David and Robyn Claydon offer historical, biblical, and theological reasons why ministry should be based on God's gifts to us.

Examples of ministry teams of both men and women in church history—including early church Bible translators Paula and Jerome and founders of the Salvation Army, Catherine and William Booth—show that gender should not prohibit women from ministry or prevent men and women from ministering together.

The Bible describes gifts as acts of God's grace that cannot be earned or bought, and are not related to gender, age, or class. Their purpose is to build the body of Christ and the kingdom of God. One way of enabling gifts to be used is through mentoring. The Bible offers several examples of this, such as Apollos, who was mentored by Priscilla and Aquila, and Timothy, who was mentored by Lois and Eunice, and later, Paul.

Christian mentoring is a tremendous responsibility, but also one of the great joys of ministry as the gifts of someone else are affirmed, developed, and used for God's glory.

Workshop Session, 42 mins.
Side by Side: Gender from a Christian Perspective
CBE International Symposium, Bangalore, India

DAVID CLAYDON is Canon of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, and of All Saints' Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. He has also served as international director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Dr. Claydon's ministries over the years with Scripture Union in Asia and Oceania and with the Church Missionary Society have taken him around the world and given him theological insight into cross-cultural ministry.

ROBYN CLAYDON is the Lausanne Senior Associate for Women in World Evangelization, and chair of the Australian Lausanne Committee. Well known as an international convention speaker, radio broadcaster, Bible teacher, and evangelist, she is a personal mentor to many women. Her goal is to encourage, train, challenge, and mobilize people for evangelism.