[1]LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has been elected president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood for the coming year.
Ware was elected Oct. 11 during the annual meeting of CBMW’s 28 council members in Dallas. He has been vice president of CBMW for the past three years and replaces the former president, Wayne Grudem of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., who was one of CBMW’s founders. Grudem will take over as vice president and is simply taking a temporary break from his leadership role, Ware said.
Ware also serves as associate dean for SBTS’ master of divinity studies and as associate dean for the theology and tradition division of the school of theology.
The CBMW council members also approved R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, to join the council. Mohler has been on CBMW’s reference board but will now take a more active role in the organization.
“I think CBMW serves a purpose in the evangelical world that no other organization is serving in quite the same way,” Ware said. He cited the group’s emphasis on “biblical scholarship that supports the complementary roles of men and women in the home and the biblical mandate for elders and senior pastors in the church to be qualified men only.”
With a culture moving in the opposite direction as CBMW, even to a point of accepting homosexuality, Ware said the organization’s role is an important one for Christians committed to biblical principles. “CBMW is standing as a resource for the entire evangelical church on a very emotionally laden and politically unpopular stance that understands the Bible to have given headship to men in the very created order,” Ware said.
“It’s very important for the president to maintain without compromise the truth of biblical complementarianism, understanding the equality of men and women in essence, but also to support that with kindness and grace and winsomeness,” he continued. “We want to work hard to portray a very gracious spirit because we believe that this plan is God’s plan and it’s for the good of both women and men.”
Ware said the council’s major focus over the next few months will be an upcoming family conference in Dallas March 20-22. Co-sponsored with Family Life of Campus Crusade for Christ, the conference is titled, “Building Strong Families in Your Church: A Call to Clarity, Conviction and Courage in Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.” Featured speakers will include Grudem, Elisabeth Elliot, John Piper and Paige Patterson, among others.
Ware and his wife, Jodi, have two daughters, Bethany, 16, and Rachel, 12.