Welcome to Lakeview Church’s Marriage and Family Ministry Our Vision To Help Equip and Empower Couples Grow Closer to Christ and Each Other

Marriage and Family Ministry Celebrating God’s Design! The Marriage and Family Ministry exists to equip and empower couples and families grow closer to Christ and each other. We exist to offer couples, from engaged through milestone anniversaries, a place to learn together from Scripture how to build a home where: (1) The love of Christ is shinning; (2) Relationships are Biblically structured; and (3) Genuine intimacy, authenticity and vulnerability is central. 2

Marriage and Family Ministry Biblical Manhood and Womanhood - Is God’s design and the God-given differences, which exist at the root of our personhood, is what makes a man a man and a woman a woman according to God’s Word. This speaks to our God-designed Differences NOT our Value in God’s eyes. 3

Marriage and Family Ministry Complementarianism The belief that God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but has assigned different but complementary roles and responsibilities to men and woman within marriage, family life and the church. Additional Comment: It assigns leadership roles to men and support roles to women, based on the interpretation of certain biblical passages. One of its precepts is that while women may assist in the decision making process, the ultimate authority for the decision is the purview of the male. 4

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Masculinity At The Heart of Mature Masculinity is a Sense of Benevolent responsibility to Lead, Provide, and Protect women in ways Appropriate to a Man’s Differing Relationships. Maturing - we are in the process of accepting and executing our responsibilities and losing our “distortions”. Responsibility – We men bear the “unique and primary” responsibility, given to us by God, to exercise our role and responsibility to lead. As we “mature”, we are no longer to abdicate our God-given responsibilities to our wives 5

Marriage and Family Ministry Discussion Questions – What was: New Interesting Challenging Encouraging What helped? What, from Chapter 2, did you try to apply to your life? What, from Chapter 3, did you try to apply to your life? Your Feedback on the Questions I would like to get some feedback regarding the Question / Discussion Sheet. 6

Marriage and Family Ministry Goal for this session: “Biblical Womanhood” What does a “Mature/Maturing” female look like? What “Roles and Responsibilities”? 7

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a women's differing relationships. 8

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity is rooted in a commitment to Christ Jesus as Lord and is discerning in what it approves A Mature Woman: has a clear, Biblical vision of mature masculinity delights in it! gives space for the man for natural, pure, mature expression When he is not mature: She does not abandon her femininity – her femininity remains intact as a desire for things to be as God intended them to be (another’s actions should not dictate my responses – respond vs react: I respond when I am prepared) She recognizes that the natural expression of her womanhood will be hindered 9

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity We must make careful distinctions between distortions and God's original design. The mature and wise woman does not seek freedom by bending reality to fit her desires, but seeks to be transformed in the renewal of her desires to fit in with God's perfect will (Romans 12:2). Maturing - we are in the process of accepting and executing our design and losing our “distortions”. A significant aspect of femininity is a way of responding to the pattern of initiatives established by mature masculinity. Piper defines the heart of femininity with three responses of a woman to the strength and leadership of worthy men: affirm, receive and nurture. 10

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity the heart of femininity requests three responses of a woman to the strength and leadership of worthy men: affirm, receive and nurture. Affirm: declare one's support for; uphold or defend; accept or confirm the validity; encourage Mature women advocate (publicly support, recommend, plead on one's behalf) the kind of masculine-feminine complementarity that we are learning about Femininity is a disposition to affirm the strength and leadership of worthy men Submission is a disposition to yield to the husband's authority and inclination to follow his leadership - practical out working of affirmation` Piper shares the Biblical warrant for this definition is 1 Peter 3:1-6, whe a believing wife is married to an unbelieving husband. The text clearly teaches that she is to be submissive, but not in such a way that follows him in his unbelief. In fact, she is instructed how to get him to change, and be converted. The implication here is that her submission is not a de facto yielding to all that he says (since she has a higher allegiance to Jesus), but a disposition to yield and an inclination to follow. Her submission is a readiness to support his leadership wherever it does not lead to sin. 11

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity the heart of femininity requests three responses of a woman to the strength and leadership of worthy men: affirm, receive and nurture. Receive: to take delivery of; eat or drink (communion!); serve as a receptacle for; respond to in a specified way; welcome formally Mature femininity feels natural and glad to accept the strength and leadership of worthy men. Glad when an upright man: offers strength provides a pattern of appropriate initiatives in their relationship is NOT passive She feels herself enhanced and honored and freed by his strength and servant- leadership 12

Marriage and Family Ministry Mature Femininity the heart of femininity requests three responses of a woman to the strength and leadership of worthy men: affirm, receive and nurture. Nurture: the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone A Mature Women senses a responsibility not merely to receive, but to nurture and strengthen the resources of masculinity. She is to be his partner and assistant She joins in the act of strength She shares in the process of leadership She is "a helper suitable for him" Genesis 2:18 She brings nurturing strengths and insights that make men stronger and wiser She makes the relationship richer by having a nurturing disposition 13

Marriage and Family Ministry Will Living According to God’s Design Really Make a Difference? YES! Freeing Disposition: free because it accords with the truth of God's purpose in creation. It is the truth that frees (John 8:32). True freedom takes God's reality and God's purpose for creation into account and seeks to fit smoothly into God's good design. The greatest freedom is found in being so changed by God's Spirit that I can do what I love to do and know that it conforms to the design of God and leads to life and glory. (This looks different in each woman) “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a deeply satisfying gift of grace from a loving God who has the best interest of His creatures at heart. This is fulfilling in the deepest sense.” 14

Marriage and Family Ministry ...In Ways Appropriate to a Women's Differing Relationships... “Mature Femininity does not express itself in the same way toward every man. But she will affirm and receive and nurture the strength and leadership of men in some form in all her relationships with men. Regardless of the relationships in which a woman finds herself, mature femininity will seek to express itself in appropriate ways. 15

Marriage and Family Ministry A Prayer for Your Marriage: Teach me how to pray and make my prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love in me. Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way that is clearly perceived. May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Ro. 5:5). Make us a couple, not pursuing separate, competitive, or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each other’s faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the church. Help us to pursue the things, which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Ro. 14:19). May we be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1Cor. 1:10) 16