Theological vision is the goal of the Charis Symposium. In his 1993 book The Fabric of Theology, Richard Lints describes theological vision as the effort “to capture the entire counsel of God as revealed in the Scriptures and to communicate it in a conceptuality that is native to the theologian’s own age.” Such a theological vision, Lints says, will further shape how we think and live. To use the language of the Charis Fellowship, we might say that theological vision is the means by which biblical truth shapes our biblical relationships and biblical mission.
The Charis Symposium launched in 2021 as a forum for substantive, irenic, and constructive theological dialogue. Such dialogue seeks to edify rather than criticize, to unify rather than to divide. We have created a three-year process for developing theological vision with regard to a particular topic: year one, exegesis of key texts; year two, broader theological considerations; and year three, practical application.
The topic of our first three-year cycle, which has now been completed, was Gender and Sexual Identity. On this topic alone, we had 17 contributors from across our Fellowship who wrote and presented 29 papers over the course of 15 hours to approximately 150 attendees at the Charis Fellowship Conference. Those papers are currently being compiled into a book. This work does not speak officially on behalf of our Fellowship, but we nevertheless hope that it will serve as an ongoing resource for us all.
At the Charis Fellowship Conference in 2023, we presented our first year of work on our second topic, Gender Roles in Church Leadership, which included 11 additional exegetical papers and nearly 200 people in attendance. This strong interest reflects the importance of the topic for our Fellowship, where we want to see all people serve God to their fullest potential in accordance with God’s will. Therefore, our title seeks to expand our discussion beyond simply what limitations exist for women in order to develop a broader theological vision of the ministry opportunities and boundaries afforded by Scripture to both men and women based on their gender.
At the time of this writing, we have 16 contributors working hard on year-two theological papers for the 2024 Charis Symposium. We will be considering important questions such as the roles women undertake in Scripture, the disqualifications of leaders, the definition of elders and deacons, what it means to preach, spiritual gifts related to gender, and our Fellowship’s history on this topic. We expect the time to be fascinating, stimulating, edifying, and unifying.
The Charis Symposium may be the most collaborative and substantial theological project our Fellowship has ever attempted in its history — or at least in the 20 years I have served as a Charis Fellowship pastor! We are deeply grateful to those who have created, led, and supported it, including Phil Sparling, the executive team, and the Fellowship Council. We are grateful to our contributors who volunteer their labor of study and writing as a service to our Fellowship. We are grateful to all who have attended and who have helped foster a collegial attitude of growing together.
Most of all, we are thankful to God, who has revealed himself through His Word. May we continue growing in theological vision, so that our passion for biblical truth will continually shape for the better our pursuit of biblical relationships and biblical mission in our world.
Written by Adam Copenhaver for the Year in Review 2023–2024. Adam serves as the lead pastor at Grace Church of Mabton in southern Washington. Adam has biblical degrees from four schools and has a passion for preaching and teaching God’s Word in an understandable and relatable way in the local church. He has been married to his wife, Susie, for 23 years and together they have two children.