I do think that’s one of the strengths of the PCA, to be elder-led (team led), strengthening the pastor and allowing more to use their gifts, and also freeing up women to use their gifts more. (Those outside the PCA would expect to see squashed-down women, but the opposite is the case. We have thriving women’s ministries.)

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A “prince of preachers” doesn’t come along every day. There were other men working alongside Spurgeon, faithfully preaching Christ and “making disciples of all nations”, whose sermons weren’t printed for posterity and whose names are not remembered now. They may not have had Spurgeon’s gifts of communication, and their churches were smaller, but God still blessed their faithfulness.

What we need now are godly men who boldly and faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Spurgeon did. We need the consistent, fervent prayers of God’s people to uphold our church leaders, as in Spurgeon’s congregations. And we need faithful obedience from the “people in the pews”, living out their faith every day, sharing the truth and reality of Jesus Christ with those around us.

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Mat 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.

(In computer programming lingo, “Go and teach all I have commanded” is a recursive statement, since it is itself a commandment.)

Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

How long should it take before a person becomes a teacher, i.e., one who is able to cogently set forth the fundamentals of the faith?

Going beyond the fundamentals, the Word is deep and rich; part of our “encouraging one another”, as TIMA quoted, is sharing our insights into the Scriptures with one another.

Music? The best experience I had was with a group that had an excellent pianist who could play whatever was set before him. Being a Quaker style worship, there was no set list of songs, but a hymnal and a chorus book for everyone. During the course of worship, anyone could request any song, if it was an expression of their praise and worship. Everyone, out of love for that person, would sing it to the best of their ability. We sang a lot, and the abilities were tremendous.

Now I’m at a different church and find myself leading pre-K to 6th graders in music every Sunday morning. Can’t imagine them belting out, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, or “Rise Up O Man Of God” (I like the Phil Keaggy version), but they love, “Our God is an awesome God!” with both verses.

The adult Sunday school teacher, a carpenter with a Ph.D. in Biblical Greek who has taught in Russia in THEIR native tongue, was bemoaning the feminization of the church one morning. He’s a great guy, and not without a sense of humor, so I couldn’t help but share with him later the passage of Scripture my daily reading presented that afternoon, where Jesus says:

Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!

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Is that why men bail? I never thought about that…and if that’s the case, then why would women thus still thrive? Probably because many Christian woman are of the “submitted” culture…but I’ve also learned that many budding “Deborahs” that desire to step out and minister are often treated as Jezebels. So, not only men feel squeezed.

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Are you acquainted with Tima?

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I’ve previously attended a similarly abusive church. All the symptoms were there: despotic, nepotistic pastor, women seen and not heard, single men as 2nd class citizens, and a lackey elder board.

Fortunately, I was able to get out of that situation and into a fantastic PCA church where there is strong male leadership AND a vibrant women’s ministry. I can’t really comment on the quality of the women’s ministry at my church (only on the quality of the women who attend it), but I wouldn’t necessarily see it as an either/or: the presence of a women’s ministry does not mean that men are marginalized. And strong men in leadership must also see themselves as servants first and foremost, otherwise they do become dictators.

I think there’s a lot of looking at symptoms, whether positive (hymnals) or negative (schmaltzy music), and really it’s easy to get into the idea that all this is fixable if we just set upon the right formula. The fact is that the Church is made up of sinful people, some of whom make egregiously bad decisions, and others who just make bad decisions. Until our sanctification is complete, we’re stuck with an imperfect bride of Christ. But just like you’d never insult another man’s wife, so we shouldn’t insult the Church to Christ’s face. That doesn’t mean that the Church is above criticism, but that She’s the only Church we’ve got and we’re commanded to love her and look for her peace.

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I agree with both of you. The messages, teaching and preaching at our Church is geared to giving out the gospel, it isn’t a female or a male oriented message. Our pastors preach from the Word of God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The Word of God is to all, therefore the messages are to all, including the youth.

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Bianca,
That’s foreign to my experience also. Like Cheryl, I have only occasionally heard sermons geared to any particular group, and then it is usually on a special day such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

I have never made any attempt to keep track, but I would have guessed that more lessons were geared to men than women. I have heard sermons on the importance of spiritual leadership in the home – aimed at men. I have heard sermons warning people not to spend too much time at work earning money and not enough time at home – both for men and women but workaholics tend to be men. I have heard sermons on anger, and on pride – apply to both men and women but my impression is that they tend to be more of an issue for men.

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