Women, false responsibility and the church
A distorted view of “women’s responsibility” is deeply embedded in the church but often hidden in a fog. Here’s what people may expect of us – but God does not.
This “good Christian girl” is a woman now
I was a “good Christian girl” until well into middle age. Then, God led me where I did not want to go, to show me what I desperately needed to see.
Exploited in the church, I’m Leah no more
“I’m Leah!” I cried. I had given myself to a church culture that had used me and used me, while profoundly rejecting my personhood, my adulthood, my worth, me.
Women, prophecy and the church
"A woman with the gift of prophecy has to be very careful," the preacher said. "What she hears from God, she is not to speak but to take to her prayer closet.”
The silencing of women and the snorts of God
“Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak.” The meaning of that quote from 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is obvious, right? God silences women, and the inspired apostle Paul affirmed it. Or maybe, just maybe: The Lord and Paul both snort at the idea – and we have not known it.
Submit to such as these women
The greetings in Paul’s New Testament letters – the ones translators have altered and we often bypass – affirm women, as well as men, who minister as true servant leaders.
Where have all the women gone?
What has, for centuries, hidden the presence of women alongside men in the New Testament, and especially in Paul’s letters? Where have all the women gone?
Trauma and truth-seeking: Desperation, spirit, life
You pursue truth differently when you're desperate, when your life hinges on what you find – and your spirit is released to resonate with the Spirit of God.
Mary Magdalene stuck her neck out
Thank you, Mary Magdalene, for coming to Jesus. Your story shows: REST is humbly serving the One who always treats me with high respect, entrusts me with significant responsibility and involves me in things of first importance.
Case of the battered boundaries
Why, in midlife, did I suddenly find my boundaries battered and my adulthood denied? The answer hinged on the skewed view of womanhood in my church culture.