God's Glorious Plan
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, hopefully every pastor and member of a Sovereign Grace church checking out the podcast is aware of our seven shared values — the theological convictions that we all hold in common. One of those in particular might be described as a bit more controversial, even in church circles, though not for us. But broadly speaking, that would be our conviction for complementarian leadership in the home and in the church. The reality is, each day we awake to breathe in the air of our egalitarian age, and we are not going to find a lot of help in this — even in the broader church world. But this is an area we want to pay attention to. We want to make sure we are strengthening it, and you want to strengthen us today on this episode of the podcast.
Mark Prater:
I do. And just to mention our seven shared values — those are certainly theological convictions that we hold together, but they do shape ministry and life in the local church. So it's important that obviously every pastor, but certainly every member as well, be aware of those seven shared values. And to help you with that, our most recent Sovereign Grace mission video is dedicated to our seven shared values — there's a part one and a part two. If you haven't seen that yet, go to our website and take a look at that.
But I want to draw attention to our fourth shared value that you mentioned, Ben — complementarian leadership in the home and the church. I want to draw attention to it because I want us as a family of churches to continue to benefit from God's good design for men and women in the home and in the church. And as we see in the evangelical world the complementarian conviction eroding just a bit, we want to make sure we head in the other direction, actually — that's right — and remain strengthened in our conviction.
So this is how we describe that shared value. This is what is written — you find it on our website:
"We believe it was God's glorious plan to create men and women in his image, giving them equal dignity and value in his sight, while appointing differing and complementary roles for them within the home and the church. Because these roles give different expressions of God's image in humanity, they should be valued and pursued in joy and faith. As the redeemed community of God, the church has a unique opportunity and responsibility to celebrate this complementarity, to contend for it against cultural hostility, and to protect it from sinful distortions."
And I think that's very well written. I would encourage you to read it, or to watch that mission video I just mentioned, because Jeff Purswell does a great job talking about our complementarian conviction — this fourth shared value. He points out that God's good design for men and women is for our good, and it leads to our joy and to human flourishing. This is not something for us to back away from or be embarrassed by, but rather to celebrate, teach, model, and live out by the grace of God. So it's one of the reasons I want to dedicate an episode of our podcast to this conviction — that we would continue to strengthen it in our churches.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent, and amen. You recently revisited a resource that probably a lot of us are familiar with but maybe haven't read in a while — a document that's several decades old at this point but remains evergreen. Talk to us about that.
Mark Prater:
I want to mention the Danvers Statement, which was originally written in December of 1987 and then published in November of 1988. It's a completed, final version. We recently, as a pastoral team, read through this together as pastors and wives. I'm very grateful for Jared's leadership there — Jared Mellinger, our senior pastor at Covenant Fellowship. That's what he wants to do: strengthen our complementarian convictions in our church. And as I read through it, it just struck me how timeless this document is, how well it's written, and how relevant it is today.
I'm not going to read through the whole thing, but they begin with a rationale — saying, in effect: we have been moved to write this by the following contemporary developments, which we observe with deep concern. So here's why we're writing this. I just want to point out some of those in their rationale:
— The widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity. Still true today.
— The tragic effects of this confusion in an unraveling of the fabric of marriage, woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood. We see that today.
— The increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism, with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives. That is just so well said.
— The emergence of roles of men and women in church leadership that do not conform to biblical teaching, but backfire in the crippling of biblically faithful witness.
— And with that, the increasingly prevalent acceptance of hermeneutical oddities devised to reinterpret apparently plain meanings of the biblical text.
That was written in 1987 and published in 1988 — and it's still relevant today. Those cultural issues have not gone away. It's a timeless document in that sense.
Then from that rationale they wrote affirmations, which are so good. The Danvers Statement says, "Based on our understanding of biblical teachings, we affirm the following":
1. Both Adam and Eve were created in God's image and are equal before God as persons, and distinct in their manhood and womanhood. That's your basic creation account.
2. Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order and should echo in every human heart.
3. Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the fall, and was not a result of sin.
4. The fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women.
5. The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, manifest the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of men and women. Both also affirm the principle of male leadership in the family and in the covenant community.
6. Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.
7. In all of life, Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women, so that no earthly submission — domestic, religious, or civil — ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin. They are very clear that applies to the issue of submission.
8. In both men and women, a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside biblical criteria for particular ministries. Rather, biblical teaching should remain the authority under Scripture for testing and subjecting the discernment of God's will.
And I'll just read the last one.
9. We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and our culture at large.
So it's just a wonderfully written, timeless document. And if you have a new person coming to your church — obviously point them to our shared values — but if you wanted to add a resource, consider giving them the Danvers Statement or pointing them in that direction. Just want to remind our folks of that. And for pastoral teams: if you haven't read that together recently, I would recommend you do so.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent suggestion, and I think I'm going to do just that with my team. Even as you're talking, I'm thinking — we should do this as well. Clearly, over the nearly 40 years since this was written, the making of hermeneutical oddities appears to show no sign of ending. So we must remain ever vigilant and careful in our thinking. And in light of that, you have some other resources you wanted to mention as well.
Mark Prater:
I do — just a few, very quickly. Kevin DeYoung published an article on May 7th, 2025 on his Clearly Reformed website, entitled "Clarifying Thoughts on the Complementarian Conversation." I won't go through all the points for the sake of time, but I would commend that article. He does, by the way, quote probably three or four times The Christian Family by Herman Bavinck — which can just be a good resource overall for marriage, parenting, and the family. That is a timeless work as well. So I would recommend — if you read through the Danvers Statement as a pastoral team — that you might read through Kevin's article as well.
Obviously, another one I highly want to recommend — and that is not yet in print — is Josh Blount's new book on complementarianism, which will be published in November. That's our current plan. I've read Josh's book and wrote an endorsement for it, and I say in my endorsement: I want every member and pastor of a Sovereign Grace church to read this book. It will be our go-to resource because Josh is just so good.
A couple of others to mention. Kevin DeYoung has also written a book called Men and Women in the Church — it's not a long read, it's very accessible, and I find it to be really helpful. And then of course Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which Piper and Grudem edited several decades ago, remains a timeless resource as well. So just some resources I wanted to point out to everyone.
Benjamin Kreps:
Well, I can't wait for Josh's book — I'm sure there are lots of us out here waiting expectantly to read what Josh has written. And Mark, thank you for caring for us in your encouragement here in this vital area. We want to remain joyfully complementarian for the glory of God, and we're so grateful for your investment in this regard. So thanks for your encouragement, and thank you everybody for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.