Follow God's Plan
What is God's plan for leadership in our homes and churches?
After God created Eve from Adam's body, He communicated vital information to her and her husband: they were to populate the earth, subdue it, and rule over it; Eve was to be a helper (a friend or ally who aids and supports); she was not only to correspond to him but to complement him, to be his divinely-fashioned counterpart; they would discover differences in each other; and they were to become one flesh to enjoy fellowship intimacy in all domains of their lives, including joyful fulfillment in their physical intimacy.
When sin altered the original plan, additional stipulations added hardships and struggles to their existence: they must leave their garden environment which had provided for all their maintenance and satisfaction needs and fend for themselves in a relatively barren and impoverished environment; they must endure hard labor—he in toiling to provide for his family, she in bearing children and nurturing them to adulthood; Adam, as the head and priest of the family, was to perform the rites of the sacrificial system which would point to Christ's death. "In the beginning, the head of each family was considered ruler and priest of his own household" (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, January 30, 1879).
Men and women have endured manipulation, jealousy, lack of trust, and an endless array of misery-producing experiences as the result of the ever-growing power and influence of Satan's dominion over individuals, marriages, families, and society as a whole. Hundreds of generations of iniquity have produced a society of human beings where only a few occasionally have experienced the fulfillment and satisfaction in their designated roles as God originally intended them.
Abraham and Moses lead the list of patriarchs who began to organize and manage God's chosen people as a corporate group. "The management of that great church in their journeyings in the wilderness symbolizes the management of the church till the close of earth's history...." (That I May Know Him, p. 323).
One of Christ's significant contributions to the development of His church on earth was His appointment of the twelve apostles and later seventy other leaders to be His representatives, father figures ordained to carry out the many responsibilities of ecclesiastical authority in the growing church.
Looking at only the recent past, we remember the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. The feminist movement questioned the relevance of traditional absolutes. The permanence of marriage was no longer based on a vow made before God "till death do us part." Many couples skipped the marriage ceremony altogether. "Reproductive choice" was heralded as the standard for decision-making on whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy. Male headship in the home, the church, and society had been sadly misrepresented for several decades, and extreme liberals were diluting it by such concepts as androgyny, unisex, and egalitarianism. Human sexual relations were relegated to the level of "anything goes between consenting adults." One of the primary social concerns of the 1980s is the growing epidemic of AIDS, largely attributed to "consenting adults" whose sexual preferences are not according to God's plan.
"Our churches and our families are suffering. The ecclesiastical authorities in our churches as well as the husbands/fathers in our homes are not filling their God-ordained roles."
Our churches and our families are suffering. The ecclesiastical authorities in our churches as well as the husbands/fathers in our homes are not filling their God-ordained roles. Examples are endless. The marriage of Bob and Vicky is shaky because Bob lacks ambition or, as Vicky describes it, he is not the "head of the house." She is tired of making most decisions alone and wants him to take the lead. Bob grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist home dominated by a mother who of necessity took charge because her philandering husband failed to give Bob a model of true manhood.
"We do need mutual submissiveness between the sexes, but we're also in desperate need of men who are neither macho nor wimpish, men of reputable integrity, leaders and godly father figures in our homes and in our churches."
We do need mutual submissiveness between the sexes, but we're also in desperate need of men who are neither macho nor wimpish, men of reputable integrity, leaders and godly father figures in our homes and in our churches. We need women who respect the headship of the men and minister with them as God designed.
James Dobson believes that insecurity and disorientation are the result of men abdicating their headship role. He also speaks of the cause of this phenomenon: "This confused sex-role identity is not the result of random social evolution. It is a product of deliberate efforts to discredit the traditional role of manliness by those who seek revolution within the family" (Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives, p. 155).
Weldon M. Hardenbrook takes a serious look at the headship problem: "Real men do not just make babies. Real men take responsibilty for the physical and spiritual care of children they beget and for those begotten and deserted by others" (Missing From Action, p. 139).
Ellen White called the husband "the 'house-band,' the priest of the family. Like Abraham," she went on, "he is to be a faithful instructor of his household. And he is to cherish and respect the mother as the guide and educator of their children" (Manuscript 126, 1903 [Manuscript Release #814, p. 28]).
"Headship does not make the male (pastor, elder, husband, father) more valuable. God placed qualities in the male which equip him to function as the head and qualities in the female which equip her to more satisfactorily function as the supporter and nurturer."
We are all created in the image of God. Headship does not make the male (pastor, elder, husband, father) more valuable. God placed qualities in the male which equip him to function as the head and qualities in the female which equip her to more satisfactorily function as the supporter and nurturer. We do need mutual submissiveness between the sexes, but we're also in desperate need of men who are neither macho nor wimpish, men of reputable integrity, leaders and godly father figures in our homes and in our churches. We need women who respect the headship of the men and minister with them as God designed.
Church and domestic power struggles are eroding society, even our Adventist society.