A few months ago a few of us had a conversation on Twitter in which we discussed the possibility of changing the shape of the conversations surrounding gender, Christianity, and the Church. Although we came from a number of different perspectives, we all felt that there was a need to resist the entrenched polarization that can exist in debates around subjects such as complementarianism and egalitarianism, to take the time to listen to, understand, learn from, and challenge each other. We also had a shared conviction that—whatever theological positions we may hold—the Church hasn’t recognized, nurtured, welcomed, and engaged women and their gifts as it should and that we should reflect on how such a situation can be changed.
The idea lay dormant for a while, but a month and a half ago we started a collaborative blog in which to have such a conversation in public. We have blogged privately for a while but today we are going live.
Welcome to Passing the Salt Shaker
Our hope is that this blog will be a place of friendly, respectful, stimulating, and enjoyable conversation in which we break differences down to size, imaginatively re-frame positions in a way that enables us to work past certain impasses, learn to disagree well, sharpen our thinking, grow to understand, appreciate, and learn from those with whom we disagree, and provide Christians and churches with an impetus and example for thinking through these pressing questions.
The conversation doesn’t belong to any person or party. We want it to be for the benefit of all. There won’t be any comments on the blog itself, but I am sure that each of us would love to hear any thoughts that you might have by e-mail.
You can read about some of the contributors here (the list still isn’t complete). If you click on any of our names, you can read the posts in which we introduce ourselves (here is mine).
Alastair's Adversaria 
Way cool.
This looks *really* interesting.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
This is tremendous – how did I miss it before now? I can appreciate the possible motives behind not permitting comments, even as I can be a wee bit disappointed in that. That being said, the last couple weeks the 9Marks guys have been posting pieces from an upcoming journal on complementarianism and that I hope you’ll all interact with. There are a couple terrific, momentum building pieces and a couple others that…aren’t.
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This is very interesting and so timely. I write at Pursuit of a Joyful Life. Here are my thoughts on the Church as a Body and it’s similarity to family (with all the argumentative baggage that goes along with people living and growing together), a blog called “On Fighting in the Family”: http://pursuitofajoyfullife.com/2015/04/08/on-fighting-in-the-family/ Thanks for starting these conversations. I look forward to reading.
I’ve read your blog and much of what you say resonates with me and I like your quotes from the scriptures, especially Psalm 51:10.
I agree that there are occasions when we have no time to debate/argue/explain – and sometimes we just act, for instance in chasing after an adventurous toddler who’s heading fast towards laburnum seeds in a friend’s garden.
There are also times when a comforting touch is more appropriate than debating the rights and wrongs of the circumstances of a person’s life, when ‘Love covers a multitude of sins.’
But there is also a time for rigorous debate/argument (something I’m not much good at!), and especially about Christian doctrine and ethics. At a time when some seem to want to disregard parts of the Scriptures, and are also urging the church to change its teaching just to please them, I am thankful for those who can, and do, debate/argue. Sometimes it just isn’t a case of ‘six of one and half-a-dozen of the other’ and we need to ‘speak the truth in love’ with words ‘seasoned with salt’.
Blessings
Christine