Thanks, Brandon. It's good to see the conference through your eyes. My impression is that Moody (and Piper) tends to highlight "the sufficiency of proclamation" whereas Catalyst tends to highlight "the necessity of contextualization and incarnating the gospel."

Both groups would say it's not either/or, but there seems to be a definite difference in emphasis. Right?

The important thing for diversity (racially) for Moody is that they are committed to the city. They are in the city, most people that attend the church live in the city. Moody Bible Institute is very committed to being in the city. Chicago is about 60 percent minority city. So it should be more diverse. Catalyst has always been held in a suburb, most of which are primarily white. I think this is a good example of committing. If you are committed to the city you will be diverse.

The important thing for diversity (racially) for Moody is that they are committed to the city. They are in the city, most people that attend the church live in the city. Moody Bible Institute is very committed to being in the city. Chicago is about 60 percent minority city. So it should be more diverse. Catalyst has always been held in a suburb, most of which are primarily white. I think this is a good example of committing. If you are committed to the city you will be diverse.

Wow. Way to make your point with a sledgehammer, Piper.

Racially diverse? Sound Doctrine? Not a bad start. We have a tendency to criticize imperfection and fail to recognize and reward the good.

I wouldn't blame Piper for his comments-Moody's pastor's conference is men only. I for one, have no problem with that. For too long we've separated the church through things like "junior Church" women's Bible studies, etc. There are very few if any activities that are men only in the local churches, unless you're talking about the board of trustees-you know, the guys who mow the grass, shovel snow, etc.

Mark:
Great line about "men only" roles in the church--like mowing grass and shoveling snow. We should start a ministry for such men. We could call it "Premise Keepers."

Juan:
Glad you liked it-your response was genius, one of those "I wish I'd thought of that" moments.

Unfortunately, I suspect Dwight L Moody is probably turning in his grave over the decision to prevent women from attending the conference, or from being pastors for that matter. In fact in the late 1880s Moody led the pack in providing women "with training to preach, enter the pastorate and teach Bible." (Pierce, 41) Moody himself invited Francis Willard to preach in his Boston evangelistic campaign (Tucker, 273). "MBI women openly served as pastors, evangelists, pulpit supply preachers, Bible teachers and even in the ordained ministry." (Pierce, 41)

Nor is the issue one of having men-only events, which are fine. The issue is one of excluding women from leadership functions.

While I applaud Moody for their racial diversity--this is clearly a much-needed step for the evangelical church--I believe Moody himself would have deplored the backward step of excluding women. As Micah said, Piper is making his point with a sledgehammer, but it wasn’t Moody’s point at all.

This discussion needs some context. Piper was addressing a group of pastors, at a pastor's conference that was men-only. The females in attendance, from what I could tell, were pastor's wives who had accompanied their husbands, and some Moody students. When Piper said, "Brothers", I don't think he was making a statement of whether or not women should be ordained-he was simply speaking to his audience, the vast majority of whom were men.
I suppose if you go looking for "isms" (racism, sexism, etc.) you'll find it.

One of my friends struggled with attending this conference because of the men-only policy, until the females on his staff said, "Just go and have a good time."

The Moody pastor's conference is for men only. But the fact that it is for men only is making a theological statement. (One that I disagree with). But at least they are consistent, they do say that they do not intend to train women for the pastorate in their MDiv program.

Maybe lack of twittering showed not that they were not high-tech, but instead that they were respectful.

I'm a bit sad to hear that there were few women there ... what does that say to our daughters about their place in ministry?

Linda, it says exactly what Moody wants to say. There is no disrepect intended (although I am sure there is some in reality) because Moody believes that while women can serve the church, they cannot serve in the pastorate. This is a pastor's conference and therefore a very small female attendance is to be expected. Now I disagree with that stance, but I actually respect them for being consistent. What I think is more concerning are groups that have pastor's conferences that agree with women in the pastorate and have no more women than the Moody conference does.

What I find most surprising is that in 2009 there is still a ministry conference that exists that excludes women. Why aren't pastoral wives, elder wives, etc. encouraged to attend so that they, too, can benefit from the ministry training provided? I find that odd. Be complimentarians if you want, but to purposefully exclude women from any kind of ministry training opportunities seems wasteful.

Piper makes the same mistake that most who write about women in ministry (or women not in ministry) make. He assumes that the word pastor refers to an office in the church rather than to a person given to the church. The word describes gifting, not office, and as long as we confuse the two concepts, we will continue to have men addressing church leaders as "brothers." The term comes from Ephesians 4:11, 12, a listing of five gifted people who are given by God to the church to build up the body. Among this group are apostles (Junia was an apostle), prophets (the daughters of Philip were prophets), evangelists (we have Philip), pastors (any woman described by Titus 2:3-5), and teachers (Priscilla comes to mind). It is an unbiblical argument from silence that women cannot be pastors, or apostles, or teachers, or leaders.
Until men such as Piper and women such as Letha Scanzoni start being more careful with their terms, we will continue to cloud the issue of women in professional ministry.