Christian men are called to be like Jesus.

Christian women are called to be like Jesus.

At the very least, that's going to make many of our deeply held gender norms and expectations uncomfortable.

Many of the gender norms and expectations that are held as "gospel" in American Evangelicalism are either not found in Scripture or are entirely contrary to Christian ethics.

To the great damage of discipleship, women and men in American Evangelicalism are often forced to fit

into certain cookie cutter expressions of their respective genders. We see this both within church ministries and in expectations outside of the church in family, vocation, friendships, and life.

Because of this, discipleship often looks like conforming men and women to culturally approved expressions of their respective genders rather than conformity to Christ. It is both in what is said and what is unsaid. Christian men & women are expected to look a certain way.

Many Christian women and men often find themselves isolated and despairing about the fact that they don't fit into their predetermined molds. Many begin to think that they must be a failure as a Christian man/woman and they find a different narrative outside of Christianity

to best explain who they are as a person. They feel as though they need a liberation from the shackles of the Christianity they experienced in order to find out who they really are in a way that dignifies them. Where they should have found true dignity, they found shame

and despair. We need to begin to re-offer an understanding of gender and sex that is Christo-centric rather than culturo-centric. That is where people will find themselves in the fullness of the diversity of what God has created women and men to be.