The Frame

For those familiar with the Diciplesplanet modus operandi on teaching, you will be aware that we always insist on looking at scripture through the three framing vehicles – lens, pivot point and bookends or if you prefer, content, context and canon.

All three are important to help us delve into the full Counsel of God and help us avoid the confirmational bias of ‘lens only proof texting’; you know the wielding a piece of Scripture to prove a point or attempt to hold a position. It’s a starting point, but in isolation it inevitably becomes problematic, especially when agendas of the ‘flesh’ are involved – i.e. pride, control, selfishness or worse. 

Yet there is one more important piece to the interpretive puzzle that whilst extra-Biblical it still has important weight, especially in exegetical reckonings – that is culture.

The Word of God is all sufficient, authoritative and infallible in all it speaks to both at creation and today, but one cannot ignore the culture and context of the original audience of the era in which the writing was deployed. 

We would argue that this is no more important than when we look at the subject matter of this particular article. 

Paul the Misogynist or God Leveling the Sound ‘Ministry’ Field?

Reading 1 Timothy 2:11–15 in Its Canonical Context

First Timothy 2:11–15 is among the New Testament’s most debated texts. Read in isolation (our lens only frame up), it can appear to offer a universal and comprehensive prohibition on women’s ministry; read within Paul’s pastoral purpose, the Ephesian setting, and the wider apostolic witness, it addresses the church’s need for truthful teaching, ordered worship, and holy perseverance. The concern is not the exclusion of women from discipleship or service, but the preservation of the gospel from error and self-assertive authority.

Paul’s wider charge to Timothy is decisive: Timothy has been left in Ephesus to confront those who teach “different doctrine” and occupy themselves with speculative myths rather than “God’s work—which is by faith” (1 Timothy 1:3–4). Thus, the instructions of chapter 2 arise within a community threatened by doctrinal instability. The apostle’s aim throughout the letter is that all believers may know “how one ought to behave in the household of God,” the church being “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). And as women are now fully included in this new Way (as the early church was known) this culturally new space for women was learning to be navigated in a previously culturally limited experience – Woman weren’t being limited, rather liberated.

Learning as Discipleship

Paul begins: “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness” (1 Timothy 2:11). The first and often overlooked command is that women are to learn. In the ancient world, where formal theological instruction was frequently limited by social convention, this is a significant affirmation of women as genuine disciples—persons to be instructed in the apostolic faith and equipped for mature Christian life – a Life that Paul affirms in other writings, especially the letter to the Ephesian Church, that means all coming to the fullness of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-14). As such this is also about all followers of Christ fulfilling the most important Kingdom posting as Ambassadors of this Kingdom

The accompanying language of quietness and submission should be read alongside Paul’s concern for peaceable worship and orderly conduct. Earlier in the chapter he calls the whole church to pray for a “peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1–2). The term translated “quietly” need not imply absolute silence; rather, it evokes a settled, non-disruptive posture receptive to God’s truth. The same quality is expected broadly within the Christian community, not imposed uniquely as an expression of female inferiority. 

Paul also hits this issue in his interactions with the fledging church in Corinth, where, again, women are being allowed into the church and are being exposed to learning, the same as men. The call for ‘silence’ indicated in this context is understood to be about order, not censorship or suppression. Some commentators have posited that woman would ask questions out loud and interrupt the teaching session and its important continuity process. Paul then gives a cultural and seasonally contextual commission (1 Corinthians 14:34-35) for woman to ask those questions at home and discuss them with more informed persons on these matters.

Authority, Teaching, and the Ephesian Crisis

Further into this article we are going to look at a strong Matriarchal undertow that heavily informed the region in which this fledgling Christian Church was planted and the very young male Pastor in charge of it. This was (as we’ll unfurl later on) culture where not only was a female deity worshipped, but where women were the dominant and arguably ruling class. New converts to Christianity from this culture would carry perspectives and postures that would need to be recalibrated, not for suppression, but for understanding Kingdom equality through humility and service. This new Kingdom is an upside-down and significantly different from the prevailing cultures into which it was sown.

Paul then writes, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet” (1 Timothy 2:12). This read alone as a lens appears to generate a simple and non-negotiable director. However, we also need to consider pivot points and bookends if we are going to really understand what is being communicated here.

For starters, whatever interpretive position one ultimately adopts—whether the restriction is understood as permanent for the office of elder or as a contextual prohibition prompted by the Ephesian situation—the text cannot responsibly be used to deny women’s full dignity in Christ, their obligation to learn, or (as mentioned earlier) their manifold participation in the church’s mission.

The disputed expression translated “exercise authority” (authentein) is rare in the New Testament, and its precise nuance is debated. It may carry a force stronger than ordinary, constructive leadership—such as seizing, dominating, or improperly wielding authority, which as hinted to before and will fully look at later, was the posture of the existing matriarchal culture. This kind of ‘authority’ is not the preferred posture of any leader in the Kingdom, female or male.  At minimum, Paul refuses teaching or authority that destabilises the church’s fidelity to apostolic doctrine. Blending gnostic myths and esoteric eisegesis to the Counsel of God was a real and present danger that was constantly monitored and challenged by the early church fathers.  The pastoral setting of false teaching in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3–7; 4:1–7; 6:3–5) remains essential to the interpretation process.

Creation, Fall, and Redemption

Paul grounds his reasoning in the creation and fall narratives: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Timothy 2:13–14; cf. Genesis 2:18–23; 3:1–13). His appeal does not imply that women are uniquely or inherently gullible; Scripture elsewhere holds Adam accountable for humanity’s sin and presents sin as entering the world through “one man” (Romans 5:12–19). Rather, Paul invokes the Genesis narrative as a theological warning against the disordering of God’s word and the destructive consequences of deception.

The difficult statement that “she will be saved through childbearing” (1 Timothy 2:15) cannot mean that motherhood earns salvation. Paul consistently teaches that salvation is received by grace through faith, not achieved by human works (Ephesians 2:8–9; Titus 3:4–7). The verse instead directs attention to persevering Christian faithfulness: salvation is associated with continuing “in faith and love and holiness, with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:15). Whether “childbearing” is read as a reference to the birth of Christ, to women’s preservation through ordinary vocation, or to the restoration of faithful womanhood amid the fall, the text explicitly centres enduring faith and holiness rather than meritorious achievement. 

Now if we add a cultural lens to these texts and what was happening at the time in that region and the perversions of Divine creative order by these Female deity worshipping gentiles and the culturally distorted Jewish women had to be addressed. The behavioural issues being carried into this new Kingdom by both heretical Jewish culture and dysfunctional Gentile practices that saw sex, the body and attending issues assault holiness and Kingdom propriety.

Equality in Christ and Diversity of Service

The broader Pauline ‘bookend’ writing prevents either a dismissive or reductionist reading of 1 Timothy 2. In Christ, ethnic status, social rank, and sex do not establish differing access to salvation or membership in God’s covenant family: “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26–28). This is not a flattening of embodied distinction, but a declaration of equal standing before God, equal inheritance in Christ and equal call to Ambassadorship of a new Kingdom.

Romans 16 further displays women labouring visibly in the life and mission of the early church. Phoebe is commended as a diakonos of the church at Cenchreae and as a benefactor of many, including Paul (Romans 16:1–2). Prisca is named alongside Aquila as Paul’s co-worker in Christ Jesus (Romans 16:3–5), while Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Persis, and Julia are each recognised within Paul’s network of ministry and labour (Romans 16:6, 12, 15). These greetings make it impossible to portray Paul as withdrawing women from meaningful, public, and sacrificial service including, it would appear teaching and even other Ascension Gift mantles, as outlined in Ephesians 4.

The New Testament likewise records Philip’s four unmarried daughters as women who prophesied (Acts 21:8–9) and whilst one may argue that extrapolating that they were ‘Prophets’ is too long a bow to draw, it remains none-the-less authoritative in its directing and instructing ministry to the Body of Christ.

Taken together with the expectation that women pray and prophesy in the gathered community (1 Corinthians 11:5), this evidence indicates that 1 Timothy 2 should be interpreted with precision, not used as a comprehensive ban on women speaking, praying, prophesying, serving, teaching in every setting, or exercising every form of spiritual leadership.

Ecclesial Order as Gospel Witness

The theological centre of the passage is neither male privilege nor female marginalisation. It is the church’s vocation to embody the truth of the gospel through reverent worship, sound teaching, moral integrity, and mutual service. Christian freedom is not self-authorisation; it is freedom to be formed by Christ and to use every gift for the building up of his body (1 Corinthians 12:4–7; Ephesians 4:11–16).

Accordingly, contemporary churches should approach 1 Timothy 2:11–15 with interpretive humility. Complementarian readers may discern an enduring restriction relating to the authoritative teaching office of elders, while egalitarian readers may see a time-bound pastoral prohibition directed toward false teaching and disruptive authority in Ephesus. Both readings are obliged to affirm the text’s explicit call to women’s theological formation, the equal saving status of women and men in Christ, and the New Testament’s clear testimony to women’s substantial service in the apostolic mission (1 Timothy 2:11–15; Galatians 3:26–28; Romans 16:1–16).

Amazon Tradition, Artemis, and the Ephesian Church

The connection between Amazons, Artemis, and Ephesus belongs primarily to the city’s foundational memory—a powerful religious and civic tradition rather than securely recoverable social history. That memory nevertheless lends itself to explaining why Artemis was central to Ephesian identity and why the rise of the Christian church there produced both theological tension and public disturbance.

Amazonian Foundation Traditions

Classical writers linked Ephesus and its Artemis sanctuary with the Amazons, the legendary warrior women of Greek tradition. Pausanias records that the exceptional honour paid to Ephesian Artemis was associated both with the antiquity of her sanctuary and with the tradition that Amazons dedicated her image. 

Other ancient traditions represented the Amazons as founders of either the city, the cult site, or both. A scholarly survey of the Ephesian foundation narratives notes that one stream depicts warrior Amazons as founders of Ephesus and its famous Artemis temple, while another attributes the city’s Greek foundation to Androclus during the Ionian migration. 

This distinction matters: historians should not speak of a demonstrably historical “Amazonian culture” ruling Ephesus in the first century. Rather, Ephesians preserved and displayed an Amazon-linked civic mythology which associated their city with female martial strength, sanctuary, and the goddess’s ancient protection.

Artemis of Ephesus

The Ephesian Artemis should not be simplistically equated with the better-known Greek huntress Artemis. Her cult had deep Anatolian roots and was closely associated with fertility, protection, abundance, childbirth, civic welfare, and the productive forces of life.

The Artemision was not merely a religious structure but a centre of civic identity, pilgrimage, wealth, craftsmanship, and regional prestige. Amazon traditions reinforced this identity: the legendary women were remembered as devotees, founders, or protectees of Artemis, and Amazon statues were associated with the sanctuary’s artistic and cultic memory.

Thus, the city’s devotion to Artemis was not an incidental religious preference. Artemis embodied Ephesus’s claim to antiquity, divine favour, economic vitality, and cultural significance in Asia Minor – and all this promoting and sustaining a strong matriarchal culture and feminine dominance.  Remember this is the place where a young male Pastor was now running a fledgling church, trying to lead a class of women who are used to being in charge. 

Acts and the Artemis Riot

Acts 19 portrays Paul’s ministry in a city where conversion to Christ challenged an entrenched religious economy. Demetrius, a silversmith who produced shrines of Artemis, incited fellow artisans because Paul’s proclamation threatened both their trade and the goddess’s public magnificence (Acts 19:23–27).

The crowd’s cry— “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”—expressed more than private piety; it was a defence of Ephesian civic identity (Acts 19:28, 34). The city clerk identifies Ephesus as neokoros, commonly translated “temple-warden” or guardian of Artemis’s temple and sacred image (Acts 19:35), a title whose local relevance is widely recognised in scholarship.

Luke therefore presents the gospel as confronting idolatry not only at the level of personal belief, but also where worship sustains social honour, collective memory, and economic power. This is seismic and whilst necessary, not clearly appreciated by those whose existential anchor is being destroyed. The issue was not that Christians rejected women, fertility, or civic order; it was that they confessed the one living God and refused to grant Artemis divine status, as it did all other counterfeit contenders for divine dominance. (Acts 19:26; cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10).

The Church’s Pastoral Context

Paul’s later correspondence to Timothy appears to address a church still ministering amid this religiously charged environment. Timothy was instructed to oppose alternative teaching in Ephesus and to cultivate a community marked by prayer, peace, godliness, sound doctrine, and ordered conduct (1 Timothy 1:3–7; 2:1–2; 3:14–15). Some Bible commentators explicitly situate 1 Timothy 2:11–15 alongside Romans 16:1–16 and Galatians 3:26–28, inviting the passage to be read within the wider Pauline witness to women’s discipleship, co-labour, and equal standing in Christ. 

Whist this setting may illuminate—but cannot by itself settle—the debates surrounding 1 Timothy 2:11–15. The church was proclaiming that women, as well as men, must learn the apostolic faith (1 Timothy 2:11); that salvation rests in Christ rather than in deity, ritual, ancestry, fertility, or social status (Galatians 3:26–28); and that Christian women could be recognised as valued co-workers in the mission of the church (Romans 16:1–16). 

The Epilogue

As earlier indicated the interpretive tool of culture whilst legitimate, is still subservient to context, content and cannon of Scripture. Thus, the Amazon-Artemis tradition provides a useful backdrop for understanding the cultural world surrounding the Ephesian church, but it must not become a speculative master-key for interpreting Paul. I want to note here too, that neither Acts nor 1 Timothy explicitly identifies a surviving Amazon movement as the source of false teaching, and the evidence more securely establishes Artemis’s pervasive civic and religious importance than a direct Amazonian programme within the Christian congregation.

The theological contrast is nonetheless clear. Artemis was celebrated as Ephesus’s guardian and glory; the Christian proclamation identified the church as “God’s household,” called to uphold the truth of the gospel (1 Timothy 3:15). Where Ephesian identity rested in a sacred image and its ancient cultic memory, the church’s identity rested in the crucified and risen Christ, whose saving grace creates one covenant people without regard to sex, ethnicity, or social rank (Galatians 3:26–28). 

In this light, the Ephesian church was not called to erase women’s gifts or deny the social realities of embodied life. It was called to form women and men alike as faithful disciples, to resist deceptive teaching, and to embody a holy, ordered, Christ-centred alternative to the religious narratives that had long defined the city (1 Timothy 2:11–15; Romans 16:1–16).

This is the Kingdom – This is the culture and it was never meant to be about you or me, and our positional significance. Rather it is all about the only Hope for humanity, the Incarnated God, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our significance is in that relationship with our Heavenly Father and the restored communion with our Creator. If that is the focus and goal of your Discipleship journey, your service and impact will not only be ‘not in vain’ but have eternal weight and impact that the Saviour will one day declare the only validation we need…. ‘Well done good and faithful servant’.

Shane Varcoe – Disciplesplanet 

Further Reading:

•  Equality GOD’S Way – The Surrendered Servant Club 
• Emma Dryer: Visionary Bible Scholar & Kingdom Architect

Endnotes

• https://throughtheword.org/
• https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=4:chapter=31:section=8
• https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/electrum/article/die-grundung-von-ephesos-im-spiegel-der-literarischen-uberlieferung
• https://www.bsw.org/biblica/vol-90-2009/artemis-and-asiarchs-some-remarks-on-ephesian-local-colour-in-acts-19/23/
• https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/sidebar/the-riot-at-ephesus-acts-1923-41/
• https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Ephesus
• https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/34893/day/248?segment=0

John Newton’s life is a long, defiant fist shaken at God that finally collapses into open-handed, wholehearted surrender. 

Trials and rebellion

Torn from a godly mother and thrown early into the brutal world of the sea, Newton repeatedly hardened himself through flogging, humiliation, near-starvation, and brushes with death. Press-ganged into the navy, publicly whipped, and later reduced to “less than a slave” under a slave trader’s African mistress, he responded not with repentance but with deeper blasphemy, sensuality, and sneering unbelief.

Idolatry and moral descent

Love for Mary Catlett became his “precious” idol, driving rash desertion, lies, and the sacrifice of conscience to ambition and romance. Even after his first “conversion” in the storm, he clung to other idols—sex, success in the slave trade, and later even his adoration of Mary—treating God as a distant potentate to be appeased rather than a Lord to be obeyed.

Crises that broke him

Storms at sea, terrifying fevers in Africa, the despairing death of Job Lewis (whom Newton himself had once “de-converted”), and repeated brushes with shipwreck and mutiny forced him to see the wreckage of a life spent fighting God. On a West African shore, between palm trees and surf, and later in the heaving dark of an Atlantic storm, reading the same book that influenced the great evangelist John Wesldy – ‘The Imitation of Christ’ – his defiance finally cracked into desperate, honest prayer for mercy. 

From partial to total surrender

Years of slow, stumbling growth followed: he left the sea, took a lowly customs job, drank in evangelical preaching, and fought through a seven-year struggle for ordination while his pride and “respectable” idols were stripped away. At Olney and then in London, the one-time “old African blasphemer” became a pastor of the poor, mentor to reformers like Wilberforce, and a tireless herald of grace, calling himself to the end a ‘wretch’.

“I am not what I ought to be… yet, though I am not what I ought to be… I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan… by the grace of God I am what I am.” John Newton

For more John Newton – Amazingly Graced (Christian History Institute) 

by Disicplesplanet 

In compiling and writing this brief foray into the life of one of the perhaps, most understated and sublime missionary architects in the modern era, I’m reminded of a quote by Mother F. Cabrini who when advised that her missionary endeavours were impossible not only because they were too big, but that she was too physically frail. When challenged by Pope Leo XIII she reportedly responded… “one can serve one’s weakness or one can serve one’s purpose, one cannot do both.”  Later in her ministry Mother Frances X. Cabrini wrote. 

“They who pray with faith have fervour and fervour is the fire of prayer. This mysterious fire has the power of consuming all our faults and imperfections, and of giving to our actions, vitality, beauty and merit.” 

Coming from a very poor small convent in Italy, her physical fragility was paired with a dearth in finances, but these three seemingly disqualifying factors are not hurdles to people who believe in Christ alone.  Further on in her vision for ministry (she longed to start in China but was instead sent to New York city) was a global call. In fact, the story goes that Pope Leo XIII used this seemingly impossible global mandate, to redirect Mother Cabrini from her passion for China to the west, by stating that ‘if her mission was worldwide, then it would not matter where she started.’. 

So, undaunted she launched the health and well-being work that globally is now named after her. 

“We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend upon material success . . . but on Jesus alone.”   Frances Xavier Cabrini

Robert Jaffray’s was too confronted by a physical fragility (being diabetes and a poor heart) but that was where the similarities ended. 

Jaffray was heir apparent to a media empire with the flagship being the Toronto Globe. He was from a wealthy family, with privilege and access to finances only dreamed of my Mother Cabrini.

A most famous biography of R.A. Jaffray’s life was written by A. W. Tozer, but Jaffray himself was a writer. Though no known well know books, he was a prolific writer which included editorial oversight and content contributions of multiple publications such as "South China Alliance Tidings" and "The Pioneer". 

An anecdote referred to one of the many writings from Jaffray had circulated for many a year (though the official source of the text has not been specified). It revolves around a job offer from a huge Oil conglomerate, and the exchange reported went as follows:

Standard Oil Company offered him a job to go to China for the Standard Oil Company of New York. They offered him a huge salary. He said, "No, thank you."

They doubled the salary. Again, he replied ‘No thank you’. They finally sent him a message, we want you to work for us…"Jaffrey, at any cost." He supposedly replied with one line, "Your salary is big, your job is too small."

Even if this is not a true account, merely a patched together anecdote, it still reflects the man’s call and utter surrender to the will, purpose and mission of Heaven – and money did not figure into this.

So, to be clear in the outset of this piece; it is clear and in concert with the quotes above, it is not frailty or resources that determine the ultimate impact and influence of the Kingdom of Heaven (or not) but on Jesus alone.

His media CEO father, it was said, was relatively indifferent to faith, but his mother Sarah was a serious follower of Christ, and evidently a significant influence in his journey.

After resisting his fathers repeated and increasingly insisting demands that his son, Robert abandoned his idea of overseas missions and conceding only that his son could take up leadership in the Presbyterian church, Robert would not be swayed. He went to New York and joined A.B. Simpsons Alliance School. This was a missionary training institute for lay people that would become a cornerstone for the later emerging Christian & Missionary Alliance movement.

Jaffray’s father was incensed, and such was his opposition to his son becoming an overseas missionary, he cut off all finances – Jaffray had to ‘tent make’ to be trained. 

Momentum

Robert Alexander Jaffray would become a trailblazing missionary, educator, writer, and leader whose legacy shaped Christian missions across China, Southeast Asia, and beyond during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is important in this brief introduction that his life was signposted not only by relentless adherence to call and obedience to the Great Commission, but also by the vision, sacrifice, and the love of unreached peoples that saw this inexorable pursuit of spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven 

Missionary Work Begins - China

Jaffray arrived in Wuzhou, Guangxi, China in 1897 as one of the first C&MA missionaries from Canada. Leading the Alliance’s efforts in South China for over three decades, he established the Wuzhou Bible School, which later became the Alliance Bible Seminary in Hong Kong. He edited the influential Chinese-language Bible Magazine, which was read by Chinese communities around the world, and also contributed extensively through publications such as the Bible Messenger. Jaffray emphasized the need for both evangelistic outreach and systematic discipleship, believing that true church strength came from training and empowering local believers.

He was not merely a ‘desk jockey’ evangelist as so many ‘influencers’ are today. Jaffray went before he sent and consequently opened up greater fields including into regions controlled by bandits – of which he said were truly ‘wicked men’. However, this label was not merely a pejorative or judgemental one, it was a correct assessment of the souls of this lost people and one only his Lord and Saviour could remedy. He did not run from, but too this space.

One such journey saw Jaffray, and his cohort bailed up by said bandits, and they demanded money for them to pass. Apparently, Robert launched boldly into a monologue of how the bandits should be funding his important work, as they were cash strapped servants. His fluent Chinese and knowledge of culture along with this boldness and unabashed faith actually won him some favour with this ‘wicked’ cohort. 

Even though the event escalated into a kidnapping demanding a ransom, respect was shown to Jaffray and his team. They were reported marched into the mountains in gruelling hike that even the bandits found difficult, and one which Jaffray sensed in his physical frailty, that he would not endure.

However, he not only endured, by his health somewhat improved. 

In the end, the bandits sent Robert to get and return with the ransom. 

Miracles, Might and Missionary Advancement

The Gospel of Mark in chapter 16 we see that ‘Signs and wonders will accompany and follow the preaching of the Word of God’ and Jaffray had faith to just that end. However, this remarkable faith was also harnessed by his “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which he described as bringing a deeper love for and understanding of Scripture, as well as greater boldness in witnessing and preaching – His faith, calling and characters, was supercharged

Many healings were experienced, and the journalling of answered prayer was common. In fact, this was expected as part and parcel of doing His King’s missionary work. He regarded healings as a sign of the Spirit’s power and evidence in the battle against darkness, integral to gospel advancement.

Just one story he told was about a Chinese convert in one of their growing teams who prayed for a raving lunatic chained up by villagers. Despite danger, this colporteur’s prayer led to the man’s healing, which opened the village to the Gospel.

He also noted a revival among missionaries in Wuchow, South China, where some received the gift of speaking in tongues along with this empowering anointing, seeing it as burdened with responsibility for evangelism.

Under Jaffray’s leadership, the mission work continued to expand in and beyond China further into Southeast Asia. This was done despite political and cultural obstacles, including French colonial opposition in Vietnam and the challenges of Southeast Asian outreach – more on this later.

As always, Jaffray was not moved or motivated simply by a need and certainly was not daunted by lack of resources or opposition. He was moved by a spiritual vision that compelled him to extend missions into the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), sending Chinese missionaries there despite lack of resources all resulting in a rapidly growing mission.

Mission Ministry Expands 

In 1916, Jaffray initiated C&MA’s first Protestant mission in French Indochina (now Vietnam), convincing the French colonial authorities to allow Gospel preaching and organizing extensive translation, printing, and distribution of Bibles and religious literature in multiple languages. He travelled widely with his wife Minnie, establishing churches and training centres, and advocated for the autonomy and self-leadership of the Chinese church and missions. By the late 1920s, he surveyed opportunities for Christian work in the East Indies (Indonesia), and in 1931 moved with his family to Makassar, Celebes (now Sulawesi, Indonesia), further setting up and supervising a growing mission field.

Movement – Mission – Mantle

Indigenous Mission Movement and Leadership Philosophy

Jaffray’s strategic vision and success was owed to his clear surrender to and infilling of the God of the Mission and the very important caveat of the need to train and equip indigenous churches, with indigenous leaders.

All this culminated in the founding of the Chinese Foreign Missionary Union (CFMU) in 1929, the first Chinese missionary society aimed at sending missionaries to Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and beyond. Importantly, and true to his vision and call, Jaffray declined the presidency of this agency, insisting it be led by Chinese Christians such as Dr. Rev. Leland Wang Zai and Rev. Wilson Wang Zhi, whom he mentored as principal evangelists and leaders. 

His principle was to empower indigenous leadership for long-term self-sustaining mission impact.

Personal Integrity, Courage, and Legacy

As we have read in this short mini bio of Jaffray’s missionary career, it was marked by episodes of personal danger, and enduring harsh conditions, yet he consistently demonstrated courage and faith. 

A key to this was that Robert always believed missions was a form of spiritual warfare and recounted many cases of prayer and healing that broke spiritual barriers in unreached areas. This is the Gospel of The Kingdom, as the Author and Perfector of our faith called it. Jaffray was not just seeking converts and even disciples, but birthing and training Kingdom Ambassadors to shift culture that recalibrates the ‘wicked’. This was a calling that all wannabe disciples of Christ have on their lives. Jaffray understood the words of his Lord as recorded in John 12

²⁴Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.

As such his surrendered servant leadership extended to the establishment of Sunday schools, Bible institutes, and the fostering of nearly self-supporting churches.

Influence and Commemoration

In 1942, during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Jaffray was arrested and interned by the Japanese military. He suffered harsh conditions in various camps before dying in 1945 of illness and malnutrition—shortly before the Japanese surrender.

Such was the breadth and depth of the man, not just his ministry that the renowned Pastor, leader and Author, A.W. Tozer Jaffray’s chronicled Jaffray’s story in the biography Let my people go!: The life of Robert A. Jaffray. His legacy lives on through the institutions he founded, the Chinese missionary movement he catalysed, and the thousands of lives touched across Asia. He is remembered as a visionary strategist, statesman, and devoted servant to the cause of Christ.

Shane W. Varcoe – Disciplesplanet

End Notes

• Jaffray, Robert Alexander | BDCC
• Biography of Robert Alexander Jaffray: Founder of "The Bible" newspaper - China Christian Daily
• Unwavering Faith: Robert, Minnie, and Margaret Jaffray | The Alliance Canada | The Alliance Canada
• It Happened Today | Christian History Institute
• Dr. Robert Jaffray, Missionary publisher - Light Magazine
• CMR - JAFFRAY Robert - Sojourn in Mission - FINAL

“When we look to find, or create, or even demand equality, we often look to erase or remove exclusivity or assignments or even standards and expectations. All which just diminish an perceived role or status worthy of pursuit. 

It may be believed that these are wrong, if not that, then an impediment (perceived or real) to a status and/or identity one believes should be attainable. 

Our Creator God instead, by contrast to this ‘diminishing’, raises a standard for this longed-for equality. In fact, He not only positions Himself with this space, but invests in this posture so completely, enabling all who so choose, to be equally blessed. 

Isaiah 64:4 and Isaiah 57:15 discloses that secret. 

• “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those [the ones] who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4 NLT)
• The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this:
  “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.”  (Isaiah 57: 15 NLT)

You will notice it is about a person, not a potential, capacity, status, role or even a gender. It is the person, the individuals who wait with a humble, contrite, surrendered and repentant hearts that the King of heaven leans into and ‘favours’.

This attraction is of nothing less than the nature, character and person of God with you. That is the ultimate equality and even preferred status, that can never be eclipsed by anything in all creation, including capricious, controlling, manipulative or oppressive human beings in whatever stations they may hold.

Shane Varcoe – Disciplesplanet (June 2024)

A very famously used parable of Jesus that is pretty much standard fare in charismatic Pentecostal denominations particularly, is the parable of New Wine in New Wine Skins.

In Chapter 9 of his Gospel, Matthew gives it shorter ‘airtime’ than other writers, but again, he records it in his own uniquely Spirit led way. The Amplified puts verse 17 like this…

 Nor is new wine put into old wineskins [that have lost their elasticity]; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the [fermenting] wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is placed into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.

To the audience this was delivered to (and anyone familiar with wine fermentation process in pre-barrel days) understood this quite well. The standard and correct interpretation of this parable was about the New Order Jesus was ushering in, and that when this Spirit led and filled Way was embraced, it could not be housed in dry, dead, and ritualistic religion – they will just be incompatible and in the end, both will be ruined. 

Getting wisdom on this was vital, and Jesus was setting them up to understand this to better accommodate what was coming.

However, I want to focus a little more on the prefacing, and I would argue, segue to this New Order promotion.

This parable opens with a genuine scripture-based question about a God endorsed process of fasting, and specifically about the fact that Jesus disciples did not seem to do it. A reasonable question from a truly Kingdom focused group – John the Baptist disciples.

Jesus, I think (and I am very aware of the care I need to take in positing this as to not try and make the parable say more than it is) again, is using His gracious ‘bridging’ instructions to help those genuine Old Testament followers of God get what’s happening and step forward into it. 

For the most part the religious leaders had no desire at all to accommodate, or even acknowledge the new order, and trying to ‘mix’ those two was utterly futile.

However, the ‘patching’ analogy employed in verse 16 is not as proscriptive as the wine skin analogy. 

Jesus, again, uses a wedding feast analogy and refers to himself as The Bridegroom. As such, he does not dismiss fasting as a practice – the indication is that when He has left, this discipline will be important – but whilst he is here, we are celebrating the birth of a new order and trying to winnow out the religious chaff of ritual and performance from important principles of relationship and service.

I want to note again that in the following conjecture, I am being careful to tease out a potential genuine point, not read in a particular idea.

Jesus makes a statement that all his listeners would both be familiar with and understand. It is a ‘matter of fact’ statement. Anyone who has a clue does not take nice new fabric to repair an old wearing out garment, it will not only look out of place, but in time it will make the garment worse. But here’s the kicker, He wasn’t decrying the process of patching. 

Jesus also understood the majority of people in the culture could not just throw out a tired garment, particularly an outer garment such as a cloak (which most commentators believe the garment referred to was). You would try and patch it to make it last as long as possible only until you could get a new one. 

Now to the issue of ‘worn out’ settings and leadership.

When it comes to tired and failing churches, ministries or programs, there are always several options on what is needed. One can ‘reset,’ which is often the new wine skin or the new coat. The old is simply done away with. Of course, anyone reading this with any history in church life knows just how painful for all that process can be – the hurt, the grief, the pride, the anger, and the sense of failure. 

I’m reminded here of Isaiahs words about the Messiah, quoted by Matthew a little later in chapter 12 verse 20… “A battered reed He will not break, and a smouldering wick He will not extinguish…” Jesus will always create, prescribe, and implement best Kingdom practice but with grace and mercy.

Anyway, I digress. The thought I wish us to consider here is that if patching is required – leadership, program, or ministry – then great care is needed in how this is done.

1. It must be fit for purpose – adequate size and weight for the setting. Remember this is not an erase and start again, it’s a repair in hope of extension and interim sustainability.
2. Is it the right ‘fabric’ – by that I mean, the right colour, shape, and texture. If it is new bright coloured fabric it ends up standing out because it is looking new and fresh and consequentially drawing one’s eye to it. But these repairs are not fit for service. Often inexperienced, energetic, and sadly, wanting to make a name for oneself leaders or even ideas are bought in to ‘have their 15 seconds of fame’, but actually make the situation worse.
3. This repairing patch must be of similar fabric, but also worn in a bit – if you like, a humble fit for a humble setting. It does not draw attention to itself. It is not the highlight, it is not the focus, it is not the garment, merely a repair; important, but not the goal. 

Of course, running out the parable’s intent will still mean that in time, the new garment and new wineskin must be had, but for those, like Johns disciples and those of Apollos who had not yet encountered the fullness of the Spirit, still need a ‘cloak of righteousness’ (if you like) to cover – a patched one is better than none at all.

Again, take care as you read and consider this borrowing of a parable to bring out another potential point of church care and maintenance – it is a personal reflection and not a doctrinal prescription. 

Humbly serve where you are, with what you have, but always – always, seek to be renewed and always be prepared to surrender that which is unhelpful to the New Order of Christ’s Kingdom. 

Shane Varcoe – Disciplesplanet 

“Why does God want His servants to be baptized with the Spirit of knowledge, wisdom and understanding?

The Bible explains that while God plans to bless all the nations (Gen.12:3; 18:18; 22:18 etc.), Satan is out to deceive the nations of the earth (Rev. 20:3,8). The Lord Jesus came to se us from by giving us the knowledge of the truth. He said, ‘If you abide in My Word… you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 ESV)

Anti-intellectualism spread in evangelical churches partly because Reformation slogans such as “by faith alone” and “by Scripture alone” were misunderstood. In saying “by faith alone,” the Reformers meant that salvation could not be earned by human religiosity. They knew that knowledge sand understanding were preconditions of faith. Likewise, “by Scripture alone” meant that when tradition conflicted with Scripture, Christians were to abide by the Scriptures. The Reformers asserted the necessity of cultivating the mind and using reason in our search for truth. In his trial before the Diet of Worms (1522), Luther stated that he could no recant unless “the Scriptures and plain reason” convinced him.

Is salvation by faith alone? Jesus asked people to “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15.). Repentance involves turning from what is false to what is true see 1 Thess 1:9). Jesus calls humanity to worship God in spirit as well as in truth (John 4:23) Paul asked Timothy to instruct his opponents gently “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25).

Anti-intellectualism become acceptable because many Protestants forgot that Jesus came not simply to take our souls to heaven but also to give us the knowledge of the truth:

• God wants all men to be save and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim.2:4)
• [Christians are those] who believe and who know the truth brought up in the truths of the faith. (1 Tim.4:3,6)

In embracing antirational mysticism, the secular world is reaping the consequences of the church’s error – that of focusing on faith and the gifts of the Spirit and leaving the field of knowledge in the hands of unbelievers. This happened in part because some Christians were deceived by the secular idea that the human mind was a part of “the flesh.” Therefore, they assumed that the mind had to be crucified. 

However, the apostle Paul claimed, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12). He declared that he was “an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth” (Titus 1:1). The Letter to the Hebrews says Christians are those who “have received the knowledge of the truth” (Heb. 10:26). James commands us to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5). Peter says that knowledge is the source of grace, peace, godliness, and effectiveness: 

“May grace and peace b multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His diving power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through, the knowledge of Him who called us…. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge…These qualities…keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:2-8 ESV)

The Renaissance and the Reformation created the modern world of inquiry, discovery, and knowledge because the Word of God taught medieval Christians (including the Reformers) that both our salvation and godliness required growing in knowledge.

• Ephesians 1:7-9
• Colossians 1:9-10
• Colossians 2:2
• Philemon 1:6
• Ephesians 4:13
• Philippians 1:9
• Colossians 3:10

The Scriptures talk about spiritual understanding and wisdom because there is no such thing as nonspiritual wisdom and understanding.  Humans have understanding because we are spiritual beings. By definition, machines, chemicals, and animals are incapable of understanding abstract concepts. 

Knowing and fearing God is not an otherworldly, “spiritual” matter. It is the beginning of wisdom. It is the key to a healthy national life. When Judah was about to go into captivity, Jeremiah said to them: “[King Josiah] defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that no what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 22:16).

So, what does that imply?

Isaiah 53:11 says that by His knowledge God’s righteous servant will justify many. For a hundred years now, the church has been growing in many nations, yet the same nations are degenerating in many critical ways. This is because the church has been offering justification without knowledge of truth. We have turned salvation into a shallow religious experience that converts but does not “make disciples of nations” (Matt 28:19).

• The Lord Jesus, however, calls us to make people His apprentices, those who would learn from Him and the Father:
• “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:29).
• “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns rom Him comes to me.” (John 6:45)

The Reformation transformed the West because it made Europeans learners, the Bible their textbook, and Jesus their Supreme Teacher. The choice before our generation is either to seek the knowledge of God once again or to slide into an abyss of pagan ignorance, corruption, and slavery. The Word of God commands us in Proverbs 4:5-8 to

“Get wisdom, get understanding…. Wisdom is supreme; therefor get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honour you.”

Recovery and pursuit of wisdom, understanding, and the knowledge of truth is the key to a new reformation because the postmodern intelligentsia knows that it does not know and cannot know the truth. Deception has to rely on force. It has to enslave, destroy. Intellectual and moral slavery is deceptively called “political correctness.” This moral and semantic jugglery is similar to what pagans always do. For example, they try to make prostitution sacred by calling male and female prostitutes ‘gods and goddesses.’ While deceptive words enslave, the truth liberates. It empowers people by giving them genuine reasons to live and act in ways that are true, good, and beautiful. That is why the Ten Commandments begin by commanding us to believe and worship the one who is true.

Vishal Mangalwadi

Further Reading and listening. 

• The New Totalitarian ‘Creep’ – And No, We Are Not Referring to Him…  
• What Makes a Nation Stand Up and Out?  
• Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: A World Split Apart  
• Post-Truth Culture (short podcast) 

Excerpt from Truth and Transformation: A Manifestation for Ailing Nations (pages 128-132) by Vishal Mangalwadi Copyright © 2009 Vishal Mangalwadi, YWAM Publishing.)   

"Crushed beneath the grinding hell of Communism, Lithuania's Catholic Christians determined to make the West aware of their plight. On March 19th 1972 they began to publish a journal - The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, documenting governmental abuses against the Church. Examples include a 70 year old woman sentenced to a year in prison for teaching children the Lord's Prayer and the sending of a man to a psychiatric prison for making a Cross."  (This Day in Christian History)

This many volume Chronicle was a voice in the silent and oppressive darkness that is communism in all it's forms. The 'socialist spectrum' will always have varying degrees of animosity to the Church, as the Church is the collection of those who believe in an ultimate power and authority that is not the State. 

Totalitarianism in all it's flavours - Left or Right of politics - cannot permit an influence, an authority, a power that diminishes, undermines or in any way detracts from the State.

Arguably, the 'father' of this new term was Italian Fascist, Mussolini whose defining statement became the State mantra, “Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato” (Everything for the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.)

In his outstanding book 'Live Not By Lies - A Manual for Christian Dissidents', Author Rod Dreher succinctly and in-depth outlines much of the conduct behind this Totalitarian badge and how it is playing out today in the so called progressive West.

The following excerpt: 

"It is difficult for people raised in the free world to grasp the breadths and depth of lying required simply to exist under communism. All the lies, and lies about lies, that formed the communist order were built on the basis of this foundational lie: 'the communist state is the sole source of truth.'  Orwell said in Nineteen Eighty-Four: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

Under the dictatorship of Big Brother, the Part understands that by changing language - Newspeak is the Party's word for the jargon it imposes on society - it controls the categories in which people think. "freedom" is slavery, "truth" is falsehood, and so forth. Doublethink - "Holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and excepting both of them" - is how people learn to submit their minds to the Party's ideology. If the Party says 2+2=5, then it is so. The goal is to convince the person that all truth exists within the mind, and the rightly ordered mind believes whatever the Party says is true.

In our time, we do not have an all-powerful State forcing this on us. This dictatorship is far more subtle. under 'soft totalitarianism', the media, academia, corporate culture, and others institutions are practicing Newspeak and compelling the rest of us to engage in doublethink everyday - Men have periods. The woman standing in front of your is to be called "he." Diversity and inclusion means excluding those who object to ideological uniformity. Equity means treating persons unequally, regardless of their skills and achievements, to achieve an ideologically correct result. 

To update the Orwell line to our own situation: "The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."  (pp 14-15) 

(See Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Identity - Video)

The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania was a bold and arguably, seminal type in challenging the oppressive totalitarianism the Church was subject to. It was a voice in the oppressive darkness that was heard. A voice we need no less today.

Go to The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania 

"People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."
 

Professor D.A. Carson

Dr. Robert Clinton posited that "Leadership is influence!" John Maxwell declared... "everything rises and falls on leadership!" These axioms seem ostensibly true, but the key here is to define the term 'leadership'.

Certainly in a performance based and productivity focused culture, this word has a number of definitions and even more connotations, however what needs to be some of our keys for defining the quality of the 'leader'? On what terms, patterns and models should we be focusing to determine this?

What do you think? Let us know!