What an amazing year it has been! I have been overwhelmed by the uniformly enthusiastic responses to all the seminars I have given on the oneness of man and woman in Christ in Conferences in Uganda and Kenya, Universities, Seminaries, and churches. It was a special delight to be back at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School before Thanksgiving, where response to “How Complementarian is the Bible?” and its many follow up discussions were uniformly positive. You can see the full video of the Seminar on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29LlmlrL7fw&feature=youtu.be

One of the TEDS students wrote, “I continue to hear reports of the transforming work your message has brought to people here at Trinity. Truly, truly a blessing. Tonight I spoke with the wife of the Chinese student, John, that had come and also met with you. He has since read your book – and his view on the role of women, and their marriage is transformed. Another friend of mine, a woman student here from Kenya, has been transformed – she came from a very closed and restrictive Christian tradition – and now sees her life and ministry in a new, free light.

My wife, Nancy, and I were greatly encouraged about the future of Africa by responses to about a dozen lectures or sermons there and experiencing their exuberant worship. In three sermons at the large Anglican St. Luke Nintinda’s Church in Kampala, I shared how I came to assurance of faith when I realized I had been calling God a liar by not accepting His promise that whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life. Our wonderful host, Medad Birungi, challenged those who, like me, believe in Jesus but questioned their salvation, to raise their hands if they wished to show that they repented of calling God a liar and now accept His promise. Well over 60% of those attending raised their hands. And, oh, did we have joyous worship!

A student at the Anglican Martyr’s Seminary in Kampala asked, “Here in Uganda we have a custom that the wife bows at the feet of her husband. Is this OK?” I believe the Lord gave me His response, “Yes, I suppose that is OK, as long as the husband also bows at the feet of his wife.” Everyone roared with laughter and approval for about five minutes.

The response was also outstanding at a marriage seminar and a gathering of Pentecostal pastors. It was wonderful how God blessed even more mightily when things did not go as planned.

The Annual Conference of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) in St. Paul’s University, Kenya, co-sponsored by the Ekklesia Community for Advocacy and Peace Initiative, was amazing. It seemed like every talk leading up to mine at the end of the first day said what we need most is a clear exegetical explanation of what the Bible says about man and woman. You guessed it, that was my topic, and the eye contact and joyous response was amazing. The next night I showed how early church fathers, especially African church fathers, reinforced my exegesis on point after point. They all went away knowing that the affirmation of the equality of man and woman in Christ is not just a new western idea, but is solidly rooted in God’s revelation and its early proclamation.

I am so grateful to all my students in my Fuller Seminary Northwest class on “Women, the Bible, and the Church” for a wonderful class. One of them invited me to give a seminar on this at his Chinese-American Lighthouse Church. I also am grateful for the reception to talks at Western Washington University in Bellingham and University Presbyterian Church in Seattle.

In April I had the joy of giving two plenary lectures at the Houston CBE Conference in April. One examined each of the twelve alleged biblical reasons for male hierarchy. The other gave 42 exegetical reason why Galatians 3:28 should not be limited only to who can be saved. Both talks were published in a special journal mailed to every member of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Listeners to Chris Date’s podcast asked me to provide an egalitarian response to his complementarian podcasts. You can listen to Parts 1 (May 17, 2012) and 2 (May 21, 2012) of my response to alleged biblical reasons for male hierarchy at:
http://www.theopologetics.com/2012/05/17/episode-85-one-in-christ/ and
http://www.theopologetics.com/2012/05/21/episode-86-adams-rib/
Dr. James Hamilton of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary responded to my talks.You can hear Parts 1 (Oct. 5, 2012) and 2 (Oct. 24, 2012) of my rejoinder to his arguments at:
http://www.theopologetics.com/2012/10/05/episode-103-shes-her-own-boss/
http://www.theopologetics.com/2012/10/24/episode-104-she-leads-the-way/

So, yes, it has been an amazing year, and I thank God for it all.