Intro | Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Reconciling Love
Our reconciliation with God calls us to be agents of reconciliation with all of God’s Creation.
The gospel is the good news that God has revealed himself as a God of grace who reaches out to humanity in self-giving love to reconcile us to himself.
The sexual escapades of powerful men are back in national headlines, highlighted recently by former Rep. Anthony Weiner, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.Evangelical leaders have long maintained safeguards to protect themselves from even temptation. But the days when a man could run a major organization or a government office without being in close proximity to women colleagues are past, said Michael Lindsay, Gordon College president and author of Faith in the Halls of Power. “As laudable as Dr. [Billy] Graham’s practice was—to never meet privately with a woman—it’s a practical impossibility in today’s workplace environment.”That includes parachurch ministries, where women are climbing the ranks. In the last seven years, six women became presidents of evangelical colleges, Cherie Harder was appointed president of the Trinity Forum, and Joanna Mockler chaired the board of World Vision.And while infidelity trends have been stable for the past 20 years, studies do show that more members of the opposite sex in the workplace is linked to more infidelity, according to W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. “A private office with a glass window can solve a lot of problems,” he said.Refusing to eat or travel alone with someone of the opposite sex are strategies that Michael Hyatt, former ceo of Thomas Nelson, said he uses to protect his marriage. While he’s willing to be flexible—he has been on a business trip with a woman when their male colleague was ill—he said he discusses everything with his wife. He also talks about his wife often and positively, something he calls “the best adultery repellant known to man.”“Men that are wise will be intentional about this,” Hyatt said. “It’s naive to think that somehow we can be so sanctified that we don’t have to take into account our biology. … I’ve seen ministries, individual’s lives ruined because of a moment of indiscretion.”But some of the boundaries men put on their workplace behavior can have unintended consequences for women, said Halee Gray Scott, a professor at Wesley Seminary and A. W. Tozer Seminary, who last year completed a dissertation on women leaders of evangelical organizations.“It’s a big problem for women to grow [professionally] because they can’t be mentored, and can’t get into these informal networks where the guys go out to lunch or golfing,” she said. “This lack of access affects their careers, because the business or ministry relationship is built on trust.”Informal interactions generate a sense of community, Scott said. “If you look back to Genesis and how women and men are created to be co-laborers, I get this image of men and women looking at the work, not at each other. … We need to learn how to redeem being co-laborers.”However, no company policy will be foolproof. “Fear [of getting caught] can only motivate somebody so far,” said Lindsay. “You’ve got to have some other reason you’re upholding your moral standards.”Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.Related Elsewhere:Her.meneutics, Christianity Today‘s blog for women, addressed this in a post titled “Guarding Your Marriage without Dissing Women.”Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and Lauren Winner debated male-female workplace boundaries for Christianity Today in 1999.In 2006, Sarah Sumer wrote in about men and women working together as a team for Leadership Journal, a Christianity Today sister publication.Additional Christianity Today articles on purity and sexuality and gender in the workplace include:
Premarital Abstinence: Make a Promise to Jesus | The best way to encourage people to save sex for the covenant of marriage. (January 6, 2010)
The Waiting Game | Single adults can live fulfilling lives that reveal God’s goodness. (August 3, 2009)
The Joy of Policy Manuals | There’s more to workplace justice than good intentions. (April 26, 2007)
Desire Happens | You see, you want. Then what? (March 29, 2007)
Our salvation is grounded in the redemptive work of the Cross and the resurrection of the victorious Christ. In the Cross, Jesus absorbed all of humanity’s hostility, overcoming evil and manifesting his forgiveness. God in Christ paid the cost of forgiving our sin, “tasting death” for everyone. In Christ’s resurrection victory we become participants in the power and quality of the new life.
We experience reconciliation with God by faith in this work of grace, so that we stand justified by faith, and in this new relation we live in covenant with him. As such, we are Jesus’ disciples, and our pattern of life is to live out the ethic of belonging to him. This means walking in the Spirit, the intimate fellowship with God by which the character of the “new creation” is enabled.
Our reconciliation with God calls us to be agents of reconciliation with all of God’s Creation. This involves:
- Participating in the new community of the redeemed, the church being our primary society of fellowship and accountability.
- Following the example of our Lord by living in love, peace, justice, and equity with others.
- Sharing the good news of the gospel with all persons in a way that makes faith in Christ a possibility for them.
As a community of the reconciled, we live as members of his kingdom, giving his rule visibility in the world. We look with expectancy and faithfulness for the personal return of our Lord, who as Sovereign at God’s right hand will return to culminate his mission in and for the world.
Dr. Myron S. Augsburger of Harrisonburg, Virginia, is past president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and of Eastern Mennonite University.
Next: For Us—and Creation: Darrell Bock
Copyright © 2000 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
