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Preaching that speaks to women

 
Helen Thorne | 7 Oct 2011

It’s an inescapable fact that men and women are different.

It’s not that men are from Mars and women are from Venus – we’re all from planet earth and need to accept that fact.

Nor is it that girls are full or sugar and spice and all things nice and boys obsessed with slugs and snails – we’re all sinners and there’s no escaping that.

But we are created to complement one another (Genesis 2:20-24). To be both diverse as well as similar. And that means to a certain extent we learn differently and serve differently.

This has implications for preaching. It doesn’t change the gospel but it does mean that if sermons are to inspire, instruct and equip women then some careful thought needs to be given to how preachers communicate and apply God’s precious word.

And this is one of the topics that are going to be considered at next week’s Evangelists' conferences. If you would like to explore this important area, there are still tickets available at both the London and Leyland venues. So why not come and join the conversation …? Or if you can’t make it to the event, check back here to read about some of the things we discussed.

3 Comments

Will Goodall

11:01 PM AEDT on January 8th
This has implications for preaching. It doesn’t change the gospel but it does mean that if sermons are to inspire, instruct and equip women then some ... of it should be done by women.

Jason Ward

11:01 PM AEDT on January 8th
In response to Will Goodall, by the same logic, then some preaching which is to instruct and equip children should be done by children, some preaching for adulterers should be done by adulterers, and some preaching to instruct and inspire atheists should be done by atheists, etc.

If preaching should sometimes be done by women, then it is not becuase men are unable to speak into their situation. First, that's plain sexist. You are saying that men and women can't do the same jobs. Second, that's not my experience. Women have spoken into my situation just as men have. In fact, Helen did it at the evangelist's conference.

Helen Thorne

11:01 PM AEDT on January 8th
Thanks for your comments. Will - you are right that gender differences have big implications for preaching. And I think there is plenty of scope for the discussions started in this week's seminars to be continued in the coming months. But I also think it is true to say that all of us are capable of communicating with people who are different to us and that means that men are able to preach to women effectively (and indeed are mandated in Scripture to do so). There are plenty of male preachers doing an excellent job ... the seminars were aimed at encouraging them in that role. You might like to know that in the coming weeks we're also going to be blogging on encouraging women to disciple and evangelise other women in ways that are biblical and helpful (as per Titus 2). So the role of women isn't going to be ignored. In the mean time, Jason - thank you for your encouragement.