Church At The Cross

Scripture: Romans 16:1-16 Key Takeaways: + The Church was an intimate family in Jesus. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 (ESV) + The Church included and dignified women. “Amidst contemporary denunciations of Christianity as patriarchal and sexist, it is easily forgotten that the early church was especially attractive to women… Christianity was unusually appealing because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did the women in the Greco-Roman world at large.” – Rodney Stark Philippians 4:2–3 (ESV) “…we see an early example of women serving as deacons in the correspondence between Pliny the younger and the emperor Trajan (AD 98–117). In a fascinating conversation, Pliny asks Trajan for advice about what he should do as the legate to the province in Bithynia with Christians. We want to think about one small piece of the conversation. Pliny refers to two Christian women, who were called ministrae in Latin. In English we can translate this word as “ministers,” and that is a good translation i