Some people refer to Ephesians 5.22 as the sort of passage that made them leave the church, while others cite it as a clarion call to reassert vital distinctions between biblical manhood and womanhood.

Are these the only two options? Is it either a passage that keeps oppressive hierarchies in place, or one of the primary biblical texts that provide us with important distinctions between male and female giving contrast to our culture's tendency to blur gender distinctions?

Well, if you've been around Intown very long, you may be familiar with our reticence to be boxed into binary options and that I'm gonna suggest there's a third way.

If you guessed this, you would be right. There is a third way to be found in this passage. Or, it would be better said that there is a third way to be found between common interpretations of this passage.

There is something important that both "sides" of this argument are tuned into and there are important things that both of them miss.

On one hand, shouldn't we be able to address the way that certain interpretations of biblical passages have been used to support gender-based hierarchies that keep the powerful comfortably in place? And yet, can't we affirm that God created mankind "male" and "female" with all the beautiful distinctions that come with that?

Yes.

That's what we want to explore on Sunday morning. Not only is there a valid way to interpret this passage that takes the best instincts of both of these options, and yet at the same time critiques those who would make an idol of either.

We also want to explore what it means to be a church that welcomes people that lean either way in this discussion, and everywhere in between. We want to take the opportunity of looking at a potentially divisive passage to talk about what it means to be a church that finds unity in diversity rather than sameness.

So, join us this Sunday as we explore these questions.