Wimpy Theology Makes Wimpy Women

Last night I listened to the live stream of John Piper's sermon at the True Woman Conference. "Wimpy theology makes wimpy women," was one of his main points. I love that line so much that I'm thinking about painting it on the side of my van. I better run that by Theodore first, though. Him being the head of the household and all.

I don't know how I missed hearing about True Woman Conference sooner, but I'm very encouraged so far. The sessions are being made available online. There's nothing like being there, but listening in your pajamas is nice, too. Tim Challies is liveblogging the event, and has posted a very good overview of Dr. Piper's sermon.

Some of the vicious attacks on Sarah Palin have left my nerves a little raw. So when Mark Driscoll's Church Leadership delved into the complementarianism/egalitarianism argument, I probably sprayed the arguments of the egalitarians with some buckshot that really should have been saved for the opinions of the Sandra Bernhards of the world. And note that the buckshot is for the arguments and opinions, not the people who hold such views. No violent talk here, thankyouverymuch. The result was a post that wasn't as clear as I would have liked. I'm still mulling; I'll come back to it later.

When I read the comments on this post by Justin Taylor, I was struck by some comments by women who, like me, struggle sometimes with complementarianism. Women who love to study God's Word can sometimes feel that they are laboring in vain, and that there will never be an outlet for their efforts.

I've shared this before, but there was one session at Together for the Gospel that Theodore particularly wanted me to listen to. Because it was so encouraging to me (and because I rarely click on sound files posted on blogs, no matter how fabulous you tell me it is), I decided to transcribe the applicable portion for you. I've taken out the portions where the group discussed, but Dr. Piper's words are the same:

I love strong women. I think they are magnificent testimonies to Christ. Because if they are complementarian, which I hope they are at our church, then they are combining things that the world can’t explain. They’re combining a sweet, tender, kind, loving, submissive, feminine beauty with this massive steel in their backs and theology in their brain.

And the world says: “You really want to be at that church? John Piper hates women. Don’t you know that? John Piper hates women.”

I grope in a controversial situation concerning complementarianism and egalitarianism, for ways to celebrate and articulate magnificence in women. “What do you think that looks like because you don’t think they should be elders, so you must think they’re dumb.” Or, “You don’t think they should call the final decisive shots in the marriage but be responsive and supportive, so, what is magnificence here?”

One of the words that has proven to be remarkably vision-giving for me and them. My goal for the women of our church is that they become sages. It’s an unusual word; we all tend to know what it means. It’s a Huldah-like…they streamed to Huldah. She was a prophet, but she evidently didn’t do public prophetic ministry, they came to her in quiet. I don’t know the details.

But I just want our women to study Wayne Grudem’s Theology and read my books and read you guys’ books and have rich, deep, strong, theology; unshakable faith; tender, sweet, kind, supportive, loving hearts towards husband and church.

And as they get to be 40, 55, 60, people are streaming to them for wisdom, because they’ve walked through such deep water.

Women, don’t begrudge suffering, you will become a sage. People will stream to you. Men will seek you out, which will not be inappropriate in the right setting, in which they say, “I need your help, I need counsel, I need insight into how to deal with this.”

And you’ve walked through 30 years, and you’ve carried this and your arm has been lamed…

And you’ve loved this husband who’s never believed and he’s with you and you’re with him…

You have this child who you’ve now nursed for 35 years and lives at home with you still and has the brain of a two-year-old…

Talk to me about perseverance, ma’am.

Preach it.

Again, the entire discussion can be listened to here on the Sovereign Grace website. It's Panel Discussion 6. Piper's remarks about strong women occur about 41 minutes into the session (you can skip ahead), and last about five minutes.