“Biblical manhood and womanhood enrich human flourishing in all its dimensions. God instituted marriage as the union of one man and one woman who complement each other in a one-flesh union that ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. This remains the only normative pattern of sexual relations for humanity. Husbands are to exercise headship sacrificially and with humility, and wives are to serve as helpers to their husbands, willingly supporting and submitting to their leadership. Together these complementary roles bring joy and blessing to each other and display the beauty of God’s purposes to the world. Single men and women are no less able to enjoy and honor God and no less important to his purposes. They also are to give expression to God’s image in distinct and complementary ways, flourishing as his image bearers and bringing him glory in their singleness.”
“Marriage, Sexuality, and Singleness” in We Believe: A Statement of Faith
“Os Guinness once observed that there are some ideas that can be thought, but not lived. Western culture’s ideas about gender identity fit that category (example: the collision between transgender ideology and women’s sports). In such a culture, attempting to live a fundamentally incoherent vision of gender identity, a church that is built on the simple complementarian vision of men and women, equal yet different, will shine like a light in the darkness. Ephesians 5 is radical, and radically beautiful—and both of those statements need to be convictions rooted deep in our soul.”
Josh Blount, “Revisiting Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” in The Books that Shaped Us (October 2024)
“Heavenly Father, we stand in awe of the majesty and beauty of your creation. You’ve crafted humanity to reflect your glory as we bear your image in our maleness and femaleness. Holy Spirit, draw us again and again to God’s Word to behold your perfect design, your perfect plan, and your perfect purpose for each man and woman to display your glory uniquely on the earth. We ask you to sustain our convictions, declaration, and application of our identities and roles by the clear teaching of Scripture forever. Protect us as Sovereign Grace Churches from the influence of cultural acceptance, identity distortions, or misapplication of roles—whether in the home, the community, or the church. Guard us from that age-old, evil question of the deceiver: ‘Did God actually say…?” May joy, honor, respect, and abounding fruitfulness in our homes, our families, and our churches be the result of embracing our roles and privileges as man and woman created in your image.”
Gary Ricucci, “Praying Through our Seven Shared Values” in Our Shared Values (June 2022)
“Contrary to our culture’s assumptions, gender means something. Men and women are not interchangeable—they are far more significant than that. And neither is dispensable. And so, as complementarians, we are freed to experience God’s grace through his wise design for us as men and women. This means far more than preserving the responsibility of men to lead. We must also promote and pursue the unique and invaluable contributions women make to the church’s mission.”
Jace Hudson, “The Value of Women in the Mission of the Church” in A Passion for the Church (March 2023)
Excerpt from Josh Blount, “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: The Shared Value of Complementarian Leadership in the Home and in the Church” in Our Shaping Virtues(October 2022)
Stated simply, complementarianism is the belief that men and women are created equal in dignity yet different in design and role. As our Statement of Faith says, “Men and women reflect and represent God in distinct and complementary ways, and these differences are to be honored and celebrated in all dimensions of life” (“Man as Male and Female”). This affirmation does two things: it protects us from wrongly magnifying the differences between men and women (self-help books notwithstanding, men and women are not from different planets) or wrongly flattening them (men and women are equal, but they are not interchangeable).
Men and women are both created in the image of God. Neither is more valuable to him. Every woman, as a woman, and every man, as a man, is a result of the wise, gracious handiwork of the Creator. To demean women or ridicule men is thus to belittle a particular work of the Lord. And yet, within that equality, men and women are not interchangeable but instead have distinct and complementary roles.
The places where these roles are most clearly seen are in earthly families (the home) and the family of God (the church). In the home, men have distinct roles as husbands and fathers, and women have distinct roles as wives and mothers. The roles might best be defined with the term “headship” and “helper.” Again quoting our Statement of Faith, “Husbands are to exercise headship sacrificially and with humility, and wives are to serve as helpers to their husbands, willingly supporting and submitting to their leadership.”
In the church, God’s eschatological family, men, and women are equally valuable to our life and mission. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out regardless of gender and yet exercised in a way consistent with our gender. Elders exercise a role analogous to a father in a family, as Paul makes clear in the qualifications for eldership. By reserving the office of elder to men (1 Tim. 2:12, 3:2; Titus 1:6), the new creation maintains the pattern of God’s original created order. In addition, within the church, the created differences between all men and women are upheld and honored, whether married or single (for example, 1 Tim. 5:1-2). The order in the new creation life of the church both reflects and advances the created order established in the beginning.