"Men and Women in the Church" by Kevin DeYoung. My Short Review.

 

"Complementarianism" is the position that men and women are equal before God; both saved by grace alone in Christ alone received by faith alone. And both men and women are distinctly, purposefully different, not interchangeable. There are obvious creational/biological differences which coach men toward masculinity and women toward femininity. Within the concept of complementarianism there is a spectrum. On one side, there are those who are more egalitarian (equal in role capabilities - almost interchangeable except for their sex, and yet men still are the head of the family and leaders in the church), and in the other direction are those who are clearly more patriarchal (equals who serve in unique, sex-specific ways with men leading in society, home and church).  

"Men and Women in the Church" is a soundly complementarian manuscript that leans more to the patriarchal side. It's where I am, and where (I suspect) the majority of my denomination (The Presbyterian Church in America) is. And so, this short, 176-page softback is "about the divinely designed complementarity of men and women as it applies to life in general and especially to ministry in the church" (pg. 15). Easy to read and grasp.

Since the book has been out since 2021, I won't give a long review. Right to the point, DeYoung is straightforward and clear. "Jesus never "put women in their place." but neither did he try to dislodge men from theirs. Jesus takes a back seat to no one on being pro-woman" (43). "Any move to abolish all distinctions between men and women is a move (whether intentionally or not) to tear down the building blocks of redemption itself. Men and women are not interchangeable" (pg. 14). And one of my favorite statements (it shows up a few times) lies here: "The exhortation here is not for women to sit down but for men to stand up" (pg. 120).

Much of the book is dealing with Scripture and answering egalitarian and semi-egalitarian arguments (and quietly answering some strident patriarchal perspectives). Which means the author uses up space (in important ways, I think) that limit how much space he can give to practical applications. But the work - without becoming a checklist or "how-to" book - has plenty of application. If there's a weakness, it might be that most of the application leans more heavily on men, but that makes sense because his exhortation is "not for women to sit down but for men to stand up."

This would be a valuable read for your board of elders or Session or Consistories. It would even be useful for a set of classes at your congregation on complementarianism. In fact, it would be worth having a few copies to pass around. I highly recommend the work.