Books on gender and what Christians who hold to the authority of Scripture should think about it are not in short supply. So why do we need another one? Well, I think it is fair that books written from a complementarian perspective can fail on a number of different grounds. They can sometimes fail on kindness – lacking a basic and fundamental appreciation of the gifts of women and their desire to bring those gifts to bear in the churches they love. They have been known to suggest that those who sees things differently don’t love Scripture, don’t love the church or possibly even don’t love Jesus. They can sometimes fail in application, leaving big ‘so what about?’ questions hanging in the air. But most of all they often fail (and I think egalitarian writers also fail in this regard) in addressing the why of it all. Why did God make us the way that he did and what bearing does that have on family life and the way we are as a church? Why do we have differing types (Jesus & the church) to pattern after? (Read Aimee Byrd’s latest for this) And from a complementarian point of view, why is the story this tells beautiful, good, desirable and something worth both sexes celebrating?

I had the privilege of working with my friend Stef Liston in the final stages of his new book Gender Quality¹ and I think Stef does an admirable job of asking good questions, showing the humility to learn from both sides, speaking kindly and looking for beauty and seeking to work that out in practice. In other words he seeks to refine and look for the quality, the gold, in what it means to be male and female together. I warmly commend the book. Below is a short extract from his first chapter to give you a taste.

When it comes to the matter of sexuality, those of us in the West recognise that we are in the midst of a cultural revolution. This book is an attempt to help us figure out, from the scriptures, what God thinks about it all. At the time of printing there are the very live issues of gender fluidity, gender dysphoria, gender neutrality and being transgender, and alongside these there are the more familiar issues of sexual orientation and sexual lifestyle choices.

For the most part Evangelical Christians have clear and agreed beliefs on the above matters. While these are being challenged in certain quarters, the teaching in scripture is so clear on the above that those who hold to the authority of scripture as an absolute priority can’t see how we can change our stance without the whole house falling down.

As a very brief interlude the church, we are told in scripture, is:

…the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3 v 15)

This means that part of the church’s calling is to hold up the truth by faithfully championing God’s revelation in scripture. If the church gives way on the truth, the truth caves in. Not in the sense that it’s no longer true, but in the sense that she who was entrusted to hold it up has neglected her calling. Those who previously found shade under truth upheld by the church are now exposed to the scorching rays of multiple deadly ideologies that deceive hearts and destroy lives.

Back to the cultural revolution.

The more nuanced issues of male and female personhood, equality and differences, what it means to be a man or a woman, and what the implications are in the church and the home, well… evangelical Christians, for the most part, do not agree on these. Seemingly simple matters can be surprisingly complex, with every issue contested, but the search for clarity is surely worth it!

This book is an invitation to journey through the scriptures, searching for the meaning of male and female, and if we can find one, making sense of it together. We’ll excavate down to the foundations as much as possible; the further we go down and see what’s really there and what isn’t, the better idea we’ll have of how to ‘build up’ with maximum wisdom. The aim is to serve God’s people well, from those in leadership who need to make decisions about these things, to those helping and supporting others, to those in the midst of their own personal struggles…

Extracted from chapter one

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