Something wondrous has
been happening. A side effect that the CBMW did not consider possible
as they pushed women underground, snowed on them and iced them
forever into slavery and silence—or so they thought. But similar
to how bulbs and roots gather strength in the winter and push out
shoots and bloom when the time is right, and similar to how sap flows
within trees while they appear to be dormant, so has the “sap”
been flowing virtually unseen in the lives of a growing number of
women. Women have been gathering strength to shoot forth and bloom
and no weed-killer complementarians devise will shut them up.
While complementarians
have been silencing women and forcing them to lives in the lowest level of the caste system, not allowing them to speak in churches, forcing them to remain with abusive, destructive husbands, the women have
been studying the word and writing what they find. Gary Smalley once
shared that although he began as a one-on-one counselor, he found
that speaking to groups was more effective and reached more people,
that video tapes reached even more people, and that writing books was
the most effective and reached the most people. Without intending to,
complementarians have kept lowest-caste, spread-thin women from doing
the busy-work of pastoring, thus freeing them in the small time they
have available to do the most effective work of all—write books.
Women from all over the
world can “hear” other women “preach” via books, no matter
where they live. Women are not limited to those in the local
congregations; their work and outreach goes global.
True, complementarian male
pastors also write books and their work goes global. But in their
effort to silence women by hanging the most time-consuming work
around women's necks and refusing them a pulpit, complementarians
inadvertently directed women to the one door complementarians left
unblocked—the most effective means of communication—especially
for the small amount of time women have available to pursue their own
interests—like communicating truth for women from God's Word.
So all these years, while
women have been silent in the churches, the roots and bulbs have been
growing underground, gathering strength and power to spring forth in
glorious freedom in Christ.
Daughters have been
prophesying—via books and blogs. Women and men have stopped
hanging onto every word of the men behind the pulpits and instead are
listening to the teachings in books and blogs, teachings that make
far more sense than what was being taught from the pulpit, teachings
that agree with what we know of the heart of God.
Joel's prophecy has
become true and the power of God is becoming increasingly evident:
“And it shall be in the last days, God
says, that I will pour forth of my spirit upon all mankind, and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Increasingly
more daughters are prophesying, and a ground swell is growing, similar
to the power of an avalanche or a tsunami, with the power to destroy
the evil doctrine that is holding men, women, and the entire
Christian community captive to that rotten and divisive caste system
teaching that has been inflicted
upon the church all these generations.
Praise God! Indeed, all
things do work together for good to those who love God and who are
the called according to His purpose. Rom 8:28. What the
complementarians meant for evil, God meant for good—to bring
freedom from oppression and a voice-heard-by-all to women.
The long winter is nearly
over. Spring is beginning to burst forth.
Glory be to God.
Waneta Dawn is the author of "Behind the Hedge, A novel" See www.wanetadawn.com A Mennonite woman fights to save her family yet keep her faith.
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