Until We Think Globally

So this morning I'm doing some reading in preparation for some teaching I am doing this coming weekend on Women and Leadership. The following quote jumped off the page at me. 

The context is the gospel and women  ... 

'... Until we go global, we can never be sure of our question, much less the answers we affirm.' 

Carolyn Curtis James (Half the Church) 

THIS!!! 

The group of women that will be gathered on Sunday evening are privileged Rwandans. They are middle class. They all have jobs. They believe that God has called them to lead in their companies / organizations / churches ... and they do. They are all being mentored to be more like Christ, to be leaning into His leading and be obedient in following as they grow and develop the gifts that God has given them to use in the Kingdom. 

Pretty great scenario, right!!!

BUT!!! 

What comes to my mind is how I struggle to get them to embrace the whole gospel. 

Not only that they were created by God with purpose, that He desires a full relationship with them through believing that Jesus died for all people for all sin, that through the Holy Spirit their life is in ongoing transformation and that He wants them to be part part of bringing His Kingdom here on earth... that's the easy part. 

The hard part ... that they are just as valued and have the same worth, the same standing as men in the kingdom.  

So much that is written by women for women embraces just this. It seems that women need to write / speak about their less than, their sins and redemption, about how they overcame their insecurities, being a Proverbs 31 woman with kids and a husband, write a cookbook or have the latest journal with adult colouring pages. 

Compare that to the books that men write ... theology, leadership, mission. 

Don't get me wrong ... all can be needed and most helpful, but why the division?

I was talking just the other day to a friend about the great lack of books written by women based on theology. 

Why is this? 

I think in the west we have believed a lie that God only speaks to men, that God only uses men for the most important things in life, that some how females are less than. 

Now leave the west and come to developing countries ... where women are oppressed culturally and socially - the 'less than' is on steroids. 

This is garbage ... bogus theology. A lie that women believe over and over.

I think it's time for an African woman to write about the whole gospel - about how it's global and that how the gospel doesn't change no matter where you live in the world, what social class you are, what colour your skin is. 

The gospel we believe has got to fit and be able to be embraced by everyone living in this world today. 

A gospel that reaches the depths - not just of sin, but also the deepest hardships which people live. We need to believe that is has the same transformative power no matter where one was born, what social class one fits or what gender they are. 

Is the gospel I believe as Jesus intended it or have I made up / accepted a gospel that only fits a certain demographic?

What questions are we asking to make sure the gospel we believe in, is as Jesus taught... and where are our answers coming from? 

Sunday's coming ... and I'm excited!