection of African kingship and biblical kingship to servant leadership

Christianity is mediated through culture and people’s cultural practices. One such cultural practice is African kingship. African kingship conveys on the ruler sovereignty, power, authority and supremacy over people under one’s jurisdiction. Intricately linked to respect for elders and those in power, African church leaders are at an intersection of the African kingship leadership style and the biblical kingship leadership style. Consciously or unconsciously, church leaders tend to embrace the African kingship approach to leadership and to a lesser extent biblical servant leadership. In such a situation, what God-image of biblical leadership could be discerned for constructive church leadership? In response, the God-image of Servant King as all powerful God, although vulnerable and serving, provides the framework for a transformative approach to church leadership in Africa.

Pitfalls in �Biblical� leadership

This article is about the pitfalls involved in writing a Christian handbook on leadership. By analysing some elements of the Rule of Benedict it is argued that it is impossible to write such a handbook without using non-Biblical sources. Moreover, there are typical pitfalls when authors attempt to develop a pure Biblical leadership theory. The first pitfall is typical of Christians representing Niebuhr�s type of �Christ against Culture�. As early as 1951, Niebuhr claimed that in the field of leadership in particular the radical exclusive Christians reintroduced rules from non-Christian cultures. Examples from the last decade support Niebuhr�s observation. The second pitfall, referred to as reconstruction, is typical of those authors who are open to secular sources but who seek to give Biblical evidence for their leadership theory. This pitfall is illustrated by analysing the process in which the secular concepts of transforming leadership and vision statements found their way into evangelical books on Christian leadership. Reconstruction typically consists of four steps: Perception (a secular model of leadership becomes popular), Acceptance (this model is examined and accepted for the context of the church) Assimilation (it is claimed that leaders in the Bible worked exactly as described in the model, books are written about Biblical leadership, exemplifying the model. The secular source becomes obsolete.) and Standardisation (this model of leadership is declared to be the Biblical norm for every Christian leader). I argue that step 3 is at least problematic and step 4 is a fatal error.