Redeemer plays deek-a-boo...
(Tim) This e-mail just went out to the members of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City over the signature of the church's pastor, Tim Keller. The e-mail's purpose is to solicit nominations of men and women for church office. Nominations are to be sent to Jenny Chang, Redeemer's Director of the Diaconate. And for those not keeping track, Tim Keller is the main proponent of woman officers in the Presbyterian Church in America.
What's written here is one more indication of a promotion and practice of woman officers at Redeemer that's contrary both to Scripture and to our denomination's Constitution.
If anyone's still lost in wishful thinking that the practice of woman officers by Redeemer and her sister churches is nothing more than the implementation of deaconesses defended by Calvin and Warfield, please repeat after me: Deeks. Deeks. Deeks...
Reading this to my wife just now, she thought I'd made the word up. Then, I arrived at Tim Keller's e-mail below and, with shock and disbelief, she exclaimed, "I thought you were making it up. That's astounding!"
Indeed.
New words are hard to learn, aren't they? Speaking only for myself, it took forever to get the hang of 'waiter' for 'waitress' and 'actor' for 'actress'. So I'm not looking forward to the next half a year learning to avoid 'deacon' and 'deaconess', trading them in for the gender-neutered 'deek.'
But hey, Redeemer's hip...
and who wants to be Left Behind?
On the other hand, how will we ever know which deek has been ordained and which hasn't?
Things fall apart, don't they?
* * *
From: Tim Keller [mailto: _______@redeemer.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 ____ PM
To: (Redeemer's members)
Subject: November is Officer Nomination Month
November 2, 2009
Dear Redeemer Member:
As you probably know, November is Redeemer’s officer nomination month. Once a year members have the privilege and opportunity to recommend other members for the offices of elder, deacon and deaconess.
As we enter an exciting chapter in our ministry in NYC through the RENEW Campaign, there are more opportunities to serve than ever before. Identifying new leaders within our congregation has always been a priority at Redeemer, and we need your help to find members who have the right gifts and experience to serve on the Session and the Diaconate.
There are 49 men and women currently serving on the Diaconate and 20 men serving on the Session as ruling elders. These men and women have been elected by the congregation and have gone through theological and practical training to master the skills and the information necessary for these positions.
Elders are men who serve on the Session and provide spiritual and administrative leadership to the congregation through oversight of Redeemer ministries, leaders, and members. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9.
The primary work of the Diaconate is practical deeds of mercy. Deacons and deaconesses (deeks) [sic] minister to those in our church family who find themselves in distress, crisis or emergency situations caused by illness, job loss, long-term unemployment, or other immediate physical, material, spiritual or emotional needs. Deeks also assist elders with membership interviews, and deaconesses provide input and support to elders working on complicated shepherding situations. Acts 6:1-4 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
Your faithful giving to the Mercy Fund over the years enables the Diaconate to care for our congregants during this economic recession. In addition to nominating deek candidates, you can help this ministry by encouraging congregants facing hardship to call the Diaconate Helpline – 212-726-1334.
Accepted nominees will begin training in January of 2010. We are looking for men and women who are members of Redeemer and willing to co-labor with us in these ministries. Please read the description and qualifications of the offices of elder, deacon and deaconess on this pdf or online.
Please prayerfully consider your elder, deacon and deaconess nominations and place a nomination form, with your signature, in the offering basket at any service during the month of November or mail/fax to:
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Jenny Chang, Diaconate Director
1359 Broadway, 4th floor
New York, NY 10018
Fax 646-572-0020
You may also submit a nomination online.
May God give you discernment as you consider those who may be qualified to serve in these vital roles.
Sincerely,
Dr. Timothy J. Keller
Senior Pastor
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Comments
Hi Tim,
I am neither a Presbyterian, nor a son of a Presbyterian, so enlighten me, brother.
Where in Scripture are deacons ordained? And uh-uh, Acts 6 is a no-no. Scripture never calls the 7 men there deacons (or - worse - deeks).
Dear TED,
Acts 6.
Love,
If there is any doubt in anyone's mind that Keller is just using different terminology or that the women are just assisting the men, this is the end of that. There is no way that anyone can look at what is written here and have any illusions as to what is going on at Redeemer. This church is deliberately and knowingly violating the PCA BCO with regards to their diaconate.
The question now becomes, "What will the PCA do about it?" I pray for Redeemer's repentance on this. However, let there be no more objecting that Redeemer is merely using deaconesses the way Calvin and Warfield advocated. It is obvious what must be done. I pray that the presbytery will have the will to face down Redeemer or that the GA will have the will to face down Redeemer's presbytery. And we all pray that through the process of doing so, repentance and restoration will occur. However, regardless, the battle must be fought.
This request from a man who grew up in the PCA and loves her. Those of you men who are in a position to do something about this and who are reading this, I beg you, for the purity of the bride, ENGAGE in the battle and serve your Lord by fighting. Do not allow this poison to enter Christ's church and do whatever you can, up to and including your own rejection in society and your persecution, to fight and win this battle. It is HUGELY important. It IS the gap in the wall where the battle is raging. Run there and pick up your sword. It will be unpleasant and it will be bloody, but you MUST do it. Please do it.
Now.
With great humility and tears and love,
Apostle Peter received Apostle Paul's rebuke in a godly manner.
Unpack that....
'Deek' -- the term itself sissifies the office. Sickening. Do they have a "Deek of the Week"?
> Elders are men who serve on the Session and provide spiritual and administrative leadership to the congregation through oversight of Redeemer ministries, leaders, and members.
What spiritual oversight?
> There are ...20 men serving on the Session as ruling elders.
Who need to have their heads [and probaly their sex] examined.
What is the neuter word for elders? ...'eldies'?
I used to use that word, but it was not respectful or repeatable, and it certainly did not describe church office. Yeesh.
Regarding the command to ordain, is it not sufficient that we must infer that a church must acknowledge the authority of its own officers therein? That even if they don't call it ordination, it is? (add 1 Timothy and Titus to the list of passages that implicitly command ordination)
My former church had a board of deaconesses to which my wife belonged--they did things like visitation and serving at funerals--and while she liked doing those things, she always noted that she preferred the title of "deacon's wife" to "deaconess." She felt, and feels, that it preserves Biblical authority better that way.
"Speaking only for myself, it took forever to get the hang of 'waiter' for 'waitress' and 'actor' for 'actress'."
That was worth a chuckle right there. "Actors"...
> it took forever to get the hang of 'waiter' for 'waitress'
Now you need to catch up by using the current term 'server.'
You can't can a woman a waiter, but you can call her a server.
> Speaking only for myself
...I'm sticking to waitress.
Dear Michael,
At least it hasn't progressed to "server leader" yet.
*smile
"Deeks." How disgustingly, yet almost appropriately, close to "dykes." Yikes.
I will admit to still referring to flight attendants by the antiquated term, "stews".
Lindsey, you are right! I hadn't thought of that -- I was just thingking how utterly adolescent it was.
Kmilla
What a shame that the concern over women officers in the church becomes a way to demean a person. This is a very real theological debate - Deek, deaconess, deacon - server leader actually sounds right except you lose the word association with scripture. New words get created when old ones have been limiting. The cultural debate over Deacons and Deaconess' has done just that.
The PCA is becoming divided over this issue and rather than finding ways to assist in uniting the church (John 17) you insist upon fighting over this. It feels so Pharisaical. And I am convinced by Jesus' life and his treatment of women, and Paul's respect for the women who helped his church and his counter-cultural prescriptions to treat women well, that they would not have said to the women, "you cannot serve."
To complain about women in the diaconate when the roles of the diaconate - serving, acts of mercy, have traditionally been done by women - since women nurture (see, I can promote cultural stereotype too) is to tell women you aren't needed. It's a painful thing to say to women. Painful and I believe those who hold to this belief should be ashamed.
So, how do women serve in the church? And please don't answer back that they teach only women and children.
>>they teach only women and children
Dear Diane,
The ways women serve in our church are endless, but time is running out this week so I'll leave this question hopeful that others will give you some help on it.
Meanwhile, though, one comment: in Biblical churches, women do, in fact, teach women and children.
Why you would want to speak demeaningly of this heavy and blessed privilege is beyond me. In the old Roman Catholic church, the Jesuits wanted to teach the children knowing as the sapling is bent, so grows the tree.
Now, feminists despise teaching children and other women. Why?
I believe it's because feminism is a correlative narcissism to male homosexuality, and narcissism cares for nothing and no one but oneself. So women, despite those beautiful gifts from God at the heart of their being, wombs and breasts, despise childbearing and childrearing. And despite the explicit command of God found in Titus 2, that "older women are to teach younger women," they refuse to do so, demanding that they trample the beauty God gave them.
It's so sad. But God is not mocked.
Our nature will out no matter how forcefully we work to suppress it. In other words, like sodomites, feminists don't have babies and, despising children, don't bend the sapling.
So guess what?
The godly--being godly--do. And that's the future of the Church.
Love,
So, the PCA is caving. Is there any protestant church, anywhere, that is NOT caving?
Diane,
Among this whole debate about deacons/deaconesses, etc, it appears to me that many--including you, imply that women cannot serve, or be useful, valuable, cherished, acknowledged, or important without having the the position of being a deacon/deaconess available to them. This idea literally makes me sick. It screams "Me me me!" followed by "look how important/valuable/meaningful me and my work are! I'm a deacon/deek/deaconess serving people! Without that title I'd be a useless lump!"
The most valuable women in the church don't have titles. They serve quietly, knowing that their service isn't just for a positive impact on others, but for the glory of God. They could care less whether they are a deek, a bible study leader, or on a committee. It's the women who come in week in and week out, at 7am to make coffee on Sundays---and this seemingly insignificant, lowly duty is one they do with absolute love and joy. It's the women in the church who take time to hang out with high school girls, to get to know them, encourage, and instruct them in the faith on a Friday night over pizza and toenail painting, when they could be a lot more important and significant by being at the deek meeting on that same Friday night. It's the women in the church who see the 30 year old single woman struggling with her singleness, and take her aside to encourage her, invite her to dinner, and call to pray with her---and they do that of their own accord, and not because they were on the deek committee and saw there was a need. They did it anyway.
Do you get what I am saying? Many women and men in the church are caving in to this ridiculous idea that says "If I'm not a deek, or on a board/committee, then I can't truly serve." It's not so much about translations of this or that and cultural nuances and what Paul and Jesus really meant. It's essentially asking for accolades for serving.
Hand in hand with that, it also spits in the face of the women who are changing poopy diapers, hanging out with middle schoolers, writing letters of encouragement, teaching their two year old to sing "Jesus loves me", feeding their 4 children all under the age of 6---all amazing acts of service that wouldn't make the deeks list. It's the daily, small, lowly and unimportant things they glory in.
It's those very women in the church that I rise up and call blessed. Not the ones on the deek board.
Love the new term for deacon: DEEK. :)
Wonderful, Chantal. Thank you.
"What's written here is one more indication of a promotion and practice of woman officers at Redeemer that's contrary both to Scripture and to our denomination's Constitution."
It may be contrary to the denomination's constitution, but it is NOT contrary to Scripture.
Agnes,
Officers in a church have authority.
1 Tim. 2:12 tells us quite clearly that women are not to have authority over men.
Therefore, the promotion and practice of woman officers IS contrary to Scripture.
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