The Equipping Ministry, Student Workbook, SW15

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T H E E Q U I P P I N G M I N I S T R Y

Gifted but Unsubmissive

In a growing urban church, the pastor has a number of gifted teachers on his staff who are equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. Through their effective work, God is raising up a significant number of gifted servants to care for the members of the church, as well as make themselves available to start new ministries around the city, and the world. One of these gifted teachers is a brilliant, clear, and biblical teacher. Yet, because of his own conviction that his teaching is right, he is extremely difficult to engage or entreat. Frankly, in many situations he is so aggressive and confident of his own position that he is rude and hard to work with. By all accounts, he is one of the best teachers the pastor has ever seen, but because of this inability to dialogue with others about his views, the pastor is thinking of relieving him from his role. How would you advise the pastor to resolve the issues with the gifted teacher who was apparently unteachable, unsubmissive, or both? One of the teachers in your congregation is experiencing tremendous success in their teaching ministry. Whenever she teaches in the church, the numbers are not merely well attended but nearly standing room only. And no wonder, her teaching (as a rule) is spiritually uplifting, biblically rooted, and Christ-centered. However, on selected issues, her teaching appears to be “just a little off center.” For instance, in her teaching through Ephesians 5 on the role of submission within the family, she boldly asserted that the submission of the wife to the husband in the Christian home is to be absolute and unqualified. The wife’s role is to submit to whatever the husband demands, knowing that God will hold the husband accountable for the way in which he uses or abuses his authority. She only need to submit wholeheartedly and unequivocally to everything he suggests, even as the language says in most English versions of Ephesians 5.24: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” This teaching has produced much discussion and some dissension in the church, and your role as pastor is to monitor the teaching of the church and ensure that it lines up with the general teaching of the Church, and, more importantly with the teaching of the Scriptures as a whole. How would you handle this situation? The Beginnings of Heresy?

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