Monday, January 07, 2008
Overlaying Theology and Gender
Beliefnet ran a piece about why Orthodoxy seems to be drawing men while other denominations are not. There is some really interesting insight there, but there are right ways and wrong ways to look at it.
As presented, the story just buys into cultural stereotypes too much. It reads way tto much like the point is for church to adapt itself to us rather than we who need to adapt ourselves to church. But then, that is how other churches got themselves in this feminization mess to begin with. As women gained power in the church, the church changed to suit them.
This is one of the problems very inherent with making a church marketing responsive. Whether the metrics we use are gender based, socio-economically based, race based, or whatever, when the church focuses on those metrics instead of God's saving Truth, it is going to get lost.
I got in a lot of trouble some years ago for stepping all over a woman in church that carried on for a while about how a teacher's theology was "too masculine." I no longer go to that church.
God's truth is without gender, race, or socio-economic status. Because we are individuals, each of us will respond to and act differently in light of God's truth, but the truth remains unchanged. The church's job is to proclaim that truth, AND provide a community in which all individual can respond to that truth in accordance with their unique circumstance.
If we start defining the market groups, we become automatically exclusive of those that do not belong to that group.
Doesn't seem smart to me....
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As presented, the story just buys into cultural stereotypes too much. It reads way tto much like the point is for church to adapt itself to us rather than we who need to adapt ourselves to church. But then, that is how other churches got themselves in this feminization mess to begin with. As women gained power in the church, the church changed to suit them.
This is one of the problems very inherent with making a church marketing responsive. Whether the metrics we use are gender based, socio-economically based, race based, or whatever, when the church focuses on those metrics instead of God's saving Truth, it is going to get lost.
I got in a lot of trouble some years ago for stepping all over a woman in church that carried on for a while about how a teacher's theology was "too masculine." I no longer go to that church.
God's truth is without gender, race, or socio-economic status. Because we are individuals, each of us will respond to and act differently in light of God's truth, but the truth remains unchanged. The church's job is to proclaim that truth, AND provide a community in which all individual can respond to that truth in accordance with their unique circumstance.
If we start defining the market groups, we become automatically exclusive of those that do not belong to that group.
Doesn't seem smart to me....
Technorati Tags:truth, marketing groups, gender, church
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