Emerging Women

There is truth and beauty in shared stories. This was evident as women from across Colorado’s front range gathered together last Saturday evening at Kathy Escobar’s home in Broomfield. With good food in hand, we shared stories of church, faith and God. Diversity of backgrounds provided some good laughs. Despite differences, we found unity in God’s ongoing work in our own hearts.

As part of our evening, each participant wrote down a word or phrase describing what she wants God to create in her life and the lives of the ladies in the group. We combined these all together to create this wordle.

Thank you to everyone who participated! We look forward to gatherings like this here and there in the Denver area so we can continue encouraging each other on the journey!

Is anyone at EW familiar with “The Prairie Muffin Manifesto”?

Here’s the link: http://buriedtreasurebooks.com/PrairieMuffinManifesto.php

Is this a group, a model, a mindset, denomination, worldview, a loose association…?

I just published the following post on my blog and thought that I might as well share it here… a little background is that my husband and I have been praying very hard about becoming a part of the “core launch team” for a church plant in our area. We completely share the vision of mission and outreach that the others involved have, but I found out a couple of days ago that the plant will not allow women to be elders.

I titled the post- It’s My Blog And I Will Post It If I Want To… (not trying to stir up trouble, just saying what has been on my heart, as well as acknowledging that I most definitely do NOT have all the answers!). Here it is:

Over the past couple of days I have really had the debate about the place of women in ministry on my heart and mind… I have always had my own personal opinion on this, which I have felt in my heart was correct. I have done some research on scripture dealing with this subject in the past, but I will fully admit that I never really made a serious effort to take the time needed to be sure that there is solid material to back up what I believe in my heart to be true. I am now feeling this push that it is time to take my view, which I believe in my heart and mind is supported by the God I have a close personal relationship with, and make sure that I have solid biblical material to back it up in conversation. One thing that I am realizing is that it is all about interpretation and this is a debate that will continue forever.

I am enjoying reading some thoughts on different interpretations of various verses, but if for right now we simply focus on taking the various usual verses that are cited during this debate and reading them in there most literal sense… their are most definitely verses that when read very literally directly oppose the place of women as leaders, but there are definitely other verses that when read literally do support the role of women in positions of importance and authority. (Please excuse the fact that I am not taking the time to include the scripture, but if you have an interest or opinion on this you most likely know what the usual verses are.) I as a woman who was raised to believe that I could do or be anything that I wanted (an artist… an art teacher… or even a stay-home-mom), choose to acknowledge that their is scripture that literally seems to go in both directions of this debate, but in a day when a woman and an African American man can run for president, I believe that the logical way to go is in the direction where women are not restricted from ministry on any level.

A friend had introduced me to Eugene Cho’s blog awhile ago and it is great!! This morning I came across a post from back in May on “Supporting Women in All Level’s of Leadership” It is a great post and many of the comments are extremely interesting and thought provoking also!

I had really thought that this was the ministry that God has been preparing my husband and I to be a part of and has been leading us toward over the past couple of years, but was taken aback at the idea of women not being allowed as elders. I am awaiting confirmation that women would not be limited in any other areas of service, because if they are that would be a complete deal-breaker for me. I guess what I am most struggling with is if I am told that this limitation on women really is only a limitation as far as belonging to a board of elders… does the fact that there is this limitation at all automatically mean that no matter what is said women have a different level of standing than men within this church plant? The pastor that is heading this up said that he did not want this to be a divisive issue and I was given the impression that it was something that is almost wanted to be kept “hush hush,” which makes me feel that there would be this unspoken understanding amongst the people who are aware… that the women involved are of a lesser value. I am just unsure that I can or should compromise my views even though there are many, many reasons that I have felt a pull to this particular ministry.

Any thoughts, suggestions, similar stories?

Thanks!

…or something like that.

So, I’m going to be spending some of my vacation time this summer with extended family members who are in a different place, spiritually and socially speaking, than am I. If history repeats itself, I will probably be on their short list of people to “convert” to the One True Way ™ at some point during the visit.

I have absolutely no desire to have a Jesus duel during our visit. These aren’t individuals that I see very often in person, and If I wanted to have a religious debate I’d stay home and surf Christian message boards.

During previous visits I’ve skirted around their questions by changing the subject. Most of the time this works pretty well, but there are certain topics (i.e. “You need to find a home church!” ) that just. won’t. go. away.

How do you deal with repetitive conversations like these? Is there a good way to say that topics X, Y and Z are off-limits?

(As an aside, I’m pretty good at saying “no” or “I don’t want to talk about that” with family members that I see more often. It’s the ones that I see once in a blue moon that I have more trouble setting boundaries with.)

by Nancy Ortberg

One of the best parts about Nancy’s book for me has been her simple style of clearing out clutter — spiritually speaking. For example, she tells the story of a woman named Babs, who gave a kidney to a friend of a friend who happened to desperately need one. A friend of a friend. Not her mother, child or sister. Not her best friend or even her favorite childhood babysitter. A friend of a friend needed a kidney and Babs said, Yes. Nancy writes, “Love is such a difficult word to define. Except when a kidney is involved.” ( 127)

Another place where Looking for God calls us to act, instead of talk about beliefs and consider potential actions is in her story about when Shane Claiborne visited her church and asked everyone to give up their shoes so he could distribute them to homeless people that evening. Her co-worker clarified the invitation: “Shane is not telling you to go home and then next week bring back a pair of shoes to donate; he is saying right now.” (79)

These two illustrations got me thinking: What if we were as impulsive about simple, bold acts of kindness as we are about impulse purchases of snacks and caffeinated drinks? Or what would happen if we impulsively gave away something of value to us every time we impulsively act NOT in accord with our values — like when we snap at someone we love or let our vision of abundant life get sucked up in the vacuum of surviving day-to-day to-dos?

I appreciated Nancy’s chapter on CouldaWouldaShoulda, in which she tells a heartbreaking story about a woman with little money, two kids facing terminal illness and a husband who just left and what Nancy almost did to organize assistance and blessing for this family. A spirit-fire brainstorm of inspiration didn’t become incarnation, because the list with all the ideas kept getting shuffled and covered with other papers and priorities until it got thrown out and the vision lost. I could so identify! I have so many wishes to be a conduit of grace and so often inspiration turns into procrastination that trails off into…nothing but lost good intentions that breed a feeling of guilt and paralysis. I wonder, is our habit of forgetting to act while our intention is fresh off the press a piece of what feeds our cynicism, our gnawing suspicion that we can’t make an important difference in other’s lives or the world?

1. What keeps you from acting on your best intentions?

2. What kind act will you undertake right now?

3. What sacrifice will you make this week for someone who isn’t personally important in your life?

4. What habit would most help you create a life open to inspiration and grounded in follow-through actions? (A will-do list for the day that ONLY includes important, rather than urgent goals? A question for the day? A walk past the homeless shelter?…)

cold tangerines:
celebrating the extraordinary nature of everyday life (all lower-cased)
By Shauna Niequist
Zondervan, 2007

I needed this book. I didn’t realize it until about halfway through, but “better late than never.”

Painted with a “Faberge egg” brush – stunning, exquisite and slightly outrageous – cold tangerines (lower-cased) is divided into four parts. Stand-alone, first-person stories in each section include: spark, french class, carrying my own weight, lent and television, broken bottles, writing in pencil, island, and my favorite: old house.

cold tangerines is spunky. Profound one moment and whimsical the next. At times you feel like you’re seated in the front row at the Improv; at others you’re sniffling and reaching for Kleenex. In each section the author sweeps us into her everyday life with pitchy observations about family, unexpecteds, writing, Africa, vacations, friends: “True friendship is a sacred, important thing, and it happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broke, fragile parts of ourselves… Friendship is acting out God’s love for people in tangible ways…, an opportunity to act on God’s behalf inn the lives of the people we’re close to.

Like when her calendar is crammed with to-dos, events and activities and she sees a tall tree in the park, “twice as high as a two-story house,” that’s “the brightest, most insane, lit-from-within red I have ever seen.” Along with weddings and adoption celebrations and dinner parties, baby showers and fall colors, Niequist comments, “This is a masterpiece just here for the week, our very own wonder of the world, and I just about missed it.”

Don’t we all?

Maybe what I like best about cold tangerines is that the author is Real. Genuine. Humorous, hearty. Disarmingly candid. She’s flawed and knows it. Niequist asks the tough questions and avoids the canned answers: “What if I’ve missed the cosmic bus to my best future because I was watching E!?” The author has an “eyes open” storytelling style about babies, loss, vulnerability, disappointment, being overweight, motherhood, heart attacks, “the healing effects of a barbecue” and jealousy “like a house fire.” The slice-of-life vignettes are Christian themed without being preachy or pompous. They reflect an author who’s cracked and chipped. Human and hopeful. Daring. Kinda kooky. Someone I can relate to.

This book is crunchy and quirky. As succulent as a cold tangerine on a sizzling August afternoon. Reading this book is like walking into a dark living room on your birthday, bummed that no one remembered, and having people in party hats jump out and yell, “Surprise!”

I’m keeping my eye out for another serving.