If the pen is mightier than the sword, the tiny conjunction just might be the mightiest weapon of all. On it, a sentence can expand or contract, emphasize or twist. Conjunctions connect and divide, turn and include. In the Bible, the simple one-syllable conjunction (even in the Greek and Hebrew) comes from God, so it holds the same power of an active verb or proper noun. What do I mean? First, a primer: conjunctions are words that connect clauses and... Read more
Today the Christian church celebrates Good Friday, commemorating the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Each of the four Gospels tells the story of Jesus’s arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and burial—the specific details are slightly different but they correspond amazingly to one another. This morning I spent time listening to Matthew 27:27–56 on the So Much More podcast hosted by my friend Jodie Niznik. She split the passage into three sections and included time to meditate on each set of verses,... Read more
As a doctoral student at Northern Seminary, I have been dismayed at recent events that have broken trust between the school’s board of trustees and the student/faculty population. Numerous articles have detailed the allegations of bullying that led to the seminary president’s defiant resignation. The board has proven stubbornly resistant to admitting their culpability in eroding trust, despite student efforts to cooperate with them in reconciliation, healing, and improved standards going forward. Students are questioning whether they can remain at... Read more
The church calendar looms large this time of year, as Christians worldwide prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is the pinnacle of the church year, and it’s one of the two feast days that virtually every church, regardless of denomination, recognizes. The other, of course, being Christmas. Liturgical churches have been swathed in purple for the last month, somberly marking off time through the season of Lent. The forty days prior to Easter traditionally includes times of... Read more
Having written articles based on chapters in our new book, 40 Questions about Women in Ministry, I’ve offered peeks into the content of the manuscript. What does the Bible say about women, who we are and what God intended for us, what purpose do we fulfill in his plan, and how do we use our gifts to serve him? These questions litter the landscape of church conversation, polity, and practice. They are highly personal for many women. And we believe... Read more
The American evangelical church continues to discuss, argue, and fight about women. Not whether they have anything to offer, or whether they can serve in church, or what kinds of moms and sisters and daughters they may be. No, some folks still want to argue about exactly how much they image God compared to men. They want to limit their ability to serve God in certain ways. But if you are convinced God doesn’t put his fully-imaged Baby in a... Read more
Were women involved in leadership during the early centuries of the church? Over the New Year’s holiday, my husband and I joined a group of my fellow graduate students in Italy for a two-week tour in which we searched for evidence of such women. Why go on location? Because the written record we could access from America is woefully lacking. Church historical documents are filled with information on noteworthy men. Those documents were also largely written by men and for... Read more
In some realms of the church, questions about women in leadership are moot. “Why are we still talking about this?” we’ve heard. “Is this topic really still a thing?” In other evangelical subcultures, we hear similar comments with the complete opposite meaning: “Why can’t people just accept what the Bible says? Why are we still debating this?” Between the two extremes, people have questions. My co-author and I collected some of the most common ones and attempted not to answer... Read more
McGahan Publishing House offers a unique Bible project in the form of an attractive, solid, hardbound copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the volume follows the traditional, canonical ordering of the Old Testament books: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Such ordering mimics the sort of Scriptures that Jesus and his Jewish peers would have read. Prefacing each book and each major section are short introductions written by leading scholars of the Hebrew Bible.... Read more
Over the last few months, my microphone has gotten more work than my keyboard. Usually I’m writing my thoughts on God, his Word, the church, and books that address all of that and more. But life has been busy this fall, between full-time work, doctoral studies, grief, and family shenanigans such as winning the marching band state title. Blogging had to wait. But surprisingly, the last few months have opened up opportunities for me to talk more, and more publicly,... Read more
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